Writing Scores Improve for North Carolina Middle School Students Learning With WriteToLearn From Pearson
Team From Troutman Middle School Presents Results to State Superintendent Atkinson, N.C. Board of Education
TROUTMAN, N.C. - March 2, 2010 - Troutman Middle
School students are building the writing skills necessary for success in
our globally competitive society by learning with WriteToLearn™,
an award-winning Web-based writing and reading comprehension tool from
the education, technology and services company, Pearson. For more than a
year, WriteToLearn has been an integral part of reading and writing
instruction across the curriculum at this middle school in the heart of
North Carolina's Piedmont region, and students are seeing remarkable
results.
With WriteToLearn, students practice essay writing and summarization
skills, and their efforts are measured by Pearson's state-of-the-art
Knowledge Analysis Technologies™ (KAT) engine. The KAT Engine is a
unique automated assessment technology that evaluates the meaning of
text, not just grammatical correctness or spelling. WriteToLearn
provides feedback on six traits of writing - ideas, organization,
conventions, sentence fluency, word choice and voice - and allows
students and teachers to focus on each of these important dimensions of
writing.
Last month, Troutman Principal Jeff James and a team of teachers from
the school traveled to Raleigh to share their success with State
Superintendent of Education June Atkinson and members of the North
Carolina State Board of Education's Globally Competitive Students
Committee.
James said, "At the start of the 2008-2009 school year, we
recognized that we weren't seeing the kind of growth we wanted in
student writing scores and believed that we needed an approach to
teaching writing that would engage students in the learning process and
build literacy skills across the curriculum. We began a pilot of
WriteToLearn and saw tremendous growth in the test scores of the
students who were learning using this innovative tool, versus the
students who were being taught writing in the traditional methods we
have used in the past. Our special-education students, in particular,
saw real growth when learning with WriteToLearn."
Debbie Craven-Smith, a special education teacher at Troutman, and her
colleague Perry Justice, who co-teaches an inclusion class with her,
traveled with James to the state capitol.
"We have seen dramatic changes in the amount of time that students
devote to their schoolwork when they are using WriteToLearn," said
Craven. "They ask if they can do additional work on their own, on
their home computer. When they are learning a complex subject and need
more time to explore it, they spend extra time outside of class. It is
thrilling to see students take responsibility for work on projects and
strive independently to complete a higher quality product."
Based on the success of WriteToLearn at Troutman, its school district,
Iredell-Statesville Schools, recently decided to implement WriteToLearn
in all seven of its middle schools and to launch a pilot of the tool at
Statesville High School.
"Mr. James and his team of dedicated teachers at Troutman Middle
School have made an important commitment to improving achievement for
all of their students and to using the power of technology to achieve
that goal," said Julia McCombs, Pearson's digital representative
for North Carolina. "Their use of WriteToLearn exemplifies the ways
that our tool can engage students in learning and help them build
literacy skills across the curriculum."
More information about WriteToLearn is available at www.WriteToLearn.net.
About Pearson
Pearson (NYSE:PSO), the global leader in education and education
technology, reaches and engages today's digital natives with effective
and personalized learning, as well as dedicated professional development
for their teachers. This commitment is demonstrated in the company's
investment in innovative print and digital education materials for preK
through college, student information systems and learning management
systems, teacher professional development, career certification programs,
and testing and assessment products that set the standard for the
industry. Pearson's commitment to education for all is supported by the
global philanthropic initiatives of the Pearson Foundation. Pearson's
other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the
Penguin Group. For more information, go to www.pearson.com.
For more information, press only:
Adam Gaber, Pearson, 800-745-8489, adam.gaber@pearson.com
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-227-1049, lwolfe@lwolfe.com
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