Montgomery County Public Schools Announces Partnership With Innovative Technology Company Providing Handheld and Web-Based Assessment

Solutions for Teachers Fact Sheet

Partners in developing mCLASS:Reading 3D handheld computer and Web-based assessment software: Montgomery County Public Schools. Wireless Generation, New York-based education technology company and leading provider of handheld computer-based observational assessments for grades preK-12. Roland Good, Ph.D., and Ruth Kaminski, Ph.D., co-authors of DIBELS assessment, both of the University of Oregon and Dynamic Measurement Group. Harcourt Achieve, a leading educational publisher. Harcourt Achieve is providing books from its acclaimed Rigby imprint for reading record assessment included within mCLASS:Reading 3D software. Price: The software is sold to schools, districts, and state education agencies on a per-student annual subscription basis. mCLASS:Reading 3D software costs $21 per student, per year, with discounts available for volume purchases. Benefits for MCPS: Discount on per-student annual subscription for use of the software in all 125 of the districts elementary schools. Royalties on every sale of the software outside of the district. The district expects to earn a seven figure return on sales of the product over 3 years. Background on early reading assessment: The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 38% of the nations fourth graders (1.4 million children) fail to learn to read by fourth grade. The act of reading requires the mastery of a series of subskills, such as recognizing letters, combining letters into words, and understanding the meaning of words and sentences. To evaluate the developing reading skills of younger students for whom a fill in the bubble test is not appropriate, teachers use observational assessments. These assessments are administered one-to-one, and allow teachers to observe and record students specific reading behaviors. Observational assessments generate detailed information that enables teachers to plan instruction. These assessments are viewed as highly useful, but time-consuming and sometimes challenging to administer and analyze. Wireless Generation handheld computer software enables teachers to administer observational assessments quickly and efficiently with a Web-based reporting system that supports teachers in analyzing the results and planning instruction. mCLASS:Reading 3D software offers several assessments in a single product because many educators use multiple approaches in looking at childrens reading progress during the year. mCLASS:Reading 3D software allows teachers this flexibility and captures all of the data in a central place for a complete picture of a students reading development.

The assessments included in mCLASS:Reading 3D software include:

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, known as DIBELS. The research-based DIBELS measures childrens mastery of the Five Big Ideas in Beginning Reading that are the focus of many assessment and instructional programs, particularly since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. Forty-five states included DIBELS as part of their Reading First plans. In quick, one-minute tasks, DIBELS measures childrens abilities to hear sounds in words, connect sounds with letters, sound out words, and read and understand text passages, as well as gain vocabulary knowledge. DIBELS enables teachers to quickly identify which students are at risk for failing to learn to read, and to monitor whether these students are responding to intensive intervention. The Montgomery County Public Schools Assessment ProgramPrimary Reading (MCPS APPR) is a set of measures, developed and field-tested by the district, that examines childrens knowledge of basic reading concepts, their understanding of grammar, their ability to represent sounds in writing, their recognition of common words, and their ability to read and comprehend text. The MCPS AP-PR is based in balanced literacy, an approach to reading instruction that blends phonics instruction with a variety of activities that emphasize understanding through context. These measures allow teachers to deeply probe students learning challenges and diagnose their needs. Widely used by reading teachers nationwide, reading records are used to place a student at an appropriate reading level and to examine patterns in the errors that students make when they read aloud. Reading records are included as part of the MCPS AP-PR. To conduct a reading record, a teacher listens to a child read a section of text, analyzes the childs accuracy, and compares the actual words that the child reads to the original text. The assessment enables the teacher to understand the skills that the child is most comfortable using to read unfamiliar words, so that the teacher can support the development of other skills.