Welcome Back WHS for SY 2011-2012 !

Welcome Back to another year of "Learning to Read and Reading to Learn" here at Waipahu High School ! Parents and Students, here are some valuable tips for you as you continue to use Teenbiz to improve your reading:

Waipahu High Wins High Achievers Contest !

2010 Achieve 3000 Leadership Conference
(from left-right)
Maggie Cox - BOE Member
Saki Dodelson - CEO Achieve 3000 Inc.
Cindy Arakaki - WHS Language Arts Teacher
Frances Alcantara - WHS Student Winner
Dr Eileen Clarke - BOE Member
Breene Harimoto - BOE Member
Sheldon Oshio - Waipahu Complex Area Sup

Congratulations to Frances Alcantara, a senior at Waipahu High School for winning the Hawaii High Achiever Award representing the Waipahu Complex Area Schools. Frances, along with her Language Arts teacher Mrs Cindy Arakaki received the special awards at the Achieve 3000's 2010 Hawaii Leadership Conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel on February 4, 2010.

This award went to only one class in each complex area whose students completed the most KidBiz/TeenBiz multiple choice news activities from November 17, 2009 to December 20, 2009--with average first try scores of 75% or greater. Frances was the highest performing student in Ms Arakaki's Period 2 class ! Congrats again to Frances and Ms Arakaki's Period 2 class, you made Waipahu High & Waipahu Community very proud !

Achieve 3000 Final Contest of the Year !

You've paved a road of success this year...now get into the exit lane for Achieve3000's final contest!

It's proven that the more students use TeenBiz, the more their reading skills improve. At the Exit to Excellence, you'll find a world of opportunity before you.

Students have already been enrolled in Exit to Excellence and you don't need to do anything but participate. Just complete at least eight multiple choice news activities from Monday, March 1st, until Saturday, April 10th. (These are the activities that come after the article of the day - part of step 3. Each activity has eight questions.)

To be sure you put forth your very best efforts, we're giving out extra points for high scores. Every time a student does an activity, your class earns a point. For every score of 75%, the class earns two points. And for every score of 88% or higher, the class earns three points! The class with the most points (on average, per student) wins a Party-in-a-Package, delivered to your school about 3 weeks after the contest is over.

Achieve3000 will give you the drive to take on the world!

WHS Lexile Performance from Pre-Test to Interim Test

Back in August 2009 when our students took the Teenbiz Pre-Test compared to when our students took the Teenbiz Interim Test in January 2010, as a school, we had an average Lexile gain of +46 points (+5%) and a reading level gain of +.9 (+14.5%).

Congrats Waipahu ! Let's continue to IMPROVE !!!

Stats as of 2/3/2010...

Total Students who have taken two tests: 1756

Pre-Test (taken August 2009):
Avg Reading Level: 6.2
Avg Lexile: 939L

Interim-Test (taken January 2010):
Avg Reading Level: 7.1
Avg Lexile: 985L

FREE MP3 Contest for the Winter Break !

Teenbiz Contest & Rewards !

Congrats to all 1083 WHS students who reached the semester goal of at least 40 activities for Teenbiz as of Dec.10 ! Of these students, Na’au Pono will be rewarding the TOP 500 average 1st try scorers with a McDonald’s treat through your English Teachers. We would also like to congratulate the TOP 3 scorers for Teenbiz during the 1st Semester: they are Rochelle Pagaduan, Deoneco Butler, and Jared Yoshinaga.

FREE MP3 Player ! If you log on to Teenbiz from December 24th and January 3rd and complete at least five activities with scores above 60%, you’ll have a chance to win a FREE MP3 Player ! C’mon gang, let’s Continue to improve our reading as we strive to "Learn to Read and Read to Learn" !

Cane Tassel Article (Jun2009) "Lexile Growth in Achieve Surpasses Expectations"

Content of Article:
Achieve3000 has become an integral part of English classes since its introduction to students at the beginning of January 2009. Teachers used the first level set assessment to determine if students had any present deficiencies in reading comprehension. As students complete their minimum of 40 article assignments goals and a second level set assessment, it is expected that student reading levels eventually improve.

Teachers have observed growth in comprehension, both great and small, although some declining scores in comprehension were due to students’ lack of seriousness. Chris Doyle, the Curriculum and Implementation Manager, presented the school with the facts: Waipahu students spent 48,722 hours on Achieve3000, and 87 percent of students logged on outside of school, accumulating a total of 34,506 log-ins since the program began. From August 10, 2008 to May 23, 2009, students completed 103,579 activities. Most important to our teachers and staff is learning that when,"comparing summative assessment scores, students demonstrated a mean gain of 66.4 percent in Lexile points." Students surpassed the expected percentage growth by 38.2 percent.

" Participating in the Achieve3000 program is helping me in my reading," said junior Geraldine Gasmen. "The stories [introduced] me to new topics and vocabulary words that I never knew before."

With exposure to contemporary non-fiction articles, students are preparing for the Hawaii State Assessment (HSA) with activity questions that have a similar style to the HSA. Acheive3000 lacks fiction readings, however, which would appeal to students and also prepare them in greater depths for different types of reading.

During the year, English teachers and students encountered difficulties with Achieve3000. The save function was not available on some articles, and dissatisfaction grew as interesting articles had no activity button. The program’s adjustment to the level set after the required consecutive number of 100 percents was not always consistent. Some teachers would like assessment tools that sort and orgranize specifically.

The common obstacle faced is student trust. "[Acheive3000] is no different from class work. We read, answer questions and write," said junior Matthew Melton.

With Waipahu’s first year with Achieve3000, teachers see potential with this program and will be working with Doyle to improve student and teacher usage and comprehension growth.