Rodgers Forge Elementary is one of five schools in the county that will be taking part in a pilot program to try out Kid's College, an online math program. If BCPS is happy with the pilot, it will buy the program for all schools. At a meeting tonight, parents got a short tour of the program and were able to ask questions about it. Here are some highlights:
- Kids' performance on the site will not be taken into account for grading purposes.
- Students answer several math questions (always a multiple choice with four possible answers) and then are rewarded for a batch of correct answers with 20 seconds of gaming time, in which they are able to play sports-themed video games. The math itself is not sports oriented, but the games are all sports related.
- Kids' gaming scores (not their scores on the actual math problems) will be posted online and students will be able to see other students' scores. This is said to be motivational so they will answer more math questions so they get more gaming time to increase their scores. The school is able to stop having scores published if it gets to be problematic.
- Only students in grades 2 through 5 are taking part in the pilot program.
- Kids will work on the site 30 to 40 minutes per week in class, but not during group instructional time. There will be several laptops in each classroom for using Kid's College and kids will rotate doing 10-minute blocks. Students can work on it at home as much as they want.
- 48 percent of users are girls and it's said to be equally effective for boys and girls.
- The program starts at the student's grade level and then determines where he/she needs help. Each student has a unique login and the problems they have to solve are tailored to them. (If Johnny is having trouble with fractions, he will get more questions about fractions.) Students can move up as fast as is possible for them, so theoretically a 3rd grader could be doing 6th grade math or higher.
- Teachers have the option of setting it up so that the program's questions mirror those they are working on in class but that won't necessarily happen.
- Parents can receive reports via email that show their child's scores and progress.
- Kids are encouraged to use pencil and paper to work out the problems.
- If they get a question wrong, the program gives them another chance. If they get it wrong again, it shows them the correct answer and explains how to do the problem.
- Kids can also print pages to do extra work offline.
- The questions are based on nationally set standards that are part of the federal government's
Race to the Top program (which is basically Obama's version of Bush's No Child Left Behind).
- Some parents expressed concern about the wisdom of promoting more screen time, and about a program tailored to sports fans when some kids aren't into video games or sports.
- There was discussion about how BCPS will be able to tell if students' math abilities were improved by the program and honestly I'm not totally clear on the answer to that. (Anyone know?)
- My third grader says it's awesome.
- Parents can see a demo of the program by
clicking here.
If you attended the meeting tonight, please feel free to add a comment with anything I've neglected to mention.
What do you think? Post or read comments here:
