MASTERING MATH

Middle school teacher uses accelerated program

By Carol Rolf

LITTLE ROCK — Use of technology continues to be a big part of the picture in educating students in the Three Rivers area of Arkansas. Teachers at Southwest Middle School in Searcy have several technological tools that assist in their day-to-day lesson plans.

Brenda Ballard, sixth-grade math and science teacher at Southwest Middle, uses a computer and accelerated math software to teach math. She also uses a regular textbook.

The accelerated math software is offered by Renaissance Learning Inc., a provider of computer-based assessment technology for pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, with headquarters in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

According to the Renaissance Web site, "Using accelerated math, teachers provide personalized assignments for each student. The software automatically scores, records and generates feedback about students' performance on specific math objectives."

"The first thing the accelerated math program does is find out where the student is in math," Ballard said. "The student takes a test on the computer, then the computer scores it and that tells me at what level the student is in math."

From there, the student works on practice skills.

"These skills assessments take about 10 to 15 minutes. The student does the problem, writes his or her answer on a scantron card and scans it," Ballard said. "It tells the student how many problems he or she missed. If they score 80 percent or better, they go onto the next skill."

Ballard said she keeps up with these scores, placing them in two boxes: "Wow" or "Oops." "'Wow' is for those tests in which the student scored 80 or better;'Oops,' for those who score below 80," she said.

She said she tries to use the "Oops" box to foster success instead of failure for those students.

"I really like the accelerated math program," Ballard said. "I like it because when you've got a good student who likes math, he or she can just keep going on the computer."

Ballard, who has been in the field of education for 37 years, said her class has been chosen as a "Model Class" for the past five years.

"That award means that everybody in the class has to advance, like a team," Ballard said. "There can be only 10 percent who are at risk, which means they are missing too many problems."

"I just love to teach," Ballard added.

She has been with the Searcy School District for 26 years.

- crolf@arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 64 on 10/02/2008