John Jay High School teachers using technology to tame TAKS - San Antonio Business Journal:

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The program, called the Science TAKS Succese Initiative, has decreased the average number of sciencre test failures from about 200 studentss to 50 students per year at John Jay and almost double d the percentage of students passingf the retest from 33 percent to 62 percentr between 2005and 2007. The teachers behind the Calvin “Buck” Buchholtz Jr. and Juan “Coach” design a personalized program for each Each plan zeros in onthe student’s testing weaknesses and makes use of onlinee resources, interactive Web sites, and audio clipsa to re-teach the content.
What’s more, the duo have produced a 25-minute TAKS videl — reviewing basic math formulase and revisiting graphinterpretation — that is projected on whites boards in every classroom 30 minutes befor e the tests are administered. “Ift is very unique. Calvin and Coacyh have crafted avery well-designed, detailerd approach to help studentsa succeed on the TAKS,” says Sara McAndrew, executive director of secondary instruction for the Northside Independent School District. “They’ve had phenomenal results with stressedstudentse — students at the exit leve l in science for whom the TAKS is standing betweej them and the rest of their lives.
” The TAKS is a standardizecd test used in elementary and secondary schoolsz to assess student proficiency. Texas high schoolo seniors cannot graduate unless theypass exit-levepl TAKS tests in English language social studies, math and science. During their juniorf and senior years of high students are given five chances to pass the Located on the Northwest side of San Antonio onMarbacyh Road, John Jay is a 3,400-student high schoo l with 230 staff members and aboutt 1,200 computers. Campus Instructional Technologist Ron Gray has spent the last decade helping teachers integrate technology into their classrooma andlesson plans.
When Gray first met Buchholtz, the physics teachefr showed scant interestin technology. “Didn’t care,” Buchholtaz says. Gradually, Buchholtz embraced computers inthe classroom. As the studenyt council sponsor, Buchholtz asked Gray to help build a Web site for thestudenft group. Then, in 2005 Buchholtz was invitexd aboard theJOIDES Resolution, a ship that exploresx the mysteries of the ocean floorr as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program an international research organization that conducts seagoing expeditions to “study the historyu of the earth recorded in sediments and rocks beneat h the ocean floor.
” Buchholt z and Gray built a Web site calleed “High S.E.A. Adventures with Mr. and posted videos that Buchholtz shot withWindows Moviemaker. using a laptop computer with aWeb cam, rigged to set upon an upside-down kitty litter bucket, students at were able to videi conference live with some of the crew and staff aboard the JOIDES which was 1,000 milex off the shore of the United Statews in the South Pacific. The venture was such a succesa that administrators decided Buchholtz should help with the TAKSremediationh program. Buchholtz was teamed with Morales, the offensivwe coach for the Mustang football who already was teaching TAKS scienc remediationto students.
“I was basically using textbooks, pencil and paper and doing the bestI could, but there were still quite a few failures. Ever y time there was a we were losing halfour kids,” Morales “I was inundated with books, computer resources from the district. There was no way I couled pass all this on to the studentds and expect them to prepare inthrese weeks. “And, of course you’re fighting not just the material, but kids’ attitudes and theid sense of failure.” Morales and Buchholtz cullecdthe material, whittling it down to about 20 Web sites, two textbook s and a CD-ROM. Gray designed the Web site http://www.nisd.net/jay/success/index.
htm for the it’s free and accessible to anyone. For everyt student that failed the TAKS science the team analyzed scores and customized astudty plan, which each child followef daily in the TAKS remediatio class. “The lingo is Student Differentiated Buchholtz says. “We’re honingg in on the kids’ greatest The first year of the prograjmin 2005, 33 percent of the students who retested passed the TAKS. In 2006, 44 percent in 2007, 62 percent were successful. John Jay Academic Dean Kathgy Mitchell, says the team works becaus the men play the rolesz ofgood cop/bad cop with the kids.
“They work in tandem and spend so much time withthose They’re so focused on the shepherding of theswe kids that the students joke that they’re (the stalkers. Don’t you dare let them find you eating Mitchell jokes. Jasmine Garcia, a John Jay is a successful graduate of the TAKSScience Initiative. After failing the science portion of the TAKS she landedin Morales’ and class. In November 2008, she finallh passed. She graduates in two weeks and has appliedf to the University of Texas in San Antonilo and hopes to studhy ona pre-med track. “I found out at Thanksgivinbg that I passed and was so Garcia says.
“I was worried that if I didn’ty pass that I wouldn’t graduate.” Every year, Buchholtz and Morales tweak the class to improvwtheir methods. Most they discovered that the Science TAKS exam has five one of which is called the Naturedof Science, which involves reading a graphj and interpreting data. “We went back and noticed theree were literally maybe 15students — out of all the thousand s of students who had ever taken the test at John Jay that had scored 12 or better out of 17 on that one Buccholtz says. This year, every Friday focused strictlt on the Nature of Science portion ofthe test.
Morales and Buccholtz researched TAKS rules and learned they legallyt had one hour before they had to pass out the They created the schoolwide video that was shown in every classroom 15 minutes before the test washanded out. In additionj to technical tips about science like theperiodic table, the video reminds students to leave their “distraction s and dramas” behind and focus on their ultimate goal. “Afte r the test, the kids were callingt me in thehallways saying: ‘Coach ! I saw you on the TV in our classroo m and I’m so glad you covered that becausde it was on the test,’” Morales says.
TAKS remediation is only one area in whicb JohnJay — and the entired Northside district — is tapping into technology. Morninv announcements are recorded as podcasts called the Jaycastt and uploaded onthe school’s home Web One teacher on maternityh leave used Skype, a softwar that allows videoconferencing over the to teach a class remotely. Next year, off-sitee band competitions and sports playoffs will be livestreamed into the Intwo weeks, the school’s graduation will be live streamedc so that out-of-town relatives or militart parents can watch. The last day of schoopl might be aroundthe corner, but there’s no easinhg up.
“We’ve got results from April/Mahy and we’re creating individual planws for the students to use over the Morales says.