Academics

[ Achievement Testing | Accelerated Reader Program | Area Reading Program | Reading Recovery ]
[ Star Reading & Math | Success Maker ]

ACHIEVEMENT TESTING

ABACUS - District assessment to measure growth in grades K,1,2,4,5 in the areas of Language Arts and Math.

Dakota Assessment of Content Standards Test (DACS) - Given in grades 3 and 6 in the Spring of the year to measure achievement in Reading and math.

Stanford Writing Test - Given in grades 3 and 5 to measure writing performance.

Stanford-9 (SAT9) - Given in grades 2, 3, 4, and 6 in the Spring of the year to measure overall student performance.

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ACCELERATED READER (AR) PROGRAM

McKinley School has adopted and utilizes the Accelerated Reading Program. Children check out library books from our school or the Watertown Regional Library .  The student then take a computerized comprehension test over the book they read. With the  Accelerated Reading program, children develop a love for reading and improve reading skills while earning points for each book they read.

AREA READING PROGRAM 

McKinley Elementary School is part of the state AREA Reading Program. AREA is designed to provide the best research-based training for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers and building administrators with the ultimate goal of ensuring reading success for South Dakota students. The main focus of this program is to assist classroom teachers in the area of guided reading, word development, self-selected reading and writing.

READING RECOVERY

Reading Recovery is an early intervention program that helps the lowest achieving first grade students to develop effective strategies for reading and writing, which will enable them to become successful, independent readers and writers. Reading Recovery is based on the premise that early intervention in the education process needs to occur before students develop poor habits which can be difficult to change. These poor habits could make future learning more difficult. McKinley Elementary houses a Reading Recovery training lab and the office of Mrs. Karen Lockner who is a Reading Recovery teacher leader.

STAR READING AND STAR MATH

STAR Reading and STAR Math are reading and math diagnostic tests given at the computer which provide the teachers and parents with valuable information about the students' reading and math abilities. 

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SUCCESSMAKER

One of the major focuses at McKinley Elementary School over the past two years has been the implementation of Success Maker.  Success Maker, a software program that was purchased with funds from a Comprehensive School Reform grant, uses innovative strategies to assist teachers in improving students’ reading and math skills.

The Success Maker program provides individualized, self-paced instruction for each student in reading and math.  After the student completes 300 questions in math and 250 questions in reading, Success Maker places the student at the appropriate grade equivalent based on data gathered during this time.  After this initial placement, the Management System tracks each student’s progress and automatically provides the level of instruction appropriate to each student’s needs.  Additionally, it mixes the content, skills, and strategies taught and provides additional practice in areas in which performance is weak.  Because each student proceeds at his or her pace, this allows the student to take on greater academic challenges while building new skills, knowledge and strategies.  Success Maker has proven to be extremely effective in motivating students.                       

Immediate access to on-demand assessment tools is another innovative strategy employed by Success Maker.  Teachers have access to numerous reports which provide immediate and accurate information detailing student performance.  Examples of the information available from the reports include:

• Number of correct problems out of the total number attempted and the length of the session.

• Cumulative number of problems, percent correct and total time on the system.

• Grade level equivalent gains in reading and/or math to date.

• Specific objectives with which a student or group of students is struggling.

• Projection of the time needed to achieve a certain gain or to reach a particular grade level goal.

These reports are used on a daily and weekly basis by the teachers to monitor growth and to prescribe any needed intervention.

Each student in grades 1-6 spends 1/2 hour per day in the lab working with the math and reading components of Success Maker. Students who have been identified as scoring more than 1.5 years below grade level in math and/or reading receive compensatory time on Success Maker using classroom computers, extra computers in the lab, the learning centers and during the Kidscope after-school program.    

The key to the success McKinley students have experienced lies in the effort put forth by the classroom teachers.  Faculty and staff members have actively contributed to and participated in the successful implementation of this program. Each teacher accompanies his/her class to the lab and along with learning center teachers, teacher aides and the Success Maker facilitator provides one-on-one tutoring as students work with Success Maker. In addition to this on-the-spot intervention, teachers also carry the responsibility of reviewing reports and prescribing any needed intervention while motivating students to achieve.

We are excited to see the growth that has already taken place in math and reading.  Community members and parents are welcome to come and visit the Success Maker Lab.

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