By BrainSkills LLC. Reprinted with permission.
Background
Dr. Ken Gibson, founder and CEO of LearningRx and co-founder of BrainSkills, began this journey over 35 years ago. Formally trained as a doctor of optometry, he specialized in pediatric optometry and visual processing with a desire to help children overcome learning disabilities. He learned that he could help only about 5% of children with learning disabilities by focusing solely on vision related problems. Over the past 35 years he has worked to develop a more comprehensive solution to address the educational needs of struggling learners.
Working in concert with over 1,000 independent educational professionals at more than 700 training centers, Dr. Gibson and his team developed a program to strengthen weak cognitive skills in students that struggled with learning. The product developed for independent educational consultants and learning centers was called PACE and is still actively in use. In 2002, Dr. Gibson formed LearningRx to create a nationwide system of franchised learning centers. There are currently 62 learning centers in 20 states, and the program is growing rapidly. Dr. Gibson’s programs have successfully served over 25,000 students. Students on average achieve twice the gains in half the time of other leading programs currently available. For many struggling learners, the program has been life changing.
The intensive one-on-one trainer model is relatively expensive because of labor costs and thereby is not available to many students that could benefit. Dr. Gibson formed BrainSkills LLC in collaboration with Gary Smith to develop an online version of the LearningRx exercises to help overcome the cost and capacity barriers of reaching under-resourced students. BrainSkills has teamed with the CAUSE™ Project (TCP), which is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering under-resourced students to achieve their full potential. TCP has negotiated educed fee pricing from BrainSkills to make the program affordable for under-resourced children. TCP works with schools to raise grant funding to help fund the program.
What Do You Hope to Accomplish with This Program
Our mission is to help under-resourced children maximize their educational potential. Our primary goal is to assess every under-resourced student in grades 1–12 in the U.S. and make our cognitive skill-building program available to them as needed. Within 10 years, we hope to basically eliminate weak cognitive skills for all under-resourced children within the U.S., with the exception being those children that have a challenge beyond the reach of our program.
As a result, we hope to significantly improve the academic achievement numbers for under-resourced children.
What Is Different or Special About This Program
First, it is important to understand the difference between addressing weak cognitive skills vs. weak academic performance. If a student is struggling with learning, generally speaking, providing more academic teaching will not solve the problem. The key is to improve weak cognitive skills first to unlock a struggling student’s learning potential. Once the proper cognitive skill foundation is in place, academic teaching is typically much more successful.
Heretofore schools have not had the resources to address cognitive skill weaknesses. Awareness is building in the educational community regarding the ability to improve student cognitive skills. There are several programs that claim to improve cognitive skills. One-on-one training in a clinical setting has the best record and LearningRx has the best overall published record of which we are aware. However, clinical programs and one-on-one training are generally too expensive to address the need.
Alternatively, there are several computer-based programs. However, most are either limited in scope or are too expensive for most schools. To date, results for computer-based programs do not equal those of one-on-one training.
BrainSkills is working closely with LearningRx to develop an online program based upon the successful LearningRx clinical model. This includes development of a standardized assessment tool. The CAUSE™ Project has joined in collaboration with BrainSkills to validate this new online program and to make it available on an affordable basis. Our goal is to ensure that all under resourced students gain access to the program as needed.
Gibson Cognitive Skills Test Timetable
The GCSTest is being validated through January 2008. It will be standardized starting in March 2008 and that process is expected to take 4–6 months, depending upon school participation. Assuming a sufficient number of schools participate to create a proper norm group, the analysis will be completed by August 2008. A group of students is also taking the standardized Woodcock Johnson III battery of cognitive tests and results will be compared. If there is sufficient correlation, an interim approximation of results may be provided sooner. Otherwise, results won’t be available until August 2008. * Check for availability.
