Targeted Education At-Risk Students

Running head: TARGETED EDUCATION OF AT-RISK STUDENTS

Targeted Education of At-Risk Students: Coaching with the Smartphone Robert Rindner Florida Atlantic University

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Target Education At-Risk The aim of this research proposal is to set in motion further research in how we can better educate At-Risk students who are in danger of dropping out. There are many negative implications dropouts face in the current job market. Studies of our current prison population indicate 82% of all prison inmates are dropouts (LeCompte and Dworkin, 1991). The At-Risk Student is defined as a teenage student with some or all of the following issues and family characteristics. Certain issues play an important role in determining who is at risk of dropping out. The current research proposal is based on using a population of students that have these traits and are now part of a District Alternative Center School. After being prompted to leave the neighborhood school many student are directed to these school by the Principals of the regular neighborhood school and or the court system when a juvenile is on court ordered probation. Many of this student population were moved out of the traditional classroom because of a low GPA, disruptive behavior, grade retention, and truancy. The numbers and paperwork tend to very restricted because of the juvenile population. Students lacking the basic math facts and reading literacy are as old as twenty-one at district Centers Almost 20% of dropouts come from families on welfare, the financial (SES) Socio Economic Status is low and near or below the poverty level. (Hammond L. D, 2007) The research question for the current proposal will be: Can the Smartphone be a potential tutoring device to the AT-Risk teenager. The phone similar to a Research in Motion Blackberry or Apple I- phone will be used in mathematics as a coaching device because it can help create Socratic walk and learn intimacy and closeness. The research hypothesis is that after a seven month period there will be an increase on the scores on the Math Grade 10 (FCAT)

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Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. (Mathematics Sunshine, 2006) by the group using the Smartphone under the classroom teachers direction. A passing score of 300 earns a high school diploma in the State of Florida. The working hypothesis is that we can prevent student from dropping out of high school and therefore he less likely to end up in prison. This research proposal looks at how the Smartphone can be used to help at risk students with educational content that is controlled by the teacher and school district. There seems to be a special bond to the teenager and their mobile telephone. The mobile phone of 2009 is a communication and media device that at times will distract both teacher and student. The education has seen many innovations and disruptions in the classroom going back thousands of years to Socrates. Educators now have a new entity they must coexist with at school. The average Smartphone today has music, text messaging, video and possibly a downloaded movie that will not be in the local theatre for another two weeks. The Smartphone is a major distraction to the teacher of at risk students who finds that students will sit all day and listen to music and not work. The teacher is to play a new role as a facilitator of learning with the power to manipulate and control recreational viewing on the Smartphone. The modern Smartphone has a color screen and is two and a half inches in width and three inches in length. It will slip into a pocket faster than a three-carded Monty dealer shuffles the cards. Educators and administrators spend a large time of their day disciplining and suspending student because of its use during the school day. The bond with this device is especially strong with the at risk teenager. In many cases, its use during class hours and confiscation by security will cause a student to drop out of high school. The research hypothesis is that the use of this device can help even out some of the disadvantages, at risk students have in

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the American academic environment. The At-Risk student will embrace this Smartphone because being that it is part I-Pod and infinitely cooler than the regular phone he can afford or the phone his guardian now pays for. The district and the classroom will retain fifty percent of usage time on said Smartphone and be able to push designated individual content to each user individually or as a group. Our independent variable the Smartphone will be a lifeline and coach to the student who lacks the involved parent or traditional family. Our independent variable is capable of recreational use that can be given only by the classroom teacher based on the amount of work and viewing of teacher assigned content by the student. The coaching and tutoring our Smartphone is delivering will increase FCAT scores because the AT-Risk student must work and study to be rewarded with recreational time on his Smartphone. The researcher has used this method of rewarding academic work with recreational computer time in the classroom. The aim of this proposal is to launch the technique of controlled educational content viewing for recreational Smartphone time. Smartphones support will comfort and help the struggling student. There is no evidence or study that has been done to test this belief of the researcher. The observations made by the researcher in actual At-Risk class rooms with the desk top platform have caused the formation of this conjecture. This hypothesis needs to be tested on the Smartphone. If you reward the AtRisk student with recreational computer privileges such as watching music videos, movies and or listening to music you can take a court ordered school At-Risk student attending school as a condition of his court ordered sentence and increase the amount of math related educational content minutes of on task behavior. Control of educational and recreational content can be used to increase At-Risk Student on task performance.

