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Virtually every educator searches for creative ways to improve his or her corner of the educational world–and sometimes what seems to be a relatively small change can impact several areas in positive and significant ways. Here is my story of how using ExamView–one seemingly small change–has made a positive impact in my classroom, in my school, in my district, and even in a neighboring district! Using
ExamView to Help Students Succeed During the year, I worked with our building technologist to use ExamView to administer MISD's first paperless exam. The ExamView program performed wonderfully–it graded the exams, gave the students instant scores, and gave me a data analysis of student performance. The analysis helped me identify which questions were missed by a majority of the students, thus revealing those concepts that required reteaching and review. Using ExamView, I was also able to modify the exams to accommodate the Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) of students with special needs. For example, I was able to modify the text size for one student with a visual handicap, and I was able to use the ExamView Test Center to give study sheets and exams to two homebound students, thus allowing them to complete course requirements while tending to their newborn babies at home. From
One Classroom to Another Problems with this approach were many, however. Students found ways to circumvent the program and go directly to the answers, write them down, and then go back to take the tests. Of course, this allowed the students to finish at a remarkable rate, and with high scores; however very little learning was taking place! In addition to those concerns, the program did not allow teachers to modify the material in order to align with state-mandated curriculum and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). In these days of high-stakes testing and the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) of the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB), grave concerns surfaced in the minds of administrators in charge of the SAL program at Midland Excel. When the principal of Midland Excel, Mr. Gilberto Garcia, saw what was being accomplished by my special needs students with ExamView, he approached me with the question, "Could ExamView do for all the SAL students, the things that had already been done for the homebound students?" At that point, we put our heads together and formulated a plan to institute a change for the students in the SAL program at Midland Excel. Some of the core-curriculum courses offered at Midland Excel use state-adopted textbooks that do not have question banks for ExamView; therefore, study sheets and tests had to be developed for them. We asked various teachers in the core area classes to create study sheets and questions for chapter and unit exams for the entire semester. They used standard word processing programs and saved the files in rich text format (rtf). Using the ExamView Import Utility, we were then able to import the rtf files, including additional topics and maps used in the SAL classroom, into question banks for ExamView. We totally eliminated the commercial software program and paper packets that the SAL students had used prior to the introduction of ExamView. We saw many benefits–the same textbooks that were used in the core curriculum classes could now be utilized in the SAL classes, the same information was being learned and tested, and the same emphasis was being placed on the Texas standards for all of the students in the school. In its initial offering, the SAL program consisted of approximately six classes in core curriculum areas; however as the semester progressed, we developed SAL programs not only for core classes, but for electives as well. We were even able to modify tests and study guides for some of the Limited English Proficiency students by utilizing the Spanish question banks that were available with some textbooks we use in Midland. Now students who fall behind in credits and are admitted to Excel have the opportunity to graduate on time, as well as be better prepared for the Texas TAKS test, the exit level exam, and for life in general. Widening
the Circle Save
Money, Save Time Next year, the high schools in Midland will transition from a 6-period to a 7-period day. Teachers are concerned about losing five instructional minutes per period per day, which translates to a loss of an entire class period in a ten-day cycle, or nine days per semester. ExamView will help us regain those days by eliminating group assessment days. In our learner-centered environment, teachers have learned to utilize as few as three computers in a classroom of 30 students to test students in a given time period. (Obviously the more computers you have, the easier the process becomes; however, it is workable with as little as three computers in a classroom.) In addition, the computer labs and computers in the library are also utilized for class practice and assessment. By using ExamView on a LAN, tests can be accessed and taken at multiple locations, either simultaneously or at various times. ExamView's timed exam feature and scramble questions for every student feature make it extremely difficult for students to cheat. (I would say virtually impossible; however I am a realist and know that some of our young aspiring protégés will find a way to circumvent the system! It is generally not easy, though, with these features of ExamView.) It
Doesn't Stop There Well, folks, that's how I've used ExamView my way. As you can see, one seemingly small change can have a far-reaching and significant impact!
Rick McCarty |
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