Submitted by Erika Schlichter, Director of Educational Services 6-12
Note: The information in this profile represents 2012-13 unless otherwise indicated.
School Overview
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School Description
Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 (Kaneland) in northern Illinois has one high school serving approximately 1,300 students. Rooted firmly in the belief that all students should graduate college-and-career-ready, Kaneland wanted to ensure that every interested eleventh-grade student had access to an ACT test preparation course.
The district wanted an online test preparation course that would not only review reading, writing, and math concepts, but also teach test-taking strategies. They needed a program that would capitalize on student strengths and fill in students’ unique content-knowledge gaps. The district explored several delivery systems and concluded that the one they already used for credit recovery—Edgenuity—fit their needs.
Blended Learning Program
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Program Model
Program model: Flex
Model description
Kaneland implements Edgenuity courses for ACT preparation and credit recovery. Students work online in a computer lab, progressing through their prescribed coursework at the discretion of the Edgenuity platform. Meanwhile, teachers provide face-to-face tutoring and small-group instruction to enrich online content.
Program Description
How much time do students spend on campus in this blended-learning program? How much of this time do students spend learning online or with educational software?
Edgenuity ACT Virtual Tutor courses are available to students in the computer lab four times per week for 40 minutes prior to the start of school. The credit-recovery lab is available Monday through Friday from 7:35 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Students in the credit-recovery program are assigned a 50-minute period in their schedule to access their Edgenuity course and spend the rest of their school day in a traditional classroom engaged in traditional instruction.
Briefly describe the offline components of this blended-learning program.
In the ACT preparation lab, teachers answer questions and provide individual face-to-face tutoring while students work online. After students