CEI Learning Presentation

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a CEI Learning presentation. CEI Learning is a Reading intervention with reading and mathematics components. The presentation--organized by the Deputy Superintendent, Betty Burk and attended by Curriculum and Instruction Directors--was facilitated by Bonnie Leslie and Joann Price, CEI Learning President and Specialist, respectively. Copies of the powerpoint presentations, the audio of those presentations, hardware specifications and research are shared below. Of added benefit is feedback from Texas school districts using CEI Learning; those were obtained from a quick poll of my colleagues in the TCEA TEC-SIG organization, composed of technology integration directors/coordinators.

At the bottom of all this, I've also included some of my impressions from the meeting.

POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, RESEARCH, AND HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS

• Bonnie's introductory presentation
• Joann's presentation on the actual products
• Hardware specifications
• Essential Learning Systems Research (PDF)

DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDINGS

Please note that the audio recordings start a few seconds after each speaker introduces themselves.

• Deputy Superintendent's Betty Burk's Introduction and Purpose
• Bonnie's presentation
• Joann's presentation

FEEDBACK FROM TEXAS TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION DIRECTORS
(Identifying district information has been replaced with the word DISTRICT to protect confidentiality of districts)

We use it here in DISTRICT currently for our ESL kids. It was originally installed for our dyslexic kids, but we have a new program for that. We are not going to renew it next year as it is like $2000 for us and we are going to use Rosetta Stone for our ESL kids. Setup is easy. We have it on a server and just install the clients on the lab computers.

----

We've used it for many years (since 2000). Our analysis shows that it does provide immediate success but when we compare those students who used it in first and second grade with a control group, we see them at the same level a year or two down the road. We continue to use it at one campus as we have some teachers who believe in it and the principal is not wanting to remove it.

----

We have used it here at DISTRICT for a number of years...We retreated to the same model as used at DISTRICT, it would seem. Our teachers really like it and feel that the kids really benefit from it. I am still trying to find a way to make it work within Citrix so we would have XX number of users (limited to total # of licenses) able to use the program in any classroom at the teacher's discretion instead of being sent to a "special" room, with an aide.

----

We use CEI here at DISTRICT, we have for years. They seem to have really good results with the program. We have one lab of 8-9 computers, very small district, set up that is used solely for CEI with 2 aides to run it. This year we went to using a network version of it and have very few problems, the company is helpful with problems though...It was a nightmare at times when they were stand-alone versions. From what I can see, the kids really benefit from the program. I think one of the main downfalls is that we only have room and time for so many kids to use the program. Each group of 9 is in there for about 45 min a day. It is pretty intense work for them, but works really good.

----

We have been using CEI with struggling first grade students for about 5 years. We pair it with a number of other resources including Math Problem Solver and Destination Success. It has been very successful. The math specialists run the program. We have 30 licenses and are currenly using 20 of them because of staffing issues. The software is load directly from the CD to the machine. Students must sit on the same computer every day. The data is saved in the thaw space of each machine, not on the network.

----

I used to be a trainer and service consultant for this company back in its infancy (1993-1994). I was VERY impressed with the results of the software. I only serviced their out of state accounts (nothing in Texas)which included California, Arizona, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Floria. We had a lot of success with the software with the schools in Florida and also with some homeless missions and the prison system.

----

As far as CEI, We use ELS and CodeBreaker and the teachers like the program. We are happy with the results. As a techie I have had issues with CEI. It is easy to screw up the data during upgrades on their old software but they seem to have that fixed. Each application has its own data set for students. It would be easier to track their progress if we had one data set to assist us with vertical integration of our curriculum. I think this will be an issue for all of us if it is not already.

----

DISTRICT has used it for a number of years at elementary campuses. I don't know much about the effectiveness other than that they've continued to use the product. I suspect from a conversation with our CEI person that the effectiveness depends on the person running the program, if that person uses it to full advantage or not.

----

We used it at the Elementary School for at-risk students for several years. W paid 3k a year for the software licenses for 20 workstations. They upgraded the software often requiring tech support. I am the technology coordinator for the district. I thought the product was good educationally but over priced and sorta of a pain technically. They upgraded the software and we had problems with the sound which is a main component of their product. The computers were 1 year old....sorta a case of pushing the software in front of what most school had hardware wise. The elementary principal elected not to pay the 3k for the product this year. We are putting it towards My Reading Coach and Lexia products.

MY FEEDBACK

Some of the questions that came to mind:

• With limited access to technology, how does this approach to using technology move the District from its current level of technology to the Texas Education Agency's School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Chart's target technology level?
• If this were to be evaluated using the Levels of Technology Implementation (LOTI), this product would rank a level 1-Awareness. This is described in this way: The use of computers is generally one step removed from the classroom teacher (e.g., it occurs in integrated learning system labs, special computer-based pull-out programs, computer literacy classes, and central word processing labs). Computer based applications have little or no relevance to the individual teacher's instructional program.
  
• It is a very focused application of technology for which little research--except that commisioned by the vendor, which unfortunately, makes it suspect--has been done. Does this meet the research requirements needed?

On an unrelated point, the CEI President stated that the Read180 was a worthwhile program. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education commissioned research study determined that the Read180 program does not work. In fact, the researchers stated the following: Fourth grade reading products did not affect test scores by amounts that were statistically different from zero. Of course, it must be noted that CEI Learning's product was NOT included in this study.

It's difficult to offer specific feedback to CEI Learning's presentation. I'm not a reading expert. However, I welcome your feedback or insights on these types of products.