Feedback+on+TRAILS

I am using TRAILS with 6th graders in a Media Research Wheel class at Oak Grove Middle School. The TRAILS assessment is used as a pre and post test for the course. We use our pre test scores to set individual student goals for improvement. The data really helps me to focus in on specific skills that I see are missing throughout my 12 week course. I am using the data for my IPDP data and teacher evaluation. The assessment is a breeze to set up and I create a link to our testing session right on my course homepage. It also runs very well on the school network and we've never had a glitch yet. I still have one group midway through my 12 week course and another full wheel to go later in the year. The first group of kids showed incredible improvement in their literacy skill knowledge. I plan to use TRAILS consisiently as part of my course. Amy Titus@OakGrove Middle NEW! Interactive Google Map- Please Add Your Comment

TRAILS was a wonderful tool that helped me with my instruction. I am a K-12 center with a student population who have behavioral and emotional disabilities. Our population is very transient and just as we start to see learning gains, our students move on either through the court or foster system. If our students are successful they are transitioned into general education programs. Many of my students are several grades below their reading level. While I am working diligently to improve their library skills, my main focus is to create an environment that promotes reading for fun. Research has proven that students who read for fun have higher test scores and become better writers and of course better readers. How do you measure turning a student around from throwing and destroying books to running into the library, excited to find another book that they want to try to read? Beverley Brown Calvin Hunsinger EBD Center Comments Collected From Our 2010 End-of-the-Year Survey:

"This is a valuable tool and when I first shared it with teachers they all immediately wanted to collaborate to utilize it. It helps me in my collaboration efforts and validates my standards to them."

"It is the best resource!!! I love the info it gives me to work with my students on their weaknesses. It is also great to share with administrators."

"Can't imagine life without this wonderful resource. It has had significant and long lasting impact on daily instruction. Thank you!"

"I am very pleased with the TRAILS system. It has become a wonderful tool for assessing student's information literacy needs."

"This is a very easy to use program. I recommend it to all our language arts teachers."

"This was the best new site I used this year. It is difficult to find assessment pieces for libraries. You did a great job! If you are looking to expand, it would be great to have a separate assessment for seventh and eighth grades too. It would allow me to test each grade each year."

'I think that it is a wonderful resource which has greatly helped me in the assessment of my course and the understanding of my students but has also provided a benchmark for what students at a certain level can be expected to know."

"Thanks for providing TRAILS. The students loved the immediate feedback as did the teachers."

"It is a very good way to quickly gather information of student knowledge that can then be used to revise and improve instruction."

"It has been wonderful for our school library program. We implemented our own info lit curriculum a couple of years ago and designed our powerpoint presentations around topics, research strategies, and information sources our teachers were using and that were available in our library and Internet network. We did not know how we would assess our program and so TRAILS came to the rescue. I have used the info. from reports generated in the fall (6th grade) as we didn't know whether our students would understand some of the vocabulary and concepts at 9th level. The results showed that they were very proficient in all but one standard. We revised sections of two sessions, and then decided to assess using 9th level. I will get those results the end of this week."

"I have thoroughly enjoyed using the Trails assessment in helping us see where our students are. We will use this assessment at the beginning and end of next year with our sixth graders. I hope our administrators will want to use it with 3rd graders also which will help us with our scope and sequence district-wide in information literacy."

"I love it! My school is planning on using it as a PRE/POST common assessment with 9th grade students. It is a wonderful tool and I appreciate the effort that went into creating it. Thank you!"

"This type of standardized assessment is much needed. Especially right now, if I could show how much knowledge our graduating Seniors gained, it would be very powerful!"

"I love the breakdown of the different categories as well as the percentages of which letter for each question students got right or wrong. That helps when you want to go over certain sections and explain the right answer."

"LOVE IT! Provides us with "data-driven decision-making." Also used it as my evidence for the "Evidence-Based Practice" workshops we did with Dr. Ross Todd."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Thank you for providing this needed assessment for librarians. I now have concrete data that can help drive instruction (which is what we need), as well as a real picture as to where students are strong and weak. My administration, school board, colleagues and staff are all impressed by the real data that comes from TRAILS. We have used it well this year."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Great program ... and thank you for making it available for free, since our school budgets are so limited, that's the only way we can use this fantastic tool."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"The tests have been very useful in targeting instruction and defining the skills we want to include in our information literacy curriculum."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Keep up the great work. The site is a blessing."

I pretested 6 different classes and plan to postest after FCAT. The students really enjoyed it. Gulfport Elementary