Program helps prepare students for state testing and allows teachers to analyze data, administrators say
Burlington Township school administrators said a relatively new computer program that’s increasingly being used in the classroom is helping students prepare for state assessments.
It’s also allowing teachers to analyze data from test results to see where students are getting tripped up.
The system is called edConnectNJ, and it was launched by the state Department of Education in 2014. It’s an online test-taking program and data collection system.
District officials heard a presentation about the program and discussed its implementation during the Board of Education’s April 18 work session.
District Supervisor Erin Dewey said math and English teachers at Fountain Woods Elementary School and Burlington Township Middle School are using the program. The district has been using the system for about three years, but its implementation has taken some time.
Administrators have recently begun increasing its use for formal assessments and have asked teachers to utilize the findings they receive from data the program collects.
“Our goal this year is to allow our students and staff members to become familiar with this program,” said Ryan Winkelspecht, vice principal at the middle school.
The testing system mimics what the children will see when they take state-mandated PARCC exams, according to the state Department of Education website.
“What I do like about this is that it’s similar to PARCC, so it will give kids an opportunity to become familiarized,” Board Member Christopher Holmes said during the work session meeting.
Board members and district officials agreed the system allows students to get used to the idea of taking computer-based exams such as PARCC.
Administrators said the program would still be relevant even if Gov. Murphy moves to eliminate PARCC testing, as news reports suggest.
All of the questions teachers input into the system are linked to state learning standards, which are unlikely to change, district officials said.
EdConnect can also be used to track an individual student’s progress and look at statistics to show where they are struggling based on what kind of questions they are getting wrong.
Assistant Superintendent Ann Marie Britt compared using the system’s data tools to looking at a student’s baseball card.
“Everything that we need to know about the student is in one place,” said Dewey, who, along with Winkelspecht, delivered the presentation to the Board.
Several questions were raised at the meeting about whether teachers really have time to sit down and crunch the numbers. Winklespecht suggested having the statistics available was better than not having them at all.
“Before this, our teachers didn’t have the ability — they didn’t have the data to look at a quiz,” he told the Board.
