Johns, a mentor of young people in Peckham, a district of London, states further that educational opportunities and job prospects are all directly affected by correct use of language.

He deplores the recent tendency of many young people of all races and backgrounds across London and other UK cities to squander their rich English language inheritance by speaking in a popular street slang.

Here at Merit Software, we design learning tools to help students’ master core academic skills.  Educators can easily use the online editions of Grammar Fitness, Paragraph Punch and Essay Punch programs to help students stay focused and interested in gaining the skills they need for academic and career success.

The web-based versions measure progress and tracks time-on-task for teachers and students.  Personal, expert support ensures that all users experience success.

To deal with this issue, some have called for the elimination of standardized tests.   However, we feel that accountability data is too important to stakeholders to drop completely.

Hopelessness about how to improve student achievement is one of the reasons teachers felt compelled to cheat on these standardized tests.

If teachers had a better way to know where students stood academically, if they had a better idea about the areas where their students needed help, if the teachers felt they had a chance to help all their students, then perhaps there would be less incentive to cheat.

And it goes without saying that if students received the evaluation, support, and direction they needed, their scores improve.

Teachers need useful, formative assessments to help them determine each student’s strengths and weaknesses.  Administrators need a way to know during the school year if their teachers are actually helping their students.  Students deserve to learn and achieve.

All groups need a partner to show them how this can be done.  This is where Merit Software fits in.

The research shows that if students make errors while trying answer questions, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information.

This study helps explain why teachers and students find Merit Software to be extremely effective as a curriculum supplement.

The design of Merit learning programs incorporates a variety of features that help students figure out answers to questions.

In particular, in Merit’s Basic English Fitness, Grammar Fitness and Vocabulary Fitness students learn essential English language concepts by finding common errors in sentences.

The software gives students multiple opportunities through different scenarios to answer questions. Built-in hints and tips help students while they work. In most questions learners are given an explanation to their answer, whether their response is right or wrong.

Furthermore, the Fitness programs are self-paced, and self-advancing. The programs progressively place students in the appropriate level of challenge.