BrainSkills Cognitive Skills Exercises Timetable
The BrainSkills Online Core Cognitive Skill Exercise Module is being beta tested in a limited number of schools this spring semester starting in January 2008. A broader release and full-scale validation studies will begin the fall 2008/ spring 2009 school year. An auditory/reading module is planned to be released during that period. * Check for availability.
How Can My School Participate
All urban schools that are members of the Association of Christian Schools International can participate as a member benefit. ACSI urban schools need to work through Yvonne Jones at the Urban School Services Department. A limited number of schools will be selected to participate during the spring semester 2008 and open participation will begin for the fall semester 2008.
* Check for availability.
Other schools can participate on a case-by-case basis, but they must either be an urban school or a school that has a significant under-resourced student population (defined as students who qualify for the federal school lunch program).
However, we need a wide variety of schools to participate in the standardization of the Gibson Cognitive Skills Test. The norm group needs to closely resemble the overall student demographic statistics on a nationwide basis. In total, we need approximately 300 students per grade for the norm group and expect that we will recruit approximately 10,000 students total to provide a large enough group to select a proper distribution.
Is the Program Available to Individuals
In the U.S. the program is only available to approved schools that serve under-resourced students. It will be available to individuals and schools outside of the U.S.
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Why Test
The ability to learn is strongly correlated to cognitive skills. A student that has difficulty learning typically has one or more major weak cognitive skills. Even a student doing fairly well in school may be an inefficient learner spending a lot of extra time doing homework. All students can benefit from cognitive skill training, but those with weaker skills can gain the most.
Currently the educational paradigm is to test for cognitive skills only if there is a demonstrated learning problem. Then testing is used to determine whether or not a student qualifies for special education. Thereby, testing typically has a negative connotation. Current modes of testing are expensive and resource limited. It is impractical to test widely.
We equate cognitive skill testing to vision and hearing testing. Everyone should be tested to understand their learning capacity profile in the same manner it is wise to know if a person has a vision or hearing problem.
Heretofore, there was little the educational system could do to correct cognitive skill deficiencies, so why test? Now schools can do something to help build cognitive skills and unlock student learning potential, so testing is now something that should become routine. It is time to create a new paradigm.
Testing Process
An account executive will set up an administrative account for your school at The Gibson Test. Once you have your login information, you can access your account to register students and review results. You can create multiple sub-groups and multiple administrative logins. A tutorial on the administrative system can be found at Index of BrainSkills.
You can register each student individually through your admin access or you can generate a CSV file with basic information to bulk register students. For bulk registration instructions, select BrainSkillls: Building Skills for a Better Life. If bulk registration is used, students will likely have to login and complete their registration form first before taking the test. If this is the case, an extra 5 10 minutes should be allowed. Alternatively, students can complete the registration during another class period.
A computer with broadband internet connection, Adobe Flash 9.0.28.0 or later player, and headphones is required. Ideally the computer will also have the latest version of their browser. We have found that Firefox is more efficient than Internet Explorer. The overall test takes about 35–45 minutes to complete. There are 7 sub-tests. Ideally a student will take the complete test in one sitting. If an interruption is unavoidable, a student can take a break in between one of the sub-tests and resume at any time. Students can also take the test at home if they have broadband internet access and the appropriate equipment. Students can hit the F11 key to remove the toolbars so they are not tempted to hit the back arrow, which would log them out of the program. If they happen to hit the back arrow in their browser, just have the student log in again.
When Will Results Be Available
Raw test scores will be available to schools immediately. However, the raw scores should not be used to draw any conclusions at this stage. Obvious poor scores for a given sub-test are a strong indication of a weakness in that skill.
Standardized scores are expected to be available by August 2008. General preliminary results based upon a separate study comparing scores to another standardized test may be available earlier.
Please keep in mind that test results at this stage are primarily to establish a baseline from which to measure progress using the exercise program.
