Two Minnesota High Schools Choose WriteToLearn to Prepare Students for
New State Writing Assessment
Pearson's Web-Based Tool Will Help Students Build Writing and Reading Comprehension Skills
BOULDER, Colo. - April 8, 2008 - Pearson announced
today that students at two Minnesota high schools are now using
WriteToLearn™ to develop writing and reading comprehension skills.
Both schools are using the award-winning Web-based learning tool to help
students build literacy skills and prepare for the new Minnesota writing
assessment.
The schools are Dunwoody Academy High School, a new technical charter
school in north Minneapolis administered by Dunwoody College, and
Robbinsdale Cooper High School, part of Robbinsdale Area Schools in New
Hope, Minn.
With WriteToLearn, students practice essay writing and summarization
skills, and their efforts are measured by Pearson's state-of-the-art
Knowledge Analysis Technologies™ (KAT) engine. The KAT engine is a
unique automated assessment technology that evaluates the meaning of
text by examining whole passages, not just grammatical correctness or
spelling.
"WriteToLearn is an awesome program that gives each student
feedback right away, which is something a teacher cannot possibly have
time to do," said Duane Dutrieuille, dean of Academic and Student
Affairs at Dunwoody Academy High School.
Dunwoody Academy, which offers eight-hour days and a 210-day school
year, provides career-focused training in four industries - automotive,
construction, health care and manufacturing - as well as core subjects
for its 150 students. Reading and writing skills are vital parts of the
curriculum, said Dutrieuille, and WriteToLearn is an important tool in
improving student achievement. "Our students now know what to write
and understand the structure of a paragraph. They're gaining skills and
confidence and are really enjoying using WriteToLearn. I would recommend
it to any school," he said.
At Robbinsdale Cooper High school, which serves more than 2,000 students
in grades nine through 12 in a northwest suburb of Minneapolis, ninth
graders are just getting started with WriteToLearn. Teachers and
administrators will use it to prepare for both the state writing and
reading assessments and have high hopes for success.
"We're excited about the possibilities," said Jill Kind,
Robbinsdale Cooper social studies teacher. Students will use
WriteToLearn in language arts, social studies, science and even physical
education, where teachers spend a portion of the session on writing and
reading. "The immediate feedback for the students will be great, as
well as the knowledge we'll gain. We'll be able to see areas where
students need help so we'll be better able to individualize
instruction," she said.
These Minnesota adoptions come closely on the heels of the launch of
WriteToLearn 5.0, which debuted with a number of new capabilities. They
include new text-to-speech capabilities that allow students to have
hundreds of reading passages read aloud to them, an added dictionary and
spot word translation ability, and a new teacher comment feature that
takes the assessment tool to the next level.
More information about WriteToLearn is available at
www.WriteToLearn.net.
About Pearson
Pearson is the global leader in educational publishing, assessment,
information and services, helping people of all ages to learn at their
own pace, in their own way. For students preK-12, Pearson provides
effective and innovative curriculum products in all available media,
educational assessment and measurement for students and teachers,
student information systems, and teacher professional development and
certification programs. The company's respected brands include Summary
Street®, WriteToLearn, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, AGS,
PowerSchool, SuccessMaker, TeacherVision and many others. Pearson's
comprehensive offerings help inform targeted instruction and
intervention so that success is within reach of every student. Pearson's
other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the
Penguin Group.
For more information, press only:
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-325-9935, lwolfe@lwolfe.com
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