Case Study: Clear Creek Independent School District
Located south of Houston, Clear Creek Independent School District serves more than 41,000 students. In 2015, as members of the district leadership team recognized several academic and non-academic challenges across campuses. Despite consistently high averages on state test scores, the district found some Clear Creek students had persistent achievement gaps. They also found a majority of the students lacked the motivation and ownership needed to drive their own learning.
“Autonomy, mastery, and purpose. We do a lot of work around building the capacity within kids to want to do the learning.”
JEPSEY KIMBLE, PRINCIPAL AT CLEAR LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, CLEAR CREEK ISD
Located south of Houston, Clear Creek Independent School District serves more than 41,000 students. In 2015, as members of the district leadership team recognized several academic and non-academic challenges across campuses. Despite consistently high averages on state test scores, the district found some Clear Creek students had persistent achievement gaps. They also found a majority of the students lacked the motivation and ownership needed to drive their own learning.
With CA Group’s design and implementation support, Clear Creek transitioned away from their traditional model and began to pilot student-centered blended learning. Clear Creek’s Year One pilot at Clear Lake City Elementary School targeted these issues through personalized station rotations and competency-based progression pathways using student-friendly “I Can” statements. The Clear Creek team soon expanded the pilot to include two additional elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, allowing the program to impact all grades in the district.
The new blended learning approach builds on the district’s foundation of rigor and differentiation and focuses on personalized instruction, supported by technology, as a core strategy for improving student agency and academic performance. The new instructional model focuses on providing students with personalized small-group instruction tailored to address specific areas of need as determined by multiple high-quality assessments. Students drive their own learning by choosing specific stations they need and track progress toward their individual goals using data. The use of data also drives the goal setting process and teachers meet at least every other week to check in with students on their goals.
Case Study: Spring Branch Independent School District
Located west of Houston, Spring Branch Independent School District serves 35,000 students. In 2015, members of the district leadership team recognized academic gaps in both math and reading across the district that impacted students’ post-secondary readiness. Campus and district leaders attribute this lack of readiness to academic gaps that compound throughout the K–12 years and low levels of academic ownership and agency.
“When you talk to an elementary student and they can actually tell you, ‘This is what I’m doing. This is why I am doing it. I know what to do next.’ — that’s what it’s truly about.”
ROY MOORE, PRINCIPAL AT NOTTINGHAM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SPRING BRANCH ISD
Located west of Houston, Spring Branch Independent School District serves 35,000 students. In 2015, members of the district leadership team recognized academic gaps in both math and reading across the district that impacted students’ post-secondary readiness. Campus and district leaders attribute this lack of readiness to academic gaps that compound throughout the K–12 years and low levels of academic ownership and agency.
With CA Group’s support, Spring Branch launched their student-centered blended learning pilots to increase data transparency and encourage purposeful student choice so that students could simultaneously close math and reading gaps and develop the agency needed to drive their own learning. At each of the sites that CA Group supported, the teams are focused on improving data culture practices, increasing agency through ownership and goal setting, and instituting planning practices to ensure students have access to rigorous, deeper learning opportunities. The elementary pilot classrooms use data to increase frequency of flexible instructional groupings, rigorous personalized station activities and goal setting conversations to help student close academic gaps and develop agency. At the middle school, teachers in pilot classrooms focus on refining their assessment practices so they have a holistic picture of where each student is and can share that data with students. Learning modalities include strategic flexible instructional groupings, self-directed assignments through individualized work stations and online programs.
The district’s personalized learning pilots are designed to facilitate a shift from one-size-fits-all instruction toward student-centered, personalized learning and develop student agency that will serve learners long after they graduate.
Case Study: Ysleta Independent School District
Located in El Paso, Ysleta Independent School District serves more than 41,000 students. In 2015, members of the district leadership team recognized significant gaps in reading levels from the elementary to secondary levels. The gap was particularly wide among English Language Learners, who were simultaneously learning both English and Spanish languages. Campus leaders were also concerned about student engagement and students’ ability to articulate the purpose of their learning.
“The students are confident. They can communicate what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they are making progress.”
NORMA OSUNA, PRINCIPAL AT YSLETA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, YSLETA ISD
Located in El Paso, Ysleta Independent School District serves more than 41,000 students. In 2015, members of the district leadership team recognized significant gaps in reading levels from the elementary to secondary levels. The gap was particularly wide among English Language Learners, who were simultaneously learning both English and Spanish languages. Campus leaders were also concerned about student engagement and students’ ability to articulate the purpose of their learning.
The district’s pilot was designed to facilitate a shift from whole-group, traditional instruction to student-centered, personalized learning to improve academic outcomes, increase ownership, and build lifelong learners. With CA Group’s support, the district launched their student centered blended learning pilots with a focus on data-driven instruction, rigor, and building student agency through increased ownership and engagement. At Ysleta’s Year One elementary school pilots at Pasodale and Ysleta Elementary Schools, students now receive an on-grade level mini lesson for the day, then engage in a combination of individualized station work, collaborative standards-based activities, strategic small group lessons with the teacher, and self-directed work on online content to support their mastery of grade level standards. Students choose their own station work based on the goals they have set with teachers.
With CA Group’s support, Ysleta scaled its model to middle school in Year Two, where the focus was improved data-driven instruction practices to drive small group instruction and personalized station work for students. Over three years of implementation, Ysleta has successfully scaled to eight campuses, reached more than 3,000 students, and built significant internal systems and human capital to support this work in the years to come.