Your Fall ALEKS K-12 eNewsletter is below.
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ALEKS course products for grades 3 - 8 are now integrated with all 50 states' standards. Now you can monitor student, class, school and district progress toward state standards!
Current ALEKS teachers and administrators can login to view state standards reports immediately. For more information on reading state standards reports, please view the State Standards Report tutorial.
K-12 Implementation Strategies Now Available
Discover how other instructors are successfully implementing ALEKS at their schools. View ALEKS Implementation Strategies:
Grant Opportunities
ALEKS math programs qualify for many federal, state, and private funding opportunities. For more information on funding opportunities, please visit our grants page.
For assistance with your grant proposals and application, please view our ALEKS Features and Benefits section online or download the PDF document.
Place Your ALEKS Order
ALEKS is ready to help you achieve dramatic learning outcomes throughout the school year. As you prepare for a successful new school year, purchase ALEKS subscriptions for your incoming and returning students.
As always, ALEKS is as easy to order as ever. Download ALEKS Order Form.
Would you like us to help you place your order?
Would you like ALEKS to contact you with more information?
Please let us know how we can assist you!
ALEKS Corporation Customer Support
Hours (Eastern Time): Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Phone: (714) 245-7191 ext. 201
Fax: (714) 245-7190
Email: contact us at http://support.aleks.com
Suggestion for Grading Individual Student Progress in ALEKS
This is a simple method that encourages students to compete with themselves and can be easily implemented with minimal additional work by the teacher.
To grade student work completed in the ALEKS Learning Mode, teachers can award grade points for the percentage gains made by each student over a specific interval, perhaps a week. At the end of the interval, students submit "claims" for grade points based on their percentage increase for that interval. Teachers can quickly verify these percentages by viewing the class Detailed Progress Report and adding together each student’s blue and green progress percentages for the time interval. In the below example, the student’s Week 1 total progress percentage is 34% and the Week 2 total progress is 39% (35% blue + 4% green).
If a student takes a reassessment and loses total progress percentage points, the total progress percentage prior to the assessment can be used. This will result in a zero percent difference and therefore 0 grade points, but it won’t result in a negative percent difference or a loss of grade points for the student. It is important that students not be penalized for review required following reassessments. Teachers can schedule assessments at the start of each week so that students will be less likely to get reassessed as they are finalizing their weekly gains.
Sample Claims Form:
We welcome your comments on this individual student progress grading strategy and invite you to share your grading methods on the ALEKS Discussion Forum. Login Now.
The ALEKS Winter eNewsletter will focus on uniform grading strategies to address class needs.
Have You Explored the ALEKS Training Center?
Learn more about ALEKS features and how to maximize your use via the online Training Center. Live and pre-recorded trainings are conveniently available for your viewing and training. You do NOT need to register to attend. Simply click on a training link and watch how you can propel your students toward success.
Live WebEx Training Sessions:
Basic and advanced online training sessions now available.
View WebEx Training Session Schedule
Sample Pre-recorded Trainings:
Registering and Authorizing New Students
A step-by-step guide of how to register and authorize a new student in ALEKS.
Total Time: 5 min 49.
Reading Class Reports
A quick overview on how to read and interpret some of our most popular class reports. Total Time: 2 min 24.
Top Customer Questions
- How do I register with ALEKS? How do I use my ALEKS Course Code to register in a particular class?
- What is the function of assessments in ALEKS?
- How does ALEKS' new standards-based reporting for classes work?
- How do I retrieve my login name and/or password?
- I'm having trouble downloading the ALEKS plug-in.
- How do I install and enable Java?
Long Beach, CA
Scenario: Computer Lab
ALEKS Portion of Curriculum: 80%
Time Spent in ALEKS: 3 hours per week
ALEKS Course Product: Math Prep for California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE)
In my situation, I am teaching 12th grade students who have failed the CAHSEE multiple times and whose math skills and needs are widely divergent. ALEKS allows me to individualize instruction so that students get what they need, when they are ready to learn it. Because ALEKS is so closely aligned to the CAHSEE standards, I use ALEKS to determine what topics the majority of students are working on and use classroom time to support that learning.
What challenges did the class or school face in math prior to using ALEKS?
We are presently using ALEKS to work with our CAHSEE Prep students. By in large, these students are in 12th grade and have failed Algebra multiple times, have been unable to pass the CAHSEE and need a lot of support to get to a place where they can pass the CAHSEE and get their diplomas.