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The Smartphone also offers a life line through the summer when the student is not at school for automated on task educational active learning. An example of this would be to trade

text messaging units for active educational learning activities. Rewards for active learners as well as stipends for teachers could be financed from advertisements on the mobile platform desktop as Google now does on the desktop platform. The innovative streaming content will, motivate, teach and coddle with the same effectiveness that the upper middle class students receive when caring Mom and or Dad call in the tutor after their child receives that first bad grade when academic problems start. The classroom teacher will direct educational content neglected by previous teachers (learning math facts, multiplication tables, basic fractions, decimals) to the phone in exchange for recreational usage hours,( text-messaging privileges, music and other video privileges) for academic assigned the current classroom teacher that has been completed. A large part of the streaming will be a review of basic math facts that the older student has never learned. Basic math facts are the multiplication table, fractions, decimals, and skills that have never been learned in elementary school. Review of Literature Only about 17% of African American young people between the ages of 25 and 29and only 11% of Hispanic youthhad earned a college degree in 2005, as compared with 34% of White youth in the same age bracket (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). Between 1980 and 2000, three times as many African American men were added to the nations prison systems as were added to our colleges. In 2000, there were an estimated 791,600 African American men in prison or jail, and 603,000 in higher education (Justice Policy Institute, 2005). Most inmates are high

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school dropouts, and more than half the adult prison population has literacy skills below those required by the labor market (Barton and Coley, 1996). The many school segregation cases point to the need to bring equal quality educational content to all who want to study. Cases of equal curriculum to develop equal citizenship, job preparation and equal wages and employment are well documented. Fifty years ago, Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plesseys "separate but equal" doctrine as applied to schools. Brown declared education to be "perhaps the most important function of state and local governments," as the foundation of good citizenship and professional preparation for occupational success. "It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education, and where the state has undertaken to provide it, it is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms." "Separate educational facilities," it ruled, "are inherently unequal." (WAKS L. J, 2005) Student who come from a nontraditional home with a single female parent are more likely to dropout (Teachman, Paasch, and Carver, 1996). Teenagers from families with poor relations with the schools and a lack of parent involvement, and single-parent homes are more likely to drop out (Pete Goldschmidt, 1999). The impact of single-parent families is twofold. First, single-parent families are more likely to live in poverty; the poverty rate for such families is about 50%. Second, youth in single-parent families are less likely to receive school-related support (Farmer & Payne, 1992). Furthermore, parent education is a significant factor increasing the likelihood of a student dropping out. A student whose father dropped out is 1.4 times as likely to dropout as a student whose father completed at least high school. (Goldschmidt, 1997).

Targeted Education At-Risk Students

This document is a framework of how we can help at risk students to finish high school and not become a part of the prison system. It is estimated that $240 billion in lost lifetime earnings and taxes results from each year's class of dropouts. (Dryfoos, 1990). Eighty percent of incarcerated men are high school dropouts. The process of dropping out is a combination of variables causing at risk behavior that often leads to incarceration. Some of these factors that have a high correlation include the single mother head of household family, poverty, low socio economic status (SES) and guardians with a very limited education. These conditions are very prevalent among the black males in American society raised in poverty by the single female head of household who never graduated from high school. African Americans have a significantly higher population than the 12.5% of the general population (CensusScope, 2000). The justification for this proposal is that it is now possible to deliver coaching to the at risk student through the smart phone mobile platform with streaming media. Smartphones are now able to deliver equality of education to the academically challenged At-Risk student. The equality of education that bussing and a non-segregated education delivered with pinpoint accuracy to the student who is willing to work harder. Perhaps this is the true red line school district division issue of the digital age. The current requirements for a high school diploma outlined by the Florida Department of Education. (2005): 1. According to Florida law, students must meet all academic requirements in order to receive a standard high school diploma from a public school. This means that students must take required courses, earn the correct number of credits, maintain a passing grade point average, and pass the Reading and Mathematics Sunshine State Standards (SSS) portion of the Grade 10 FCAT. Students who meet these requirements, but do not pass the Grade 10

