Happy Holidays from Alabama Stride

Good "Stride-ings" to You this Holiday Season! We are quickly approaching the glorious holiday season and a much-anticipated winter break for students and educators. Hooray!  We want to remind you that Stride will continue to be available to your students over the holidays to help keep skills sharp through engaging, game-based learning. Students may use their login codes to access Stride online, 24/7, from any internet connection.  Now is the perfect time to create a Holiday Contest, so students can compete over the break. Need a refresher on creating contests? Click here. Send us your Holiday Contest ideas, so we can feature your students and staff in an upcoming newsletter! Iola Roberts Elementary Presents "Zero Period" for RTI Iola Roberts Elementary in Pell City, AL, has designed a new approach to Response to Intervention that incorporates Stride's video lessons, customized printable resources, and quizzes. Cheryl Black, a third grade teacher, tells us: “Zero Period” is a program in the mornings where students can work on concepts that have not yet been mastered. This is time set aside three days a week to assist students who are struggling or need individual attention. " Whole Group and Individualized Instruction  Cheryl uses Class Summary Reports and her Stride teacher dashboard to identify which concepts should be addressed in a whole-group mini lesson, and which ones should be assigned individually. "If I notice that multiple students are struggling with patterns, I can click on the videos taband search this topic to bring up all related videos on the subject. By skimming the list, I can see which topic supports the standards I am focusing on."

Cheryl Black uses Stride video lessons on the whiteboard for whole-group instruction. Rewarding Hard Work with Fun The printable instructional resources that are tailored for each student are another tool for Zero Period. Cheryl believes the detailed lessons and examples provided are useful for teachers, students, and parents alike.  "Additionally, I can use StrideXChange to assign videos and quizzes to individual students on concepts that I have identified on their customized report as weak areas. I like having the option to require the student to review these items before proceeding to other work in Stride. This provides students with the opportunity to earn additional coins for games and rewards them for participating in Zero Period."  Below: Third graders work hard in Stride. "I have found the more I use Stride, the more I learn about what the program has to offer our students," says Cheryl. "The teachers and students at Iola appreciate the support we receive from Stride to ensure that our students meet grade level expectations at the end of each year."   Thank you to Cheryl Black, Iola Roberts Elementary, and CLAS Academic Specialist Rhonda Lewis, for sharing your story!   Do you have a Stride success story or implementation design to share? We would love the opportunity to highlight your students and staff in a future newsletter.  Contact Amy Frith at afrith@fueleducation.com Happy Holidays from the Stride and Fuel Education team! Be sure to follow @AlabamaStride on Facebook and Twitter!

Stride Science Curriculum Update

Stride Science Curriculum Update

Stride will be implementing updates to our Science curriculum for Alabama in grades 3-8.  All Science curriculum will now be directly aligned to the Alabama Science Standards, including newly added skills. This means more relevant content to better support our students.  Please see below for a full explanation of these updates: For these updates to take effect, the students’ current Science progress will be cleared.  They will then start over with the updated curriculum.   For the students to have maximum grade level exposure, Science will not be a part of the adaptive engine.  In lieu of the Progress Monitoring Assessment, teachers will be able to take advantage ofStride’s Quiz Builder feature to create Science assessments for their students. We are very excited about these improvements in our Science curriculum for Alabama and look forward to continuing to support our educators and students. Contact Stride Customer Support at 866.552.9192, ext. 2, or support@LTSed.com. Note: Stride Science will be temporarily unavailable from November 17th - November 22nd as we implement these updates.

New Look for "Settings" Tab

Teachers will notice a different look when clicking the "Settings" tab.




Everything that was there before is still there, only now you don't have to scroll. Menu items now display across the top.

Remember scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page to change your password? Now, it's a click away on the "Class Info" menu.

You'll have no difficulty with the new look. However, when you are used to one look, a different appearance comes as a surprise.

1,727

One thousand, seven hundred and twenty-seven...

That's how many PMAs were completed by Calhoun County students as of 10:00 AM on the second day of the PMA window.

Completing PMA within the first few days of the window offers several advantages:

1. You can take advantage of the Quiz Builder, Adaptive Engine (grades K-8), and changing the curriculum to just the standards you are focusing on right now.
2. You can give students their results and celebrate successes. When you run the Class PMA Report, you will see the overall score for each student in Math and Reading. The score from PMA1 and PMA2 appear side-by-side. You'll be able to see at a glance which students made big gains and which students did not progress.
3. From that same Class PMA Report, you can look at performance standard-by-standard. What was something you thought you taught well but the scores did not reflect that? You will be able to see what you may want to reteach. If you want to do small group instruction based on any standard, run the Student Grouping Report. Choose the appropriate time frame and watch the software divide the students into three groups based on how well they have performed on that standard.