This group of students is very difficult to work with because of the wide variety of challenges they present to a classroom teacher. Some of these students have large gaps in their math fundamentals and need to start from scratch. Others are only missing a small piece of the CAHSEE standards and once they fill in these gaps can pass easily. Many of these students are chronic underachievers in math and have a long history of frustration and failure. Motivating these students, diagnosing their unique needs and addressing them in a class of 35-40 students at all levels is nearly impossible.
How many days per week is class time dedicated to ALEKS?
2 days
What is the average length of a class period when ALEKS is used?
90 minutes
Implementation
How did you implement ALEKS?
I use ALEKS in conjunction with a variety of support materials including CAHSEE warm-up questions from previously released exams, the Prentice Hall Algebra support materials for remediation, the AGS Pre-Algebra textbook and related resources I've collected over the years.
Do you cover ALEKS concepts in a particular order?
No. I have a general idea of the order I've usually covered the CAHSEE standards, but I'm more flexible with ALEKS and try to utilize the data I get from ALEKS to cover topics at the ideal time for the majority of students, rather than in a pre-determined order.
How do you structure your class periods with ALEKS?
The first 10-15 minutes are used for students to assess their progress using the built-in ALEKS tools. The majority of the period is spent using ALEKS to practice and instruct in specific areas that students choose to focus on for that period. About 1/2 hour before the end of the period, students need to complete the online ALEKS quiz (they can complete it up to 3 times) or homework assignments and then do a quick journal regarding their daily progress and reflect on what they learned that day.
On Mondays, we meet in the classroom instead of the lab, and we work on topics I select to address key areas that the majority of students are either working on or are struggling with (I use the ALEKS quizzes to identify these topics as well as quick assessments during class).
How did you modify your regular teaching approach as a result of ALEKS?
I would say that this is something that is ongoing. To date, ALEKS has been very helpful at diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses and has helped focus and inform my instruction when we are not in the lab.
How do you cultivate parental involvement and support for ALEKS?
We did a demonstration and explanation of ALEKS at our Back-To-School night. We are also working on ways to get parents more involved by connecting with the parent education group that offers classes to parents to become familiar with different technologies that their students use at school.
Grading
Is ALEKS assigned to your students as all or part of their homework responsibilities? If so, what part of the total homework load is it?
Yes, 76 - 100%.
How do you incorporate ALEKS into your grading system?
ALEKS makes up 50% of the students grade.
Do you require students to make regular amounts of progress in ALEKS? If so, how is this progress measured and what is the amount of progress that they are responsible for completing?
Not currently. We are working to define and set learning goals based on our initial experience implementing the program.
Learning Outcomes
Since using ALEKS, please describe the learning outcomes or progress you have seen?
ALEKS has provided answers to many of the problems I faced in addressing the unique needs of this group of students. Students are more motivated to learn and it is easier for me to assess and evaluate students so they get constant feedback on their progress. ALEKS also offers students a chance to be successful because it provides instruction in their proximal learning zone, challenging them without frustrating them.
Best Practices
Are there any best practices you would like to share with other teachers implementing ALEKS?
I suggest implementing ALEKS with an open mind and a willingness to adjust and change your expectations as you become more familiar with how the program works. The most important thing to me is to tie what students are working on in ALEKS to classroom instruction so that students’ work in ALEKS informs and enhances classroom instruction. I also suggest using ALEKS to assess student progress to either continue on an instructional objective or to change direction in response to students’ success or failure at achieving the objective.
Stop by Our Booth and Receive ALEKS Goodies
ALEKS exhibits at dozens of educational conferences across the nation. Stop by our booth at one of these upcoming tradeshows.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional - Booth #716
October 10 - 12, Richmond, VA
For more information, visit NCTM
Northwest Mathematics Conference - Booth #25
October 11 - 13, Bellevue, WA
For more information, visit: NWMC
Share Your ALEKS Success Story - For a Chance to Receive an iPOD!
If you have an ALEKS success story like Matt Gold (see success story above), please share your story and you will be entered in our quarterly drawing for a chance to receive an iPOD!
Please enter your name and email below if you would like us to contact you regarding your success story. Our Fall quarter winner will be announced in the Winter eNewsletter.
