Report says giving iPads to Auburn kindergarteners increases test scores
Amber Waterman | Sun Journal
Mia Burgess, left, shows Rebecca Noone something on her iPad in Susan Lemeshow's kindergarten class at Sherwood Heights Elementary School on Wednesday.
By Bonnie Washuk, Sun Journal
Posted Feb. 16, 2012, at 7:23 a.m.
In 9 of the 10 areas of testing around pre-reading skills, the group of 129 students with iPads made slightly larger gains than the 137 students without. Testing included listening and comprehension, identifying letters, reading, vocabulary and identifying letter sounds.
Only one area, however, was statistically higher: recognizing sounds and writing letters. In that test, students were dictated words. They had to translate the sounds into letters and write the words. Kindergartners with iPads gained 13.72 points, compared to an 11.58-point gain for students who didn’t have iPads. That difference is significant, said Mike Muir, the Multiple Pathways leader for Auburn schools.
Damian Bebell of Boston College, who worked with Auburn on the research, told the Auburn School Committee on Wednesday night, “In every measure we examined, the iPad students were outperforming the comparison students. When looking at short-term literacy gains, we’re definitely seeing the data trending toward favoring the iPad students.”
And this:
Student math scores jump 20% with Apple iPad; transforms classroom education
Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced the results of a yearlong pilot of HMH Fuse: Algebra I, the world’s first full-curriculum Algebra app developed exclusively for the Apple iPad, involving the Amelia Earhart Middle School in California’s Riverside Unified School District. The pilot showed that over 78 percent of HMH Fuse users scored Proficient or Advanced on the spring 2011 California Standards Tests, compared with only 59 percent of their textbook-using peers.The first assessment of the pilot— Riverside’s district Algebra benchmark –took place during the second trimester of the 2010–2011 year. Students using HMH Fuse scored an average of 10 percentage points higher than their peers. The app’s impact was even more pronounced after the California Standards Test in spring 2011, on which HMH Fuse students scored approximately 20 percent higher than their textbook-using peers.“By engineering a comprehensive platform that combines the best learning material with technology that embraces students’ strengths and addresses their weaknesses, we’ve gone far beyond the capabilities of an e-book to turn a one-way math lesson into an engaging, interactive, supportive learning experience,” said Bethlam Forsa, Executive Vice President, Global Content and Product Development, HMH, in the press release. “With HMH Fuse, teachers can assess student progress in real time and tailor instruction as needed.”
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