Grant adds up to math program

A $68,000 state grant will rev up Pine-Richland School District's Internet-based fourth- and fifth-grade math curriculum efforts, school officials say.

The Students Achieving Standards program, a state Link-to-Learn initiative, focuses attention on teaching and learning with the support of technology. Goals of the program include improved student achievement, increased parental involvement through online tools and more effective use of teachers' time.

The grant will be used for 40 wireless computer work stations, an Internet application, networking hardware and professional staff development, according to Judi Boren, school district spokeswoman.

Albert Wille, coordinator of special programs for the district, said the grant will allow the district to study how well technology can be used to bridge gaps in the fourth- and fifth-grade math curriculum.

'Obviously the focus is to use technology in a supportive role,' Wille said.

'As far as the classroom, the first focus is to use the software to support implementation of our new mathematics curriculum,' he said.

Wille said the goal of the program is to study how the Internet might be used to help pupils master basic math skills, as well as meeting state standards.

While the program will include posting assignments on the Internet, more importantly it will create a Web-based forum for parents and teachers to help pupils needing additional support, Wille said.

The Internet forum also will allow students who are excelling in their class work to move forward independently of their classmates, Wille said.

'The next grade-level curriculum will be online, as well as Web-based activities to teach a particular math program,' Wille said. 'There will be direct communications between the teacher and the parent through the Internet,

Selected parents will take part in monthly meetings and be trained specifically for this program.

'We're going to walk through it with some parents, including some training and ... (study groups), to see what this solution might do for more students,' Wille said. 'Does it work, and how well does it work?'

The project supports Pine-Richland's four-year plan for technology by focusing on improvements to learning, improved communications and the implementation of innovative ideas.

Volunteer lead teachers and support staff in grades four and five will participate in the project. They will focus on using student assessment data more effectively.

Students will use the Internet-based software homeroom.com, which will allow assignment exchanges via the Internet as well as computer-based instructional resources for independent learning.

'This (grant) gets us into the arena we want to be in with the technology,' Boren said. 'This is where we want to be with the wireless and networking technology.'

Mark Berton can be reached at (724) 779-7108 or mberton@tribweb.com .