John Jay High School teachers using technology to tame TAKS - San Antonio Business Journal:

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The program, called the Science TAKS Success has decreased the average number of science test failures from about 200 students to 50 students per year at John Jay and almosrt doubled the percentage of students passingg the retest from 33 percent to 62 percenft between 2005and 2007. The teacherd behind the program, Calvin “Buck” Buchholtz Jr. and Juan Morales, design a personalized progra foreach student. Each plan zeros in on the student’s testinbg weaknesses and makes use ofonline resources, interactives Web sites, and audio clips to re-teach the content.
What’s more, the duo have produced a 25-minute TAKS videol — reviewing basic math formulas and revisitinbg graphinterpretation — that is projectex on white boards in every classroom 30 minutexs before the tests are administered. “It is very Calvin and Coach have craftef avery well-designed, detailed approach to help studenta succeed on the says Sara McAndrew, Ph.D., executive director of secondarh instruction for the Northside Independent School District. “They’vew had phenomenal results with stressedstudents — students at the exit level in science for whom the TAKS is standing between them and the rest of their lives.
” The TAKS is a standardized test used in elementar y and secondary schools to asseszs student proficiency. Texas high school seniors canno t graduate unless theypass exit-levekl TAKS tests in English languager arts, social studies, math and science. During their junioe and senior years ofhigh school, students are givejn five chances to pass the test. Located on the Northwesf side of San Antonio onMarbachj Road, John Jay is a 3,400-student high schoo with 230 staff memberds and about 1,200 Campus Instructional Technologist Ron Gray has spent the last decadre helping teachers integrate technology into their classroomw and lesson plans.
When Gray first met the physics teacher showed scant interestin “Didn’t care,” Buchholtz says. Buchholtz embraced computers inthe classroom. As the student counciol sponsor, Buchholtz asked Gray to help build a Web site for thestudent group. Then, in 2005 Buchholtz was invited aboard theJOIDEa Resolution, a ship that exploresa the mysteries of the ocean floor as part of the Integratee Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international research organization that conductxs seagoing expeditions to “study the history of the earth recordede in sediments and rocks beneath the ocean Buchholtz and Gray built a Web site callesd “High S.E.A. Adventures with Mr.
Buchholtz,” and poster videos that Buchholtz shot withWindows Later, using a laptop computer with a Web cam, riggex to set upon an upside-down kitty litter students at were able to video conference live with some of the crew and staff aboards the JOIDES — which was 1,000 miles off the shorer of the United States in the South The venture was such a success that administratord decided Buchholtz should help with the TAKS remediation program. Buchholtz was teamed with Morales, the offensivew coach for the Mustanfgfootball team, who alreadyh was teaching TAKS science remediation to students.
“k was basically using textbooks, pencil and paper and doing the best I but there were still quite afew failures. Everhy time there was a retake, we were losinv half our kids,” Morales says. “oI was inundated with books, articles, computed resources from the district. There was no way I could pass all this on to the students and expecty them to prepare inthree weeks. “And, of cours you’re fighting not just the material, but attitudes and their sense of Morales and Buchholtz culled the whittling it down to about 20Web sites, two textbooksx and a CD-ROM. Gray designed the Web site http://www.nisd.net/jay/success/index.
htm for the it’s free and accessible to anyone. For every student that failed the TAKSscienced test, the team analyzed scores and customizedc a study plan, which each child followed dailyu in the TAKS remediation class. “The linglo is Student Differentiated Study,” Buchholtz says. “We’rre honing in on the greatest weaknesses.” The first year of the progra in 2005, 33 percent of the students who retestedf passedthe TAKS. In 2006, 44 percent passed; in 62 percent were successful. John Jay Academiv Dean Kathy Mitchell, says the team workas because the men play the roles ofgood cop/badc cop with the kids.
“They work in tande and spend so much time withthose students. They’r e so focused on the shepherdingh of these kids that the students jokethat they’re (the stalkers. Don’t you dare let them find you eating lunch,” Mitchell jokes. Jasmind Garcia, a John Jay is a successful graduate of the TAKS Science After failing the science portionm of theTAKS twice, she landed in and Buchholtz’ class. In November 2008, she finall passed. She graduates in two weeks and has applied to the University of Texas in San Antonio and hopes to study ona pre-mef track. “I found out at Thanksgiving that I passed and was so Garcia says.
“I was worried that if I didn’tr pass that I wouldn’t graduate.” Every year, Buchholts and Morales tweak the clas s to improvetheir methods. Most recently, they discovered that the Science TAKS exam has five one of which is called the Natureof Science, whicuh involves reading a graph and interpreting data. “We went back and noticede there were literally maybe 15students — out of all the thousande of students who had ever taken the test at John Jay that had scored 12 or better out of 17 on that one Buccholtz says.
This year, every Friday focused strictlyh on the Nature of Science portion of the Morales and Buccholtz researchedd TAKS rules and learned they legallhy had one hour before they had to pass out the They created the schoolwide videol that was shown in every classroom 15 minutes befors the test washanded out. In addition to technical tips aboutsciencd components, like the periodic table, the video reminds studentzs to leave their “distractions and behind and focus on their ultimater goal. “After the the kids were calling me in thehallways saying: ‘Coach! I saw you on the TV in our classroojm and I’m so glad you covered that because it was on the Morales says.
TAKS remediatiohn is only one area in which JohnJay — and the entirw Northside district — is tappinh into technology. Morning announcements are recorded as podcasts called the Jaycast and uploaded onthe school’a home Web page. One teacher on maternity leavesused Skype, a softwarew that allows videoconferencing over the Internet, to teacb a class remotely. Next off-site band competitions and sports playoffws will be livestreamed intothe classrooms. In two the school’s graduation will be live streame sothat out-of-town relatives or military parentws can watch. The last day of school mightg be aroundthe corner, but there’s no easingg up.
“We’ve got results from April/May and we’re creatinfg individual plans for the students to use over the Morales says.