USA Test Prep, Your Classroom Partner Teresa Steffey ITEC 7445 Dr. Grove July 1, 2015 Emerging Technology

USA Test Prep The Goal for USA Test Prep is “to allow students in the class to work with self-directed activities while other students can receive individual attention from the teacher.” (usatestprep.com) USA Test Prep is recognized as a leader in online review for high, middle and elementary school standardized testing.

USA Test Prep Cont… Over one million current high school students are using this program. Over 80% of Georgia students currently use this program. USA Test Prep is a Teacher-Empowered and Teacher-Developed state test prep program that can be used at all grade levels.

How does USA Test Prep support the vision of technology use at PCHS? The technology vision for Paulding County School District is for “teachers and students to utilize technology as a vital component of the instructional program.”(paulding.k12.ga.us) USA Test Prep will allow teachers to use technology daily in their classrooms while preparing for the standardized state test. Students can also access this program outside of school allowing them to have more ownership of their learning while incorporating technology.

Evaluation for USA Test Prep and PCHS Technology Vision: Paulding County High School is a Title 1 school who had around 1660 students enrolled for the 2014-2015 school year. 59% of these students were on free-reduced lunch as well as 70% of these total students are classified as economically disadvantaged. These students don’t have a way to school early or a way home if they needed to stay late. USA Test Prep would allow them to work on extra problems in most subject areas on their own time table at home. Most students don’t have computers but they do have cell phones with unlimited data and USA Test Prep has a mobile site just for our type of population.

Objectives: Empower teacher to support the needs of individual students and the classroom as a whole. Help teachers create customized remediation for students at risk of failing high-stakes tests. Give students tools to prepare for test wherever and whenever they choose.

Key Benefits: USA Test Prep offers more than just practice questions. They also offer games, puzzles, animations, skill-work exercises, video content, instant feedback, and free response questions that are all aligned to Georgia’s state standards. (including common core)

Target Population: Georgia Elementary Schools would use USA Test Prep to help prepare 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students for their Math, English, Science and Social Studies Milestones. Georgia Middle Schools would use USA Test Prep to help prepare 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students for their Math, English, Science and Social Studies Milestones. In middle school you can also use the program to help with Romeo an Juliet as well as to improve writing skills.

Target Population Cont… Georgia High Schools would use USA Test Prep to prepare students for different grade level and subject area milestones and SLO’s. High School can also use it to prepare students for the SAT, ACT or AP exams. They also offer a Shakespeare section, Writing section and even GED help.

Equipment and Software Students would need access to the internet for USA Test Prep to work. They offer mobile sites so it can be used on tablets, macs, pcs and smartphones. Students would want earphones of some sort in order to hear the different audio options offered. There are no CD’s required to install the program, just a log-in given at the time of purchase. Multiple Users and can be accessed anywhere with the login……home or school.

Pricing Prices are based on a single site license for unlimited students and teachers. You can purchase a license for 1, 2 or 3 years at a time. You get a discount for the longer you purchase. Prices do very per test per grade so it is best to refer to the site for all prices: http://www.usatestprep.com/Pricing

Pricing Cont…… Most high school prices are as follow: 1 year-1 Milestone/SLO $225 per test (algebra) 2 year –1 Milestone/SLO $427.50 per test 3 year -1 Milestone/SLO $607.50 per test There are many discounts given for bulk test purchases so call 1-877-377-9537 before ordering.

Technical Support: USA Test Prep offers On-demand video help 24/7 to students and teachers. They also offer a live person chat with their testing specialists during their open office hours. Contact e-mail, phone numbers and fax number are all available to help you reach out as well.

Limitations: If a student does not have internet access at home then they can not access USA Test Prep, however a teacher can print materials for these students from the site. If the school internet goes down then you can not access the site, however you should always have a back up plan.

