Walch Education :: Accuplacer iTunes U

New Walch Program Helps to Prepare Students for College

November 2010 Walch Education, a leading publisher of educational materials, is partnering with Apple and the Maine International Center for Digital Learning (MICDL) to develop, pilot and distribute new instructional materials for teachers, based on their students’ Accuplacer ® scores. The College Board’s Accuplacer ® tests, given to high school juniors and seniors and incoming college freshman, help academic advisors and counselors to determine a student’s course selection in college.

“We’re building something that’s quite innovative” notes Walch Education’s Vice President of Education, Jill Rosenblum . “When students struggle with the Accuplacer ®, they are often placed in non-credit-bearing, remedial courses in college. This in turn increases the likelihood that students will fail to graduate, which has persistent, negative implications for their careers.”

Jill went on to emphasize that “in Maine, for example, 75% of our students will find themselves taking remedial college math courses if they don’t improve their math skills while they’re still in high school. Walch is designing a program that supports teachers with customized math instruction to help the students improve their mathematics performance and lessen the need for remediation when they get to college.”

The new program will consist of six instructional modules addressing:

Operations with Whole Numbers and Fractions
Operations with Decimals and Percents
Arithmetic Applications and Problem Solving
Operations with Integers and Rational Numbers
Operations with Algebraic Expressions
Solving Equations, Inequalities, and Word Problems

Based on a high school junior’s Accuplacer® results, his or her teacher can use these modules to provide tailored instruction focusing on specific skills and content.

These six modules will initially be offered free of charge to mathematics teachers in Maine via Apple’s iTunes U. The materials are being developed in late 2010, will be piloted and refined during the spring of 2011, and will be available as downloads for the 2011-2012 academic year. Development costs for the program are being funded in part by the Davis Family Foundation , based in Falmouth, ME.

If you would like to be notified when the modules are available on iTunes U, please send us an email with ACCUPLACER in the subject line to educate@walch.com

iTunes U is available in the iTunes store. Need iTunes? Download it for free here.