Technology can change literacy outcomes

Preliminary Student Assessment Model
Steve Taylor
Director of Instructional Technology

Using Technology to Address the Information Literacy Gap in Urban Education

Technology Lab as Literacy Assessment Studio

The following passage could be an abstract from a case study of any urban middle/ high school reviewing enrollment policy at the beginning, middle or end of a school year. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
An urban middle/ high school expects to have an enrollment of up to 30 percent of their students as learning disabled. The school will not receive any historical data about these students from their previous academic engagement. There is no assessment, intervention or integration program in place to assist these students. Teachers are starting their first week of school without the appropriate knowledge about their learning disabled students. What does this school do and how can they become accountable to students and staff?

Part I.  The Techno-Literate Process
The school could use their technology lab as a literacy assessment studio to implement the Techno-Literate Process. At any time during the semester, each student should be required to write a 2 page essay about their aspirations, complete a grade specific spelling test and complete a punctuation test. Prior to receiving a grade, the students read paragraphs from their essay out loud to allow the teacher to gain a better understanding of the individuals reading and writing fluency. The output from these samples allows the teacher to engage in personal dialogue with each student to determine if there are any external factors affecting their written performance. After using this approach, I have been able to identify most of the T-1 students without prompting from that office using this assessment tool and actually wrote multiple referrals for these students. This assessment strategy is usually conducted at the beginning of a semester but could be implemented at any time given the review of student academic performance.

The second series of exercises that the students engage in are typing and typing with oral commands from the instructor. There are differences in how a student performs with visual commands and oral instruction. These activities can provide similar insight into the cognitive performance of the student as the WRAT writing and assessment tests.  Findings similar to the STAR reading tests and SLOSSEN tests are also revealed during this two week period.
•          The writing sample provides clues about a student’s motor function and penmanship and information processing.
•          The typing sample provides clues about a students information processing and motor function.
•          The oral typing sample provides clues about the student’s ability to process oral commands, information retention and short term memory.
•          The spelling and writing samples provide insights into a student’s learning gaps if any, relative to reading, reading comprehension, and spelling.
•          Observation of typing and writing behaviors also provides clues into the visual acuity of the student.
•          The assessment strategies above allow the teacher to identify students performing at or above grade level.

Some schools might consider hiring an outside consultant or psychologist to perform these tasks. However, I believe that it is important for the lead teacher or technologist to be the process and instructional leader of this effort because the professional and emotional investment in the outcomes is paramount.
The critical next step speaks to how the school uses the information gleaned from this assessment model with the implementation of a meaningful academic intervention strategy.
Based on the results of the initial phase of implementing the Techno-Literate Process at Urban School E, a new acronym for identifying the deficits found in the two week testing period is now referred to as Information Deficit Condition or IDC.

Part II.
How to develop an intervention strategy to address the “Information Deficit Condition” (IDC), revealed in the battery of general skills testing used in the Technology Lab.
Key Questions: Does the school curriculum adequately address the deficits identified as components of the “IDC”?


Other Considerations
At this point in the asessment process it is critical that the school have identified key resource people and organizations that will help them stretch the envelope in search of solutions. Resources are usually the primary stumbling block in creating an innovation solution in urban education.