Reply to Screens/Tech in Schools: iReady

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hate EdTech and DCPS should absolutely NOT cancel their iReady contract.

The primary purpose of iReady in DCPS is diagnostic and for tracking. Kids do iReady tests at the beginning, middle, and end of each year to help teachers identify where they are and how well they are learning. This is also how many teachers assign small groups to ensure kids are with peers at a similar level, or customize assignments to ensure kids are being appropriately challenged.

If DCPS cancels iReady without a diagnostic replacement, teachers will have no objective way to measure this. Parents will also be completely in the dark. It would be incredibly shortsighted to get rid of it without a replacement lined up.

What most of you object to is using iReady for learning and I agree, but schools and teachers actually have more leeway than you think on this point. So do parents. My kids don't do iReady homework assignment, for instance. If a teacher comments on this, I tell them we limit EdTech and believe kids learn better with pencil and paper, and teachers have actually provided written assignments when I say this. We also supplement at home if we think they need it. But we've also had teachers who intentionally don't use iReady in the classroom for learning, and my kids have been at two different schools -- one that pushed iReady hard every day and one that uses it mostly for diagnostics and sometimes to help kids who are below grade level close the gap.

If DC really wants to get rid of iReady, we should investigate alternative programs, like MAP for diagnostic testing and tracking.[/quote]

I was told by many people in DC that tracking was inequitable.   [/quote]

What an unhelpful comment. Also, PP is not describing tracking anyway — small groups are different. And my kid’s school definitely uses iready to assign the small groups. [/quote]

I'm the PP and yes, I should have said differentiation. DCPS doesn't track really but they use a lot of methods for differentiation in elementary school, including small groups according to levels. They will also sometimes send a kid testing way above grade level into a higher grade for that subject, or in once case I know of a school that created a multi-grade reading group for advanced readers in 2nd and 3rd that they did while classmates worked on phonics reinforcement. All of this is based on iReady scoring.

My kids are in elementary, but we have friends whose kids are in or entering MS EOTP (so not Deal or Hardy), and to the extend that these school do any form of tracking for math, iReady scores are their best tool for identifying which kids are ready for Algebra or Geometry. One great thing about iReady diagnostics is that once your child is in DCPS for several years, you can track trends, which means you can look at whether above-grade level kids just recently made a big jump versus a kid who has been consistently above grade level for 5 years, which can help understand whether a kid is truly ready for higher level work.

Parents getting iReady scores promptly is also a huge benefit in a school system that is not always transparent. I see parents complaining about getting CAPE scores months later but who cares? iReady is a better measure and you generally get them within days or, at most, a couple weeks of your kid taking their diagnostics. Fall and spring parent-teacher conferences are scheduled explicitly to follow on beginning and middle of the year iReady diagnostics so that you can discuss them with your child's teacher. Your child's diagnostic scores for the whole year are also published in their report card and are WAY more informative than the number grade given for reading and math. If your kid's teacher isn't providing the individual iReady scores in addition to the composite score in the report card, you should ask for it (but I'm pretty sure teachers are required to provide the detailed scores without being asked). This is one thing DCPS actually does well and I cannot believe some short-sighted parents are actually arguing to get rid of iReady. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Idiotic.[/quote]

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