Equipment
The test and exercise program is internet based. A reasonably current Mac or PC should work. A broadband internet connection, Adobe Flash 9 player, and headphones are required. Ideally, the computer will have the latest version of the chosen browser. We have found that Firefox is more efficient than Internet Explorer. If you can do the demo, your computer equipment and connection meet the requirements. If you do experience problems, check to see that you have the latest browser and Flash versions.
Student registration is REQUIRED before access is provided.
Description of Exercise Program
The exercises are a series of challenging, video game-like drills that build cognitive skills. However, the focus is not on flashy graphics and stories, but rather intense mental challenges. Each exercise has multiple levels and speeds within each level. Each higher level adds new complexity. A student is advanced to the highest speed within a level that is reasonably achieved and then advanced to the next level when a given round is scored at 90% or greater.
The goal is to advance a student as quickly as possible to a level where they fail and then drill that level until they master that set of challenges and then advance to the next set of challenges. This type of training is similar to physical exercise. The benefit comes from being engaged and doing the exercise. This program is calisthenics for the brain.
Each exercise drills a different set of cognitive skills. There are multiple modules. The first module drills the core underlying cognitive skills. This includes processing speed, memory, logic and reasoning, visual processing, and attention among others. There are currently seven exercises active with two more expected to be added by March 2008. The second module, which is still in development, will focus on auditory skills. The auditory module is planned to be available by fall semester 2008.
Each module requires one hour per day of training, five days per week for a minimum of twelve weeks to one semester. There are no shortcuts. A student must be committed and diligent in their training to achieve the potential benefits.
The exercises are self directed. Teachers can access a status page for each student on the exercise program to observe progress on an ongoing basis.
The exercises train cognitive skills and do not teach academic material. Building cognitive skills empowers a student to learn more easily and efficiently.
Teacher Training, Role
Training is minimal. Teachers supervising students in the program need to familiarize themselves with the test and exercises, which could take as little as a couple of hours. The teacher role is primarily to keep students on task and to answer questions. It is important that the teacher properly position the program in the minds of the students so they understand the purpose and commitment needed to succeed.
The test and exercises are self directed. Teachers can access a status page for each student on the exercise program to observe progress on an ongoing basis. Teachers should coach any students not putting in the proper time or who are stuck.
Cost
Traditional cognitive skill testing is estimated to cost approximately $135–150 per student internally to schools. It is labor intensive and thereby most schools either do not have the resources to test or have limited capacity. Testing in the private sector is very expensive and is typically $1,000 or more. The retail price of the Gibson Online Cognitive Skills Test is scheduled to be $19.95 and can be taken on any computer that has broadband internet access and can run the Flash 9 program.
Clinical cognitive skill programs typically range from $4,000 to $12,000 or more per student. Computerbased programs vary because of the range of what is covered. Some individual games could range from free to several hundred dollars. Comprehensive programs typically cost in excess of $1,000 per student. Several of the computer-based programs are limited to certain licensed computers within the school.
The BrainSkills program is scheduled to cost $495 for the core module and $795 retail for the combined set of core cognitive skills and auditory skills. The program is internet based and can be run on any computer that has broadband internet access and can run the Flash 9 program.
ACSI and the CAUSE™ Project (TCP) are committed to raise sufficient grant funds so that ACSI member schools can access the program at no external cost as a member benefit. Schools are responsible for internal costs of computers and supervision of the students.
TCP is working to raise grant funding to make the program available to all under-resourced children in the U.S. at a reduced price of $200 per student. Schools participating in the study program in the fall semester 2008 will be provided the program for a limited number of students at no cost.
Schools that cannot afford the $200 per student cost will be eligible to receive support through TCP. TCP will work with schools to help raise individual, grant, or corporate donor funding.
* Check current availability.
Contact Info
To learn more or to experience a demonstration select BrainSkills.
Additional information regarding access to reduced pricing for under-resourced students through an alliance with the CAUSE™ Project can be obtained by Email.
The Meantime Volume 7 Number 3
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