handheld Computers and the Standards, Assessment, Accountability Movement

Standards, assessment, and accountability movements are changing practices in public education. These changes require extensive data gathering and analysis. Teachers and administrators are overwhelmed by the demands, yet handheld computers offer a means to collect data unobtrusively and in ways that may provide better accountability. Within this art icle, uses of the handheld computer in the standards charged environment are explored. Thomas Sergiovanni (1992) suggests, “Improving schools involves identifying the right leverage points for change.” The standards, assessment, accountability movement has brought the need for massive record keeping. Teachers already are overwhelmed with gathering information, yet the legislatures nationwide are requiring testing and data tracking. The politicians and some citizens are calling for measurable improvement of student learning. James Popham (2001) posits: . . . teachers have an extrinsic motivation for collecting compelling and credible evaluative data to illustrate their instructional effectiveness. . . . I’d like to see teachers collect solid evidence that their students have mastered really powerful cognitive skills —skills so powerful that evidence of students’ increased achievement will wow principals, parents, and policymakers (p. 127) How can teachers collect such powerful and solid evidence while allowing teachers the time to teach and prepare? Handheld computers can provide teachers and their administrators with an additional and effective tool. What can these small, yet powerful devices do for teachers to support them in the standards, assessment, and accountability data collection and management? 1. Information and reference data can be maintained on the handheld computer. Teachers need to have ready references including grade level standards and benchmarks, rubrics, definitions, schedules. These are text documents that are easily transferred to the handheld through one of the word processing programs like Documents to Go, Wordsmith, or Quickword, or though using a formatting tool like iSilo. 2. Student and class data can be gathered and analyzed on the handheld computer. Individual student progress toward meeting standards, i.e. rubric ratings, etc., can be maintained over time. Databases, forms, spreadsheets can be adapted for this use. Media-X has developed software for desktop and handheld dealing with standards. ThoughtManager has templates that can be modified for these purposes. District or school databases programs can be developed to allow use of rubrics and results to be gathered, stored, and analyzed. All of these methods allow sending the data to the school or district system through beaming or hotsyncing. Several systems designed by teachers and administrators on the FileMaker program work well for their unique site needs. There are many programs that articulate with the popular desktop tools like Office. 3. Grades can be entered and shared on the fly. Several programs enable teachers to collect and process grades. TeachersP.E.T. is one of the early programs, but EasyGrade, PraestoGrade and others are available too. Each of these programs allows a range of grading and attendance options. Desktop complimentary programs are stronger than last year. Mobile grading makes project grading, group activity grades, and even processing grades and progress reports easier. With an infrared printer or one with the infrared addition a progress report can be beamed to the computer, making providing the extra motivation easy. Students, from middle school through graduate students, appreciate the availability of instant grades. Parents like the progress reports, yet producing these materials can be very time consuming, until recently. 4. Working collaboratively on standards and assessment projects is easier with the handheld computer. Information is shared almost effortlessly with beaming and networks. Rubrics can be developed by one team member and beamed to the others. Results from a survey can be shared instantaneously. Data is not just collected by the person who does spreadsheets. Programs like QuickGraph allow colleagues to review and compare results informally. 5. Scheduling, organizing, and planning for teacher teams can be tracked on the handheld computer. Calendars or datebooks, task lists, and many other ways to organize are available on the handheld computer through using the built-in software. Schedules, minutes or agendas, Gantt charts can be beamed. Priorities can be set within the team. PicoMap is a concept mapping tool that can be used by teachers as they plan. It is a free program from the University of Michigan HiCE project headed by Elliot