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Successful school program attracts more government funding

November 17, 2006

QuickSmart.thumb.JPGResearch supporting an intervention program that has helped more than 600 middle-school students to improve their basic reading and calculating skills has just received a further grant of $78,000 from the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST).

About 300 students in Years 5 to 8 at more than 20 schools throughout northern NSW and the Northern Territory are currently benefiting from the program, called “QuickSmart”. Over the past six years, “QuickSmart” has received about $800,000 in funding, including $475,000 earlier this year from State and Federal governments.

The recent DEST grant went to Professor John Pegg and Dr Lorraine Graham in the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) based at The University of New England. Awarded under the 2007 Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Scheme, it will enable researchers to draw on experiences in the Northern Territory to improve the basic mathematics skills of Indigenous students in Years 5 and 6.

A group of experienced teachers and consultants from northern NSW visited UNE last week to discuss future directions for the “QuickSmart” program with SiMERR staff. One of the teachers – Lyn Alder, a support teacher at Orara High School in Coffs Harbour – said: “Since our involvement with the ‘QuickSmart’ program, the students at Orara High have improved significantly in their State-wide testing results.”

The “QuickSmart” program is designed to enhance students’ fluency in reading and basic mathematics. It focuses on accuracy, the use of efficient strategies (rather than inefficient ones, like counting on fingers), understanding, and the automatic application of basic skills.

Dr Graham, a project director for “QuickSmart”, said that students generally experienced “significant academic gains” after six months in the program. “It’s as if they were using clear and well-travelled pathways to understand and to remember,” she added.

Professor Pegg, the Director of SiMERR, said that last week’s meeting had planned procedures that would enable schools to implement “QuickSmart” with large cohorts of students.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows (from left) Lyn Alder (from Orara High, Coffs Harbour), Mary Walsh (from Mary Help of Christians, Sawtell) Anne Bellert (from the Catholic Education Office, Lismore), and Dr Lorraine Graham (SiMERR) at last week's "QuickSmart" meeting.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 17, 2006 05:15 PM