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FCAT, will receive a Certificate of Completion, which is not equivalent to a standard high school diploma. 2. The passing scores for the Grade 10 FCAT Reading and Mathematics SSS and Retake tests are determined by the State Board of Education and are as follows: 3. FCAT SSS Reading 5. 1926 (scale score of 300) or above 4. FCAT SSS Mathematics 6. 1889 (scale score of 300) or above

METHOD Design and Procedure The students with smart phones will have the parent sign a consent form giving the school district the right that allows use of the phone based on a 1 to 1 time-sharing basis. Each hour spent on the education site earns one hour of phone, text messaging and internet use. Advertisers who pay for the study will have push advertising rights and one-third access rights on a time and desktop basis. In the enterprise environment like Broward County there are fifty thousand computers in over two hundred locations , support, patches, content, revisions needs to be implemented from the central controlling servers that mange the servers based at the local school domain. The Smartphone needs to be in an environment where educational content can be pushed from a central area. This will also allow access to FCAT results and data that is now in the system and available to student, parent and teacher in the desk top platform. The mobile platform is thought to be next viral platform for advertising. The Google Adword payed search model has been proven by Google to deliver exponential revenue growth. Device makers and advertisers need to be involved with the mobile platform because of the viral

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nature that Google has demonstrated. The district and the researcher will monetize the other two thirds of the screen and time. The District will approve and advertisement and retain right to censor ads on a real time basis. This small size mobile platform will shape education and the

Smartphone seems to be the platform of choice. (Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, Charlie Rose, 2009) A local university education department with a wireless engineering department will develop content, controls and future development of propriety streaming and cloud computing proprietary learning, tracking of at-risk student that owned licensed by the University and local School district. The classroom math teacher will use the Smartphone, strategically educating the student falling behind. The noise level of the classroom often makes learning harder for the At-Risk

student. The portable nature of the Smartphone will let the student use the Smartphone in more locations and during travel time. The wireless Smartphone receives data from a cell tower or satellite eliminating the need for wired broadband by cable or DSL. (Google, ATT, Dell, Microsoft) and the university education and engineering graduate students will be managed by University Professors who will be the editor of record of the projects that develop proprietary content and control systems owned by the district and University. The student who has not learned his math facts learns the multiplication tables,

fractions decimal and practical mathematics in a tutorial style. The teacher will be able to have certain tutorials targeted at the student as a ranger directs a smart bomb to its target. The class room teacher will control the free time that is awarded to the At-Risk student base on hours spent viewing tutorials and benchmark assessments.

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The teacher on the ground is like that soldier who can target the individual student in need of private coaching. This is very important when you are working with the teenager who has second and third grade learning skills. This At-Risk student has been emotionally beat up to the point he does not function academically in the classroom. Disruptive behavior, sleeping and a constant listening to loud music is typical of this student. An example of this would be a student who never learned the basic math facts. The basic math factors are the multiplication tables, basic fraction and decimals. Most students have learned these skills by the sixth grade. The student is embarrassed about this and has been hiding this for three to five years. This device is perfect for targeting the individual with streaming entertaining instructional video that watched privately and repeatedly. The working hypothesis is will at-risk student given a smart phone whose content is controlled by the classroom teacher score higher on the FCAT math tests that are given by the school district than students without Smart phones. The null hypothesis is that Group B student

picked from the same school and classes but not given a Smartphone will have equal scores. Our alternative hypothesis is a higher number of students using Smart phones Group A students will receive a higher Math FCAT scores. The students in Group A with the smart phone will have higher scores based on the time they watch the tutorial that are of a tutorial softer learning communication. This will help reduce the family and lower (SES) challenges. We will reject the null hypothesis if group B has equal scores. Florida requires a 300 or above on the 10th grade math FCAT tests to earn a High School diploma. A certificate of completion is issued if a student does not path the math 10th grade FCAT test. Participants and Sampling