Do you have something neat happening at your school you would like to spotlight?

Let me know. Send photos and descriptions of what's happening. As I visit your school, be sure to direct me to the things you would like to see featured.

Progress Monitoring Assessment Window Extended Through Tuesday

I received word on Friday that the final day for PMA 1 has been extended until Tuesday, October 24. For schools that still have students yet to take PMA, this extra two days provides an unexpected opportunity. Remember, PMA is given in K-8th grade. There is no PMA for Algebra 1, Geometry, etc.

For students who have started the first PMA

Here is an important point to understand about PMA. When the PMA period ends, it a student has not yet begun PMA, he or she is out of luck. However, if the student has started PMA, the program allows that student to finish even after the PMA period is over.

What that means is that the critical thing is to have any student who has not started PMA to get at least one question answered by Tuesday. Then, you can finish...hopefully very soon.

Why the whole thing should be a non-issue

Many of you are going to be saying, "PMA 1? Didn't we do that over a month ago?"

Yes, you did...or at least most did. Since PMA is automatically served up to students when they log in, the program takes care of that requirement for you.

PMA takes about 30 minutes for Reading and 30 minutes for Math. The only way for a student not to have completed PMA would be for the student to have used Stride less than an hour cumulatively between September 4 and now.

In many classrooms, PMA started September 4 and students had completed it by September 5. The design of the grant is for Stride to be use extensively.

The next PMA starts November 6.

Best practice

Best practice is to look at the PMA windows and within the school set a fairly narrow window during which your school will administer PMA. For schools which use the program daily, this part takes care of itself.

Since a student must complete PMA before doing any other work in the program, a student who has not completed PMA would not get a teacher-made Quiz Builders, the Stride Adaptive engines, or questions geared to teacher-selected standards. So, doing PMA early allows teachers to give feedback and make decisions about instructions based on overall performance on various standards.

If your students are still doing PMA 1,here is a suggested plan:

• Schedule time to complete PMA 1 What gets scheduled gets done.
• As soon as the last students completes PMA 1, look at the Class PMA Report. Examine the standards you have taught but yet students performed poorly. Decide which ones you may want to reteach between now and November 6. 
• Let students know how they performed on PMA 1. The Class PMA Report gives you this information.
• When you complete PMA 2, look especially at the standards you retaught to see what improvement was made.

Progressing Through PMA

The first Progress Monitoring Assessment ends October 13.

You have the ability to run a report on PMA for both the school and the classroom level.

Running the PMA Report at the School Level:

1. Use the school administrative login to access Stride Academy.
2. Click the "Reports" tab.
3. Click the blue "Generate Real-Time Reports" button.
4. Click "View Reports."
5. From the list of reports which appears, click "School PMA Report."
6. The defaults on the next screen should be OK as is.
7. Click the red "Apply" button.

You will notice that the graph is the first page of almost two-dozen pages of data. You can click through those graphs and tables to see data for each class and data for each grade level.

My recommendation would be to share with any given teacher the data for that teacher's class and the average for the grade level as a whole. That way, each teacher gets an idea where he or stands in relationship to the rest of the pack without ranking teachers. Richard Defoor addresses this point in his PLC seminars.



Running the PMA Report at the Classroom Level:

1. Use your KCC code and password to access Stride Academy.
2. Click the "Reports" tab.
3. Click the blue "Generate Real-Time Reports" button.
4. Click "View Reports."
5. From the list of reports which appears, click "Class PMA Report."
6. The defaults on the next screen should be OK as is.
7. Click the red "Apply" button.

The resulting graph will look much the same as the school graph displayed above. Clicking through the remaining pages will reveal data on each student.

(You will notice the graphs show Math, reading, and Science. You will have only Math and Reading.)

Study Shows Positive Impact of Stride on ACT Aspire Scores

The Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS) announced the results of a research study related related to Stride. The study, conducted by Auburn University, measured the impact of Stride on ACT Aspire Results.

Here are the key findings:

1. Stride students overall improved math benchmark pass rates by 15% compared to their demographically matched peers who improved pass rate by 8%. 
2. For reading benchmarks, Stride students improved by 10% whereas their peers showed no statistically significant change. 
3. Economically disadvantaged Stride students improved math pass rate by 23% whereas their peers showed no statistically significant change. 
4. Students using Stride who are both African-American and economically disadvantaged improved at a greater rate than their peers for math pass rate (23% vs. 10%) and reading pass rate (18% vs. 13%). 
5. Students in Special Education who used Stride improved reading benchmark pass rate by 57% compared to an improvement of 33% by their matched peers. 

