Supporting Students Learning and Assessment Strategies With a specific focus on Tiers 2, 3, and 4 of the Georgia Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions Tonette Little ITEC 7455 Emerging Technology Dr. Roberts July 14, 2014

Pyramid of Intervention This pyramid will be referred to quite often during this presentation.

MobyMax O What is MobyMax? O MobyMax is a website that combines curriculum resources like placement tests, adaptive lessons, progress monitoring, and IEP reporting with teacher tools, such as Clicker (a student response system), Vibes (a behavior management system), Messenger (a communication system), The Wall (a social wall for homework assignments and class communication), and motivational features (badges, games, and contests).

How Does This Technology Support the Vision for Technology Use in our School? O The vision of Beecher Hills Elementary is to increase technology to support student learning and assessment. O This technology supports the vision for technology use in our school because it’s student driven and based on individual student needs. O This technology allows teachers to assign standards based on individual student progress, therefore filling in the gaps.

Evaluation of How Well MobyMax Supports Beecher Hills Vision for Technology Use O Beecher Hills is a Title I school with approximately 325 K-5 students. 81% of the school population qualifies for free or reduced lunch. 17 students are special education. 48 students (grades K-5) receive Tier 3 instructional support through SST/RtI. O Beecher Hills strives to support learning and assessment through the use of technology. Students in SST/Rti occasionally receive researched based intervention through the use of technology three to five days a week. O MobyMax can be used in conjunction with teachers providing individual intervention time. MobyMax's adaptive curriculum creates a unique, individualized education plan for each student, allowing gifted students to progress as quickly as they like while simultaneously ensuring that remedial students get the extra instruction they need.

Objectives O Differentiated instruction for all students O Monitor progress continually O Develop individualized education plans for all students, not just those identify as having a learning disability O Providing parents with resources and updates about their child’s learning

Key Benefits O All students receive individualized educational plans based on the areas of concern. O MobyMax is the only completely integrated curriculum and teacher productivity system for Math and ELA. O Built on Common Core standards

Key Benefits cont’d O MobyMax diagnostic, formative, and summative tests find missing skills. Then, Moby's adaptive curriculum creates a unique, individualized education plan for each student, ensuring that students get the instruction they need. O Parent portal allows parents to be kept up to date about their child’s progress

Targeted Population O Students falling in Tiers 2, 3, and 4 (which includes gifted students) of the Georgia Pyramid of Intervention in grades K-5. O A 1:1 technology model is necessary. This can be achieved through multiple devices include desktop computers, laptop computers, and iPads. O Equitable access is guaranteed with five desktop computers in classrooms, 60 iPads for daily check out, 12 desktop computers in the media center, and 60 desktop computers in the school’s computer lab.

Targeted Population cont’d O It would be most effective to pilot Moby Max with self contained EIP classes and with teachers with Special Education students (approximately 10 teachers/classrooms). O All classes would use the 1:1 technology model. O Teachers have district issued laptop to review progress, monitor assignments, and review progress monitoring data.

Equipment and Software O Moby Max is a web based program. No installation of software is required. O All devices used to access Moby Max will need wireless access or will be connected via an Ethernet cable to a network. O Because Moby Max is web based, students may access the program from home for additional instructional practice. O Students will receive individual log in information.

Technical Support O MobyMax provides technically support via telephone Monday through Friday 8am- 5pm CST O MobyMax has a FAQ section for immediate online support O MobyMax does online presentation for administrators and teachers interested in purchasing the program.

Limitations O Teacher buy-in O Teacher training (time for training) O Malfunctioning technology (wireless network connection issues) O Longevity of technology implementation (cost of yearly subscriptions)

Cost of Technology O Unlimited Teacher Pro License- $79 per year for 12 months with an unlimited number of students and includes all features. O Unlimited School License- $499 per year for 12 months with an unlimited number of teachers and students and includes all features. O Unlimited District License- The district license is for all your schools in your district. Save up to 50%!