Training: All staff who have a subject area testing license purchase would need to be trained on how to use this software. This can be done during planning, before school, after school or a teacher work day. USA Test Prep offers one webinar for new users so this would need to be set up for the expert in the school to watch and be ready to re-deliver to the faculty. There are also monthly webinars offered throughout the year on different topics.

Potential Funding Sources: Paulding County allots so much money per school per department. Each department at PCHS has different funds that could be allotted to purchase there subject area test Grant Money Title 1 Money

Using the Technology: USA Test Prep would be used to meet the standards because everything on the site is standards based. All activities are aligned with state specific standards. Teachers can assign students individual standards to work on or just allow them to pick what they think they are weak on. Teachers can look up all results for all students as well as website activity and how long they spent on what standard.

Using the Technology Cont…. USA Test Prep promotes specific learning goals by: Allowing the students to pick what standards they are weak at and what actives they learn best from to make it more authentic to them personally. Some questions have multiple parts and are opened ended, this helps with the high order questioning. The teacher can also pair students up that need help on the same standards and allow them to complete sessions working collaboratively.

Differentiate Instruction: Students work at their own pace and teachers can assign different students more or less work to accommodate each individual student. Sections can be read to students who need assistance in this area. Students and teachers can monitor student progress on the progress page. (shows strengths and weaknesses as well) Teachers and students can pull this up anywhere internet is available therefore it is not just a classroom only tool. Extra time can be given to the students who need to complete a section outside of class.

Promote Communication: Since USA Test Prep has tutorials for each standard then this program will promote students speaking to their parents. Most parents don’t remember the high school material but now they can be shown a video to refresh their memory. Classroom communication can be promoted because students who are working on like standards will communicate more as peer tutors to help each other master the standard. Local communication can be promoted if feeder schools use this program alike and students are use to it being a classroom tool. Schools would be more willing to communicate to each other and share ideas if all were using the same program to help better test scores.

Evaluation of Research: A year long, multi-state study showed substantial growth in both Reading and Mathematics academic skills with students using USA Test Prep versus students who were not. Students using USA Test Prep showed about one half to one year more academic growth than students who did not use the program. (data based on normative student data reported by Harcourt, 2002)

Implementation Plan: I think the Kotter’s Change Model would work best at PCHS for implementing USA Test Prep in the needed subject areas. A team of 5 or more teachers will be selected to lead up this plan. They will be given a day to work together to get all details together to present to the other core subject teachers. They will create a vision and discuss how to share this vision with the faculty. They will look at any obstacles that they think the teacher or students will run into and try to find solutions to these obstacles. This will help empower the other teachers to not fear the program.

Implementation Plan Cont…. The selected teachers will then come up with the presentation of how to teach this program to other teachers during a teacher work day. They will show the program with a projector so all teachers can see. This will be done in the computer lab as well so the teachers being trained can play with the program as well. We will set short term goals for all teachers to complete USA Test Prep twice a month for the first two months of school. This allows everyone to get use to the program.

Implementation Plan Cont…. The next goal will be for teachers to go even more the rest of the school year. (at least 2 times a month is expected) The 5 or more teachers who are considered experts will be the go to people for USA Test Prep in the school. As the year goes on we will be able to make more teachers experts.

Reflections: When I first researched USA Test Prep I did not think it was worth the price. I have then since changed my mind. Looking at the free trial, it is an awesome site with so many different programs for different learning styles. One big thing that I loved is that it is State Standard Tailored. There are so many programs out that are just general. USA Test Prep is specialized to your own standards. This helps with targeting student weaknesses because it is the same standards being taught in the class.

Reflections Cont… I plan on pushing this program with our math department head this coming year. We have so much trouble with math standards changing. This program will change with it and it will be a great test bank to help review with our students. This is also something great for my students to do when they have finish an assignment. They could get their cell phones out and do USA Test Prep drills or games.

Work Cited Webpages http://www.usatestprep.com/Home http://www.usatestprep.com/front/Effectivenes s-Summary.pdf