According to the research findings, “the results suggest that the Stride™ program has been successful during the 2015 and 2016 school years in improving academic achievement in targeted schools."

This finding is in accord with a data analysis of the program done in 2011-12 by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) which found that students enrolled in the program ‘showed positive results in 8th Grade Math and Reading scores relative to their matched peers’.

PMA Extended to October 20

Because of Hurricane Irma, the PMA window has been extended to October 20. Stride is a nationwide program, and many schools in the impacted areas are Stride users.

Truthfully, the end date of PMA shouldn't be an issue for any of our Calhoun County Schools. Best practice is for each school to set its own narrow window at the beginning of the national window. That way, you get your results quickly, can use the data immediately, and can take advantage of Quiz Builder and the Adaptive Engine.

Your Picture Here

Do you have a Stride story to tell? What's working for you? What are students saying? What are parents saying?

I would like to hear your good news and share it in this space with others. You can send digital pictures and your story to me at this email address: Frank@FrankBuck.org

Progress Monitoring Is Up and Going

If you teach students in the K-8 range, the Progress Monitoring Assessment has begun. When students log in, they automatically begin PMA questions just by clicking on the big coin. Each subject area requires around 30-45 minutes.

Don't worry if a student does not finish in one sitting. When the student logs in next time, PMA questions resume. Another good feature is that when students go home, PMA pauses. Students may use Stride Academy, but they receive the regular Stride Adaptive Engine questions. That way, students are under your supervision during PMA.

You will see who has finished PMA when you log into Stride and look at your Class Roster.

No PMA for Science

PMA consists of tests in reading and math. There will be no science assessment this year.

Stride is in the process of examining the alignment between its Science curriculum and Alabama standards. During this process, there will be no Science PMA.

If you are an administrator, here is what you will see on the "Assessments" tab.

Notice that all of the selections are "grayed-out." You are not able to make any changes from the school level. You cannot turn off PMA. Furthermore, you cannot turn on PMA for Science even if you want to.

While we are talking about subjects...

Now is a good time for every teacher to look at the Curriculum tab to be sure everything is set correctly.

• Which subjects should students work on in your class? Be sure those subjects are checked. Are your students finding they are missing a coin for a subject when they log into Stride?  The culprit will be what is checked on the Curriculum tab.
• Do you have the "F.A.S.T. 360 Adaptive Engine" checked? That's going to be the place you generally want your students to be.
• Do you have a student with some special needs? In the "I want to change the curriculum for" section, bullet "This individual student" and choose the student from the drop-down list. Now, you can check the appropriate subjects for that student. If you only want the student to work on certain standards, bullet "Include only the specific skill areas that I choose." Click "Choose Skills" and start to drill down to the skills you want that student to have. Don't forget to return to this spot and change those skills at the appropriate time.

Correction on PMA

The post from earlier today talked about the Progress Monitoring Assessment being for "Math, Reading, and Science." It should have said "Math and Reading." There will be no Science PMA again this year.

Reminder of Start Date for PMA

On September 4, all Alabama schools using Stride began the window for the Progress Monitoring Assessments. PMA assesses students in Math and Reading with approximately 30 questions per subject. When students are in PMA, the student interface says "Assessment Mode."

PMA will diagnose students' skill gaps, provide differentiated intervention and continuously monitor student growth over the school year. PMA data reports will be available via the "Reports" tab once your students have completed the assessments.

Off to a Great Start

Stride is a program students can start using immediately. Three years ago, Ohatchee Elementary 2nd graders started working on Stride the same day their teachers first learned about the program.


Here, you see them in the library answering questions and enjoying the games.

As they left the library, students asked:
"Can I use this on a laptop?"
"Can I use this on my tablet?"
"Can I use this on my smartphone?"

In each case, the answer is yes. If the device will access the Internet, you can use Stride with it!

Progress Monitoring Assessment Dates Reminder

In the sidebar of this blog, you will see the dates for this year's Progress Monitoring Assessment. Neither you nor your students need to do anything special to take the PMA. When students log in on September 4th, they will automatically be taken to PMA.

The students do not have the finish PMA in one session. The next time they log into Stride, they will pick up where they left off. When a student finishes PMA, he or she resumes the normal questions provided by the Stride Adaptive Engine.

