Santa Ana Is Model for Math Assessment

In a couple of years, some schoolchildren in Santa Ana will be answering math questions on computers and immediately receive personalized report cards in both English and Spanish.

UC Irvine researchers, financed by a $2.2-million grant from the National Science Foundation, will use Santa Ana schools as laboratories as they develop a computerized system to assess a child’s math ability. Results of the UCI study could prompt a new form of math testing for grade-school children nationwide, educators say.

The five-year grant to UCI, announced last week, will allow researchers to develop computer software for the program and use fourth- through eighth-graders in at least two Santa Ana schools, Franklin Elementary and Lathrop Intermediate, to test it.

Alan Hoffer, director of UCI’s department of education and one of the leaders of the project, said the program “will be an enormous help to teachers, who often must split their attention between a great many students at varying levels of knowledge. Students, on the other hand, will benefit from making improvements based on the reports, which can be taken home for parents to continue the learning process.”

Hoffer and Jean-Claude Falmagne, a professor in the UCI Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, are the researchers heading the project.

“The system will be easy to use,” said Falmagne. “The students log into the computer, enter their grade level and other basic information and are presented with a series of math problems. Each answer determines the next problem, until the computer has a fairly accurate picture of the student’s knowledge state.”

Once a student completes as few as 15 math questions, the computer would be able to issue a proficiency report, said Falmagne. The report would describe the student’s math strengths and weaknesses and would also suggest study remedies.

The computer program will be developed in several languages, including French and German, so that it could eventually be used internationally. A combined English-Spanish program is being developed initially because California and other parts of the United States have large numbers of Spanish-speaking students, he said.

Santa Ana Unified was selected as the study site for many reasons, including because the school district has a high percentage of Spanish-speaking students and parents, UCI officials said.