TNC
12-14-2004, 08:19 PM
06:34 PM MST on Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Robbie Johnson
Idaho's NewsChannel 7
BOISE -- Idaho inmates are in prison because they broke the law, but now they are helping to break new ground in the classroom.
Their efforts are adding up to better testing techniques for elementary school mathematics.
Assessing math skills for younger grades often takes more than just a paper and pen. But this new test needed the help of criminals to get put together.
They may not be Santa’s little elves, but these Idaho inmates are busy working on a present for Idaho teachers and students.
The offenders are putting the pages together on a new math kit that will help Idaho teachers test kindergarten through second grade students.
“We’ve had upwards of 30 inmates employed and upwards of a hundred workers on this project since it started,” said Martin Thomas with Idaho Correctional Industries.
The project started in early November and the assignment was to make more than 2,600 kits, and have them in schools after the Christmas holiday break.
"We manufactured the print part and that's pretty much what we did in this kit and the labor to assemble the kit," Thomas said.
The final touches are nearly complete, and thanks the inmate labor, the cost for each kit is just $72 dollars, much less than if a private company did the job.
The kit will measure student thought-processes in a way that has not been available to Idaho teachers before, by using things like geometric shapes and spinners.
"This actually gives the teacher a window into their children's thinking, so we can make instructional decisions based on what individual students in our classroom know," said Lucy Hahn, one of the kit’s developers.
The math kit is a version of a test used in Mississippi, where offenders also helped put them together.
Here in Idaho, it will go a long way in improving student math skills and allow inmates a chance to give a little something back.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the kids in the schools to have things like this, because we never had this kind of stuff growing up," said inmate Kyle Koepnick.
The tests are designed help prepare students for the Idaho standards achievement tests which begin in second grade. The kits will go to every elementary school in Idaho.
Robbie Johnson
Idaho's NewsChannel 7
BOISE -- Idaho inmates are in prison because they broke the law, but now they are helping to break new ground in the classroom.
Their efforts are adding up to better testing techniques for elementary school mathematics.
Assessing math skills for younger grades often takes more than just a paper and pen. But this new test needed the help of criminals to get put together.
They may not be Santa’s little elves, but these Idaho inmates are busy working on a present for Idaho teachers and students.
The offenders are putting the pages together on a new math kit that will help Idaho teachers test kindergarten through second grade students.
“We’ve had upwards of 30 inmates employed and upwards of a hundred workers on this project since it started,” said Martin Thomas with Idaho Correctional Industries.
The project started in early November and the assignment was to make more than 2,600 kits, and have them in schools after the Christmas holiday break.
"We manufactured the print part and that's pretty much what we did in this kit and the labor to assemble the kit," Thomas said.
The final touches are nearly complete, and thanks the inmate labor, the cost for each kit is just $72 dollars, much less than if a private company did the job.
The kit will measure student thought-processes in a way that has not been available to Idaho teachers before, by using things like geometric shapes and spinners.
"This actually gives the teacher a window into their children's thinking, so we can make instructional decisions based on what individual students in our classroom know," said Lucy Hahn, one of the kit’s developers.
The math kit is a version of a test used in Mississippi, where offenders also helped put them together.
Here in Idaho, it will go a long way in improving student math skills and allow inmates a chance to give a little something back.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the kids in the schools to have things like this, because we never had this kind of stuff growing up," said inmate Kyle Koepnick.
The tests are designed help prepare students for the Idaho standards achievement tests which begin in second grade. The kits will go to every elementary school in Idaho.