You may want to put the beginning dates for each PMA date on your calendar. Ideally, you should never worry about the ending date for a PMA. If your students are using the program, they will finish PMA far before the ending date.

Welcome to a New School Year With Stride

I am looking forward to working with the schools in Calhoun County again this year. The past two years.

Throughout the year, this blog will serve as my vehicle for sharing with you information about Stride and celebrating the ways you and teachers like you are embracing this tool as a way to help students learn.

I'll pull some posts from the past and re-post them at well-chosen points in the year. All of us need review from time to time.

Get the new stuff in your email

Are you reading this post in your email? If so, that's perfect. Reading your email is something you do anyway. When these come to your email, it keeps them from being "one more thing to do."

Are you reading this post on the blog because someone told you about it? If so, let me make this suggestion:

See the little box that says "Get New Posts in Your Email"? Enter your email address. You will receive a verification email. If you don't receive one, check to see if it went into spam Once you verify that it was indeed you who signed up, every time I post something new here, it will be sent straight to your email. You never have to remember to come directly to the blog again. One less thing to have to remember to do!

If you signed up for the updates last year or the year before, you are most likely reading this post as a result of an email you received. If you signed up before and your email address has not changed, you do not have to sign up again.

I look forward to working with you during this school year!

Stride Will Be Down August 4-7

Each year, Stride archives the student data from the previous school year. That process will happen between August 4 and August 7. During that time, the program will be unavailable.

As soon as the archive is complete Corey Murray will begin the process of setting up your classes. Check back here on progress.

If you have a question about the information in any blog post, you can always ask it in a comment at the bottom of the post. Chances are if you have a question, others will have that question as well.

Progress Monitoring Assessment Dates

The Progress Monitoring Assessment dates for this school year are as follows:

PMA 1: Sept. 4-Oct. 13

PMA 2: Nov. 6-Dec. 1

PMA 3: Jan. 8-Feb. 9

PMA 4: Mar. 5-Apr. 6

You will see a text box in the sidebar that also gives you those dates. That box will remain there throughout the school year for your convenience.

Things to remember:

1. PMA will take a student approximately 30 minutes per subject.
2. When a student logs into Stride, the program automatically takes the student into PMA until PMA is completed. 
3. If a student has completed PMA and you have scheduled a quiz with Quiz Builder or StrideXchange, the student will automatically be given the quiz.
4. If the student has completed PMA and any scheduled quizzes, the student receives the regular Adaptive Engine quizzes.
5. PMA happens only at school. When the student goes home, he or she gets the regular questions from the Stride Adaptive Engine. (That being said, on your Quiz Builder or StrideXchange quizzes, you have the option on any of them to allow the quiz to be taken at home. For example, you might schedule a quiz as a formative assessment prior to a "big test" and let the students take it at home

Don't wait until the last minute

The start date for PMA is something you should put on your calendar. You would want to avoid scheduling a quiz at that. The students would not see your quiz. They would have PMA instead.

Best practice is to schedule your own a narrow date range at the beginning of the PMA period and have everyone complete PMA then. You are then able to let students know how they did and use the data to let you know what to re-teach. You'll also be able to schedule Quiz Builder quizzes.

The ending date for PMA should be irrelevant. If you are using the program the way it's intended, students will be done with PMA far before ending date. 

If you find yourself pushed to have students complete PMA by the end of the PMA period, realize PMA is all they are getting. They are missing out on the most important part of the program, the Stride Adaptive Engine. 

Alabama is Mentioned in the Huffington Post

When you read the title of this post, you're probably thinking: "This could be a good thing...or this could be a bad thing."

We've all seen too many articles where something happening in our state has been publicized in a way that has made us look less than stellar.

Especially if it's in something like the Huffington Post.

Today is different. It's a positive, and what the article is talking about is Stride.

Enjoy this article (scroll about three-quarters of the way down the page):

Public Schools Actually Embrace Innovation - Five Examples of States, Districts Making Tech Work

"Summer Stride" Open to All Alabama Students

Calhoun County Schools benefit from Stride all year long. This summer, all Alabama students, regardless of school, can enjoy Stride.

This article explains more and allows students to sign up for free.

Feel free to spread the news to parents whose children attend schools that are not already using Stride.

Today, a National Public Radio spot highlighted the program. You can download that clip here.

Might This Be the Next Programmer for Stride Academy?

