Standardized paper and pencil tests do not typically generate valid and reliable measures of progress for students in pre-K to Grade 2.  These students are just beginning the literacy process. Such paper and pencil assessments that rely on reading to test student progress in reading are not the best measures to provide the district with accurate and valid data to inform teaching practice and track accountability.   KIDWARE and Outcomes Express provide the district with tools that generate evidenced-based data that is required in the Reading First provisions of the No Child Left Behind legislation.  Multiple measures of student progress in reading including electronic portfolios, student samples, rubrics, writing analysis, and teacher checklists based on observations are used to generate accurate and valid assessments of learning (APA, 2001 and NAEYC, 2000).

Further, these software products provide the district with research data that reflect the demographic characteristics and special populations (ESL and Special Needs) served by their own school system.  These results meet the requirements of accountability and evidenced-based research related to student progress in reading.

KIDWARE_® Provides Assessment of Literacy Progress

Young children communicate in many ways – both verbal and non-verbal. As they learn and grow, they expand their repertoire of ways to communicate and express their ideas and understandings in different ways.  They gesture, converse, talk, and begin to draw. Drawings represent children’s thoughts.  As children see teachers, older siblings, and parents write, draw and communicate ideas, they learn to do the same.  Children imitate what they see their significant others doing.

Initially young learners use KIDWARE to draw with simple tools; the young child constructs concepts and ideas in order to communicate them to others.  These concepts are simple at first, but gradually become more complex.  With the computer, the emergent reader tells stories about his creations.  Early in the process these stories can be dictated to an adult to type in, typed in directly, or recorded with audio files.  The narratives and creations become more complex.  These work samples are evidence of student progress in the elements of reading.  Stories become longer and more elaborate; they reflect more complicated thoughts, sentence structure and grammar; and they include increased oral and written vocabulary.  As students type in their own narratives, they apply their understandings of phonics and phonemic awareness.  Application of these skills presents clear indication of progress in these elements of reading.

Sampling from student work permits the comparison of products from the beginning of the year, mid-year, and again at the end of the year.  This methodology provides concrete evidence of the progress the student makes in learning to read and write, to communicate through written expression, to apply phonics skills, and to read fluently.

KIDWARE supplies a rubric style rating form to assist the teacher in quantifying the relative complexity and comprehensiveness of the student products.  Additionally, the Story Analyzer program calculates a type/token ratio for student narratives and provides a grade level estimate of oral and written vocabulary used by the student.   As part of the data collection process the student also creates a multimedia presentation that includes sample student work with accompanying narration.  This “Slide Show” can be saved to diskette to share with parents; posted to the schools website, or archived for comparison with later multimedia presentations.

Further, the computer maintains a contemporaneous log file of the frequency of programs the student has used and the time of engagement with the software.  This log file can be used to calculate a bar chart of the student use of programs or print a simple list of programs with elapsed time, showing student time on task.  The log file produces a comma delimited ASCII file which can be imported into a spread sheet, or various statistical programs for additional aggregation and analysis.  This permits the district evaluation specialist to examine a year’s worth of data on all students, or to sample a few children from all or selected classes for analysis.  Thus, the school system is empowered to establish its research base for solid comparisons of progress throughout the system.  These data provide qualitative as well as quantitative data to support a description of aggregate student progress over the course of the year.

KIDWARE_® Awards

Ø        Technology & Learning Award of Excellence

Ø        National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Award of Excellence

Ø        Developmentally Appropriate Software Award for the multicultural program Alaskan Village

Ø        Developmentally Appropriate Software Award for the programs Farm, Electronic Easel, Fun with Animals, Electronic Builder and FaceMaker

Ø        Certificates of appreciation received from Partner in Education, and the NY State Association for Computers & Technology in Education

Ø        KIDWARE scored a whopping 9.5, out of 10, on the Haugland Scale of Developmentally Appropriate Software.