Pearson Knowledge Technologies Research Shows Student Practice With Online Summarization Tool Improves Writing and Reading Skills
Five-Year Research Study at University of Colorado at Boulder
Demonstrates Academic Value of Summary Street, Automated Reading and
Writing Evaluation Tool
BOULDER, Colo. - Dec. 12, 2006
- Pearson Knowledge Technologies today announced results
of research
revealing that the use of Summary Street, the company's automated tool
to evaluate the content of students' summaries, builds student reading
comprehension and writing skills. The results of the research, conducted
by the University of Colorado at Boulder, are published in a white
paper, "Building Student Summarization, Writing and Reading
Comprehension Skills With Guided Practice and Automated Feedback."
"We collaborated with the University of Colorado at Boulder on
this study because we recognize the critical importance of contributing
to the research base of scientific evidence supporting the ways that
online tools are helping to improve academic achievement," said
Lynn Streeter, president, Pearson Knowledge Technologies. "The
results of this five-year study of the use of Summary Street by
elementary and middle school students demonstrate that online practice
of summarizing - with immediate, quality feedback - results in marked
improvement in student literacy skills."
Researchers from the University of Colorado Institute of Cognitive
Science evaluated Summary Street over the course of a five-year study
funded by the Interagency Education Research Initiative, a collaborative
effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department
of Education and the National Institutes of Health.
In the research, the automated tool measurably increased students'
summarization, general writing, and reading comprehension skills.
In one study, after exposing students of mixed ability to only four
weeks of practice with Summary Street, the students improved their
content summary scores by more than 30 percent. When the performance of
low- and medium-ability students was considered, the improvement in
summarization skills was equivalent to one grade level in elementary
school. In addition, the study showed that students include 50 percent
more relevant content in their summaries after using Summary Street in
their schoolwork.
With Summary Street, students use their own words to write summaries of
text they have read and receive instant feedback. Their work is measured
by Pearson's state-of-the-art Knowledge Analysis Technologies™
(KAT) engine, which automatically evaluates the meaning of text by
examining whole passages. The technology evaluates writing as
accurately as skilled human graders, agreeing with them more often than
they agree with each other. Summary Street measures student writing by
comparing it with the actual text, evaluating it based on content
knowledge as well as writing mechanics, redundancy and relevancy. Using
Summary Street, teachers can select texts from content areas such as
science, social studies and history. They receive automated reports
showing individual student progress as well as class results and have
access to all revisions of student writing.
Summary Street includes more than 100 reading passages from across the
curriculum, including selected readings from Pearson Prentice Hall's
middle grades textbook programs, "Science Explorer" and
"World Studies." Summary Street's core features are included
in WriteToLearn™, Pearson Knowledge Technologies' complete writing
skills and reading comprehension development tool. In WriteToLearn,
Summary Street's capabilities have been paired with Pearson Knowledge
Technologies' essay-writing component to provide students with
comprehensive reading and writing practice.
The complete white paper is available at
www.PearsonKT.com/resPubSSt.shtml.
About Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Pearson Knowledge Technologies is the developer of products and services
based on a unique automated text analysis technology that evaluates the
meaning of whole passages. The company's Knowledge Analysis Technologies
(KAT) engine immediately measures writing and content in a way that
simulates a skilled human grader and encourages better subject
knowledge. Pearson Knowledge Technologies' writing and reading skills
products, such as WriteToLearn, Intelligent Essay Assessor™ and
Summary
Street, use the KAT engine to help improve writing, reading and
comprehension skills as well as build content knowledge for education
and other markets.
Pearson Knowledge Technologies is a business unit of Pearson Education,
the
world's largest integrated education company, which in turn is part of
Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company. Pearson's other
primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin
Group.
For more information, press only:
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-325-9935, lwolfe@lwolfe.com
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