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BARBARA BEHRENDTThe expensive Abacus system should be helping teachers help students, but its complexities have limited its use, officials say.
INVERNESS - The Citrus school district has spent $670,000 over the past four years on the Abacus computer program. But few teachers use it because of the system's complexities.
School Board members say they want that to change.
During a workshop Tuesday, the district's education services department detailed all the reasons Abacus is a needed, valuable tool that could help educators at all levels.
Officials said that is especially true in the face of new state and national education rules that push districts to find ways to make sure every student meets curriculum standards. Abacus can produce tests and reports allowing the schools to target students who need specific remediation and classes needing extra drills on specific concepts.
Such customizing of instruction is possible with no other program that local officials have found.
Yet the program has been under scrutiny by the board for several months because teachers complain that Abacus is difficult to learn, time-consuming to use and is not compatible with other programs in the schools.
Board members have questioned whether the district should continue to spend money each year to support Abacus if teachers were opting to use other programs instead. The answer presented by district administrators Tuesday was to show what Abacus can do using the specific example of Crystal River Middle School.
Earlier this school year, Crystal River Middle administered a test that was generated through Abacus and mirrors the kinds of questions students answer in the important Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The results of that exam provided the middle school's math department a way to home in on the curriculum standards that students needed help learning and provided information on how to make improvements in the math program in the future.
The information provided enough detail that teachers could discuss whether the textbook taught the right lessons or whether those lessons should be taken out of order to be sure the tested concepts are taught before the test is given.
Board member Pat Deutschman questioned what the next step would be using the program.
Instructional services director Tom Curry noted that the program could help create a science exam now that the FCAT is testing science to improve instruction in that area. Crystal River Middle could use it to expand the subject areas its teachers are examining. And it could help the district as it prepares to adopt a new series of math textbooks next year.
Abacus could also assist third-grade teachers.
This year, third graders who don't pass the reading portion of the FCAT will be retained in third grade. But the state allows districts to use other complex ways to prove that students should be allowed to move to fourth grade even if they didn't pass the test. One of those ways is to provide detailed evidence that the child meets the standards.
The Abacus program can document that, Mark Brunner, elementary education coordinator, told the board.
Deutschman asked officials whether they expected all the schools to use the program. Previously administrators estimated that only about 12 percent of teachers were using Abacus.
Curry explained that the district staff had tried in the beginning to make the program available to everyone. But because of the program's complexities, Curry now believes that it would help to take little steps to introduce it in the schools.
"We're hoping that more schools will use it next year," he said.
"We've got very few schools using this," said Chairwoman Sandra "Sam" Himmel. She questioned whether the district should consider requiring schools to adopt Abacus. "If people think it's difficult, folks aren't going to just jump in," she said.
But Curry said showing schools the benefits and getting them to buy in would produce more lasting change. "If they feel like they're forced to do it, they'll quit using it," he said. "It's a complex and very robust system . . . but we're trying to develop processes to make it useful to them."
"It's been a very expensive system," said board member Patience Nave. She said district officials need to make schools aware that they expect it to be used.
"We'd like schools to make every effort to begin the implementation," she said.
Jan Morphew, the district's director of research and accountability, said teachers are seeing the value of the program. High schools are showing more interest because it can be used to help remediate students who must pass the FCAT to graduate. More teacher training will also be available this summer. And more people are in training to provide support.
That makes her optimistic about the future for Abacus.
"What we're beginning to see is more schools are asking for it," Morphew said.
- Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 564-3621.