Saturn Elementary School
Brevard County School District 
Cocoa, Florida
(Pearson Digital Learning SuccessMaker)
 

“With SuccessMaker, teaching is individualized. Teachers know the exact skills the students need, thus saving time in assessment. Basically, each student has an Individual Education Plan.”

— Michael Miller, Principal, Saturn Elementary School

Highlights

• Using Pearson Digital Learning SuccessMaker^®, Saturn Elementary has risen from a “C” rated school to an “A” rated school, for the 2001-2002 school year.
  
  
• Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores in reading and math have consistently increased from 2001 to 2002.

School District Profile
Saturn Elementary School is located in the city of Cocoa, on the coast of central Florida, and is part of Brevard County Public Schools. The school was built in 1966 and serves 775 students in preK through grade 6. Sixty-seven percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch, and the minority rate is approximately 25 percent. Saturn houses many ESE programs including Educable Mentally Handicapped, Learning Disability, Emotionally Handicapped, Speech and Language Impaired, Pre-K EELP, and the Gifted Center for the central area of the county. The school has a 45-percent mobility rate.
 

Challenge
The challenge at Saturn Elementary is to reach a Level 3 or higher on the FCAT test.
 

Solution
Pearson Digital Learning SuccessMaker was implemented at Saturn Elementary during the 2001–2002 school year, and was purchased through Title 1 funding. All students in grades K through 5 use the program. Students in grade 6 were selected if they scored a Level 1 or 2 on the FCAT when they were in the fifth grade. There are approximately 500 students using two SuccessMaker labs. One lab has 54 computer stations and the other has 25 stations. Two different classes attend the labs simultaneously.
 

SuccessMaker Lab Schedule
During the 2001-2002 school year, Saturn students from all grades went to the SuccessMaker lab five times a week for 15 minutes of reading and 15 minutes of math.
Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, students worked on the basic reading and math skills in SuccessMaker’s Reader’s Workshop and Math Concepts and Skills courseware. Tuesdays, students worked on a second number of items to remediate their weakest strands in reading and math. Wednesdays, students worked on Reading Adventures Primary, Reading Adventures, and Math Investigations courseware to apply the skills from Reader’s Workshop and Math Concepts and Skills.
Kindergarten and first-grade classes used one computer throughout the day, rotating every seven minutes for reading and math skills.

Students in grades 2 through 5 visited the lab five days a week, and were given a target score to aim toward. The teachers were given daily reports to monitor student understanding. On Friday, a grouping report listing the deficit skills for specific students was provided.

Students in the Academic Support Program went to the lab after school two days a week. Students in Saturn’s Edu-Care Program (school-operated day care) attended five days a week after school.

In some cases, “Students were asking to come to the SuccessMaker lab early to work on their individual programs,” says Michael Miller, principal. “Some also stayed in during their recess periods so they could work on their reading and math skills. Students at Saturn Elementary know how much progress they are making toward heir goals in SuccessMaker, and they’ve begun to see the value and take ownership of their progress,” says Miller.
 

The Teacher Connection
Teacher involvement was also an important factor in the student achievement using the SuccessMaker program. Teachers reviewed daily reports and made adjustments to the program based on student needs. Weekly, they looked at the deficit grouping reports and made additional adjustments, remediating those deficit skills during the following week. Monthly, individual teachers met with the principal to review progress. Teachers also shared reports with the students to communicate each day’s progress.

Training the classroom teacher as well as the lab managers was an important aspect of the success of the program. Scheduling training days and communicating the program to substitute teachers was a hurdle, but necessary in implementing the program successfully. 

Michael Miller says SuccessMaker is valued by Saturn Elementary teachers because it is aligned to Florida’s Sunshine State Standards.
 

Results
For the 2001-2002 school year, Saturn Elementary has risen from a “C” rated school to an “A” rated school, vaulting ahead of 27 elementary schools in the Brevard County school district. 

The FCAT scores in reading and math have consistently increased from 2001 to 2002:

SuccessMaker has improved Saturn Elementary in the classroom for teachers and students alike:

• One of Saturn’s fifth-graders performed at a math level of 8.05 with a 79% accuracy level. His goal was to become the first person in his grade to graduate from SuccessMaker’s Math Concepts and Skills course. He made it.
  
  
• Second graders at Saturn have made gains of over a year in SuccessMaker’s Math Concepts and Skills in an eight-month time frame.
  
  
• First-graders are coming to the SuccessMaker lab daily, entering quietly and staying on task for 15 minutes each in math and reading, doubling the time they were on the program in the traditional classroom setting. They are on task and motivated.
  
  
• One of Saturn’s fifth-graders, known for low motivation and behavior problems, has taken ownership of his SuccessMaker program. In addition to teacher relations and reinforcement, the student now comes in, sits down, and works during the entire lab period, independently. He is almost on grade level instead of substantially low, as he had previously been. “His pride is self evident,” says Miller.

For more information on how Pearson Digital Learning can help you achieve results, visit http://www.pearsonedtech.com or call 888/627-5327; Canada and other international locations: 800/400-6192.