Most 12-year-olds love playing videogames. Thomas Suarez taught himself how to create them. After developing iPhone apps like "Bustin Jeiber," a whack-a-mole game, he is now using his skills to help other kids become developers.

 

This video is 4 1/2 minutes in length. It's a great example of at least two things:

1. Students are capable of creative thinking far beyond their years, and when they are interested in something, the results can be amazing.
2. Students at this age can get up before audiences and present themselves confidently and in a way which captivates their audiences. When students see adults present, it's one thing. When they can see someone near their own age, it's another.

To view this talk at its original location, go to this link.

PMA 4 Ends April 7

The final Progress Monitoring Assessment ends April 7.

As with previous PMA periods, you can run reports both at the school and the classroom level.

Running the PMA Report at the School Level:

1. Use the school administrative login to access Stride Academy.
2. Click the "Reports" tab.
3. Click the blue "Generate Real-Time Reports" button.
4. Click "View Reports."
5. From the list of reports which appears, click "School PMA Report."
6. The defaults on the next screen should be OK as is.
7. Click the red "Apply" button.

Running the PMA Report at the Classroom Level:

1. Use your KCC code and password to access Stride Academy.
2. Click the "Reports" tab.
3. Click the blue "Generate Real-Time Reports" button.
4. Click "View Reports."
5. From the list of reports which appears, click "Class PMA Report."
6. The defaults on the next screen should be OK as is.
7. Click the red "Apply" button.

The resulting graph will look much the same as the school graph displayed above. Clicking through the remaining pages will reveal data on each student.

Stride Newsletter for March

Laissez les bons temps rouler!  South Alabama schools know how to make the good times roll—even while they're learning! Many schools in the southern part of the state enjoy a Mardi Gras holiday, and we were honored to see our Stride super-users participating in Mardi Gras themed contests during this time. Without further adieu, allow me to introduce this year's Mardi Gras Royalty and Krewe!

Elizabeth Fonde Elementary, Mobile The top three students at Fonde Elementary, earning the most skill badges during the school-wide Stride Mardi Gras Contest, are pictured above: ♦  Megan Nguyen, 62 skill badges ♦  Melody Johnson, 41 skill badges ♦  Daniel Lopez, 34 skill badges These fourth graders were appointed as Stride Mardi Gras Royalty, awarded 500 coins to their Stride accounts, treated to a lunch of their choice, and given a Stickbot Studio Pro Set! Congratulations!

Collins-Rhodes Elementary, Eight Mile Collins-Rhodes Elementary has crowned their Stride Mardi Gras Queen, Ki'Nish Steele!  Ki'Nish, a second grader, earned the most skill badges (42 total) during the school-wide Mardi Gras Madness Contest. Well done, Ki'Nish!

McIntosh Elementary School, McIntosh McIntosh Elementary honored their Mardi Gras King, Queen and Court from the Krewe of the Timberwolves! We are so proud of these McIntosh students for demonstrating outstanding work in Stride during the carnival season!

Ella Grant Elementary, Prichard Ella Grant Elementary awarded new bicycles to their top students who competed in the school-wide Mardi Gras Break Contest, Feb. 24-Mar.5. Pictured from left to right are: ♦  King Jamar Campbell♦  Queen Miracle King♦  Princess/Runner Up Ramona Jones Nice job! We know you worked hard to earn these awesome prizes!

George Hall Elementary, Mobile Pictured above are exemplary Stride students from George Hall Elementary, who soared to the top of the rankings in their school-wide Stride Mardi Gras contest. Congratulations on a job well done!

Dr. Robert W. Gilliard Elementary, Mobile Pictured above are Mardi Gras royalty representing Gilliard Elementary with the top Star Points earned in Stride during the contest period: ♦  Derrick Payne, Ms. Morrison's Fourth Grade: 116,958 Star Points  ♦  Laterrance Milton, Ms. Finch's Fifth Grade: 47,350 Star Points  ♦  Coreion Williams, Ms. Stacy's Third Grade: 13,723 Star Points

O'Rourke Elementary, Mobile Check out O'Rourke Elementary's top Stride users in their Mardi Gras attire! From left to right, the winners are: ♦ Madison Eagleson-Hardin, Third Grade ♦ Zee Abdulla, Fourth Grade Congratulations, and way to get into the spirit of Mardi Gras!

Thank you to all Alabama educators for continuing to support your students in using Stride! We love to hear your success stories, contest highlights, and feedback on our program. Share your thoughts with me at the contact info below: Amy Frith, editor Stride Alabama e-News Email: afrith@LTSed.com Phone: 866.552.9192, ext. 1011