Cost of Technology cont’d O All classes, computer labs, and the Media Center just recently participates in the district’s Student Desktop Rollout in March No new hardware is needed. O iPad’s are updated and maintained by the Media Center Specialist. Apple Care has been purchased for all iPad’s and will not expire for two years. O Title I laptops and teacher’s district issued laptops are supported by the district’s contracted company Integrated Technology.

Potential Funding Sources O Beecher Hills Foundation for a specific number or grade level, individual teachers, or school subscription. O Beecher Hills is Title 1 school. According to Title 1 guidelines, computers and accessories are acceptable expenditures if they are being used to meet the academic goals of the student population. O Teachers can write grant proposals O Teachers can solicit donations through Donor’s Choose for a yearly subscription.

How do We Use This Technology? O With this technology, teachers can design individualize education plans through MobyMax’s various types of assessments. O Teachers can create system settings that will allow student to be extrinsically rewards for completing assignments ( O Teachers can track individual student data and progress through the MobyMax dashboard. O Teacher can use the data from MobyMax as supporting documentation for referral to SST/RtI or as data collection for interventions selected for the student.

How Does This Technology Promote Specific Learning Goals? O MobyMax is built on Common Core standards. Therefore, teachers can: O Create specific learning goals for each student. O Collect data on the specific learning goals. O Monitor progress including student’s current level of proficiency as well as how fast they are learning.

How Could This Technology be Used to Differentiation Instruction? O Includes grades K-8, as to not hinder students ad they advance beyond their current grade level standards O Finds missing skills with placement test O Remediates with targeted practice O Creates individualized learning paths O Monitors progress continually

How Could This Technology Promote Communication? O Messenger Boards- Messenger allows teachers to securely communicate with both parents and students via and text messages. Send group messages about homework, remind students about an upcoming test, or just let them know you're proud of their progress. O Parent Portal-With the parent portal parents can check student progress at any time. The wealth of data available to parents will foster parent engagement, making parents active participants in their child's education.

Evaluation of Research O There have been multiple reviews of MobyMax, but due to the relative infancy of the web based program, studies are not conclusive on the results. O MobyMax is a researched based program built on the research of over 50, 000 studies from Dr. John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Evaluation of Research cont’d

Implementation Plan O Begin pilot with self-contained EIP class. O Most students in self-contained EIP classes are in Tier 2 or Tier 3 (SST/RtI) O Teacher have a class size of students. O Tier 3 students will have previously developed goals for intervention and the collection of progress monitoring O Teacher can manage the pilot more effectively with a smaller class of students.

Implementation Plan O Self-contained EIP teachers will: O Create teacher log in O Enter all students into the MobyMax roster online. O Obtain all SST/Rti goals for Tier 3 students and work with school level SST chairperson to create goals for Tier 2 students. O Place students on web compatible devices to complete placement. O Plan for one hour of MobyMax time per week for 4-6 weeks to collect progress monitoring data for SST meetings.

Reflections O I began utilizing this technology for a kindergarten student I was tutoring on a weekly basis. It was introduced to me by a special education teacher. O I began using the technology as a free 30 day subscription, as the tutorial was for only a month to help the parents make a decision about retention in the present grade level.

Reflections O As the SST/RtI chairperson for my school (at the time), I saw the benefit in using a web based program for researched based intervention and progress monitoring. I saw MobyMax as a time saving and an effective tool for collecting data based on student goals. O I was so intrigued that I presented the site to my administrator and scheduled a web conference with the sales team of MobyMax for a thorough presentation. MobyMax is currently being considered as a tool for teachers to use at Beecher Hills Elementary.

Reflections O Beecher Hills will continue to use AIMS Web/Easy CBM as researched based benchmark and progress monitoring tools for all Tier 1 students. O If MobyMax is purchased, it will supplement the school’s use of AIMS Web/Easy CBM until sufficient data in collected to determine how successful the web based program was for the school’s goal of technology and student learning and assessment.