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The initial sample will consist of 60 students who are tenth and eleventh grade but have not passed the F-Cat math test with a score of over 300. The sample will be randomly split in half by drawing thirty names (Group A) students will receive the smart phones. The hours of usage will be collected be transmitted to the classroom teacher. Virtual counselor an existing file maker based data system currently in use by Broward County schools. The data in the system currently tracks mathematics and splits the FCAT math results into scores and the five strands. Virtual counselor also has many other capabilities for data tracking and farming. Teachers on special assignment can do the design and integration without an outside vendor. The principal will pick the sample of students and teachers from students who have not passed the F-Cat math exam at in on August 31 of the year the study. The study will be done at

a district center school. The population of student at this school has had issues and is behind other comparable male and female students of the same grade level in the district. This issue may be legal, emotional, parental, family or a low GPA that caused the placement of the student at the proposed center where the sample for group A and B will be picked. The requirement for entry is that the student is been retained twice or is being placed because of an issue at the neighborhood school in the district school. The sample will consist of a group of one hundred students. Thirty of the students randomly picked receive smart phones that have math tutoring and coaching software. The small amount of students makes it easier to get started with local funding. Instrumentation The use of Florida FCAT math scores will give this study high reliability and consistency as the dependent variable. This is extremely important if funding is to be given by large wireless vendors who will want early exposure to the mobile platform to drive traffic and develop market

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share. This research will be continued and compared with data in the district and Florida Department of Education. The teachers who administer this test are subject to loss of certification for failing to follow testing protocol. (Mathematics Sunshine, 2006). Teachers are not allowed in the same room if they have a personal relation taking the test. There are very strict controls that stay the dame each year. The instrumentation will be the state of Florida (FCAT) exam that administered by teachers at the center on March 9-19 or seven months after distribution of the phones. The test administered under the rules of procedure of the Florida Department of Education is the dependent variable. The validity of FCAT grade 10 math is questioned at times as to whether this instrument should decide the issuing of the high school diploma. The breakdown of the strands gives this instrument transparency that is helpful to the student and teacher in identifying problems. The use of high stakes testing will FCAT math 10 is made more valid when coaching by the Smartphone is available to all students at all times in multiple locations. FCAT Mathematics assesses the following skills at Grades 310: 1) Number Sense, Concepts, and Operations identifies operations (+, , , ) and the effects of operations determines estimates knows how numbers are represented and used Measurement recognizes measurements and units of measurement compares, contrasts, and converts measurements 2) Geometry and Spatial Sense describes, draws, identifies, and analyzes two- and threedimensional shapes visualizes and illustrates changes in shapes uses coordinate geometry 3) Algebraic Thinking describes, analyzes, and generalizes patterns, relations, and functions writes and uses expressions, equations, inequalities, graphs, and formulas

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4) Data Analysis and Probability analyzes, organizes, and interprets data identifies patterns and makes predictions, inferences, and valid conclusions uses probability and statistics A complete test is available at the Florida Department of Education. (Florida Department, 2005) (www.firn.edu/doe/sas/fcat/fcatsmpl.htm) Data Analysis The present research proposal is based on using a t-Test for independent means. This quantitative approach is being used so that a comparison can be made in Group A based on the number of hours spent using the smart phone for tutoring of individual group members. The range of hours spent on the educational content from highest to lowest can be determined. This will be helpful in the design of future studies. It is the researchers intention to be able to track individual times at the tutorial sites by each member of Group A. The hypothesis is that group A members who used the smart phone technology will have math FCAT mean scores that are higher and the difference is statistically significant .05 level and not due to chance. An advantage of a parametric test is that if there is a true difference it is better shown because of the t (called an obtained t) which then can be checked in a statistical table to determine if statistical significance has been reached. The t test for independent means is used because to see if this level of significance exists. If .05 level is level of significance is reached we will reject the null hypothesis and conclude that a real difference exists. More students passed the math F-Cat with a score of 300 and higher scores were indicative of more hours spent on the tutorial sites. SPSS will be used to compare the data from the two groups. The research question is whether the use of the Smartphone caused a difference in the students who pass the test. A onetailed t-test for independent means determine if the t value is statistically significant. Two is

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subtracted from the final number of both groups when we calculate the degrees of freedom because we are looking at two groups. I would not use a (ANCOVA) or (MANOVA) because there is no pretest. Summary

This Smartphone has the possibility of changing the course of an at-risk student. Its very unique properties make it highly suited to do what physical integration of the schools has failed to do. Internet access to You-Tube, Nutshell math and PHSCHOOL.com offer a wide

variety of streaming math tutorials for the smart phone functions. These functions also include wireless 802 capabilities, phone calling functions, and the sending and receiving of streaming video. A system of controlled content that will incentivize the student to go to the designated math sites for instruction will cover one-third the Smartphone desktop and initial screen. . The math tutorial sites coded and tracked on a daily basis and their usage is shared with classroom teachers and parents or Guardian of the student. The use of Virtual counselor and existing data

base will be use to track data for parents, teachers, and students. Existing levels of access can be used to make the current system integrate and be far more useful in further studies where Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) can be used to more effectively track successful student interventions and providers of content. Existing You-Tube tracking can be used to pay teachers who provide better creative more effective content based on views. This data farming is now available on You-Tube for teachers willing to work harder. The existing district should not have added expense. Extra compensation is distributed to teachers for content based on

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Adwords that will be purchased by existing advertisers familiar with the Google existing desktop model. What is so special to the Smartphone? What is unique is the way that advertiser will pay for the teenager views for space on the mobile desktop. Ninety-seven percent of Googles revenues come from advertising. Adwords (Eric Schmidt Google CEO Charlie Rose, 2009) is a program that can be incorporated into education to reward the best teachers with the most views. Revenue streams will develop to pay students to do their work. Google the internet

search company has proven that targeted advertising is big business. Google is current market capitalization exceeds 600 billion dollars. Googles main area of future interest is targeted marketing and cloud computing which Schmidt admits will dwarf the Microsoft windows desktop monopoly. Search in many ways in the new math. Being able to search and work across the network in an enterprise environment is what the knowledge worker (Waks L. J, 2005) of today. Many of the low skilled manual labor jobs have been lost to China, India and other emerging Asian countries. The jobs previously available are being lost to these countries. We need to develop not only computer literate students but also smart network savvy workers for the 21st century. The mobile phone will deregulate time and space controls and transfer from a locationbased social system to a person-based social system (Golotz & Locke, 2005). The smart phone is a device that can distract the student because of its size and functions such as text messaging, music and video capabilities. This device with more computing power than was used to launch the first men to the moon can also be a powerful instrument to help level the educational playing field.

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Reference Administrator. (2009). [GOOGLE ADWORDS]. Unpublished information. Barton, P. E., & Coley, R. J. (1996). Captive students: Education and training in Americas Prisons. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Census Scope. (2000). Population by RACE [Race and Ethnicity Selections, 1980-2000]. Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN). Eric Schmidt, Google CEO Charlie Rose. (Eric Schmidt speaks with Charlie Rose at the Celebration of Teaching and Learning conference in New York, NY on March 6, 2009). (2009, March 13). Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference [Television broadcast]. New York: You Tube/Google. Florida Department of Education. (2005). FCAT HANDBOOK Department of Education Web site: http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/releasepdf/06/FL06_Rel_G10M_TB_Cwf001.pdf Goldschmidt, P. (1997). 7he transition from high school to work: A longitudinal multilevel analysis. Unpublished master's thesis, University of California at Los Angeles. Golotz, P., & Locke, C. (2005). Thumbs Culture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society. Transactions Publishers, 4(3), 11-19.s Hammond L. D. (2007). The Flat Earth and Education: How Americas Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future. Educational Researcher, 36(6), 318-334. LeCompte, M., & Dworkin, G. A. (1991). Giving up on school--Student dropouts and teacher burnouts. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press. (Original work published 1991) Licoppe, C., & Heurtin, J. (2001). Managing ones availability to telephone communication through mobile phones: a French case study. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 5(2), 99-108.

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Mathematics Sunshine State Standards Test Book Grade 10, Released: August 2006 (1st ed., Vol. 1). (2006). (Original work published 2006) Retrieved August 1, 2006, from Florida Department of Education Web site: http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/releasepdf/06/ FL06_Rel_G10M_TB_Cwf001.pdf Pete Goldschmidt. (1999). When Can Schools Affect Dropout Behavior? A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis. America N Educational Research Journal, 36(4), 715-738.early. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 11(58), 773-783. Resouce for Educators (2005). The Administrator Assessment and School Performance (FCAT HandbookA Resource for Educators 2005 Florida Department of Education, pp. 1132). Tallahassee, FL: Author. Retrieved January 1, 2005, from Florida Department of Education Web site: (www.firn.edu/doe/sas/fcat/fcatsmpl.htm) Teachman, J. D., Paasch, K., & Carver, K. (1996). Social capital and dropping out of school Waks L. J. (2005). BROWN V BOARD, COMMON CITIZENSHIP, AND THE LIMITS OF CURRICULUM. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 94-128.