The C.A. Donehoo Elementary School enrolls 273 preK-5 students in the blue-collar community of Gadsden, AL, pop. 40,000.Donehoo's student population is 95 percent African-American and 1 percent Hispanic, with 88 percent of students on free and reduced lunch.Donehoo belongs to a district of 7,000 students enrolled in eight elementary, three middle, and three high schools. Overall, the district student population is 50 percent white, 40 percent black, and 10 percent Hispanic.

C.A.Donehoo's principal, Cynthina Woods, saw disappointing SAT-9 scores in 2002. She reports that her third-graders scored at 42 percent in reading, 41 percent in language arts, and 49 percent in math. Her fifth graders scored at 26 percent in reading and 28 percent in math. Woods was dissatisfied with the test preparation program in use at her school, both because of students' scores and because it wasn't user-friendly for teachers. The program was long and cumbersome, Woods said, didn't offer strategies or practices for improvement, didn't test frequently enough, and didn't provide ongoing evaluation of skills. She needed a new solution. She found one in ThinkLink's PAS system.

Woods had heard through word-of mouth that another school in her district was using PAS and having notable success with it. Then she attended a conference where she visited the ThinkLink booth and took a look for herself. Her immediate reaction?

"It was user-friendly," she said. "It practiced the items we needed, and was correlated to our standards." She was pleased to see that PAS offered three benchmark tests through the school year, as well as good individual planning for students, and quick results. She also liked the option of students being able to take the tests on paper or on the computer. PAS had everything she needed. But would it "pass the test" with the people who would actually be using it: her teachers?

"They want it every year now," she said. And student scores confirmed the positive reviews. The third-graders who scored at 42 percent in reading in 2002 and dropped to 32 percent in 2003 raised their scores to 45 percent in 2004, the first year that PAS was in use at Donehoo. In language arts, the third-graders went from 41 percent in '02 to 49 percent in '03, then up to 59 percent in '04, with PAS. Their most dramatic improvement saw their math scores go from 49 percent in '02 down to 28 percent in '03, then leap to 57 percent in 04. Donehoo's fifth-graders saw similar improvement. Their reading scores were 26 percent in '02, 37 percent in '03, and 46 percent in '04. Math scores moved from 28 percent in '02 slightly downward to 24 percent in '03, then bounded up to 58 percent in '04.

In their second full year of using the PAS system, Woods says, "we can see the gain because we can see where students are and plan lessons based on the weaknesses and strengths for individual students." Woods firmly attributes her students' improvements to ThinkLink's program. In addition to the successful methodology of the program itself, Woods has praise for ThinkLink's ongoing assistance and support. "They give us wonderful feedback," she said.

All the elementary and middle schools in Woods' district are now using PAS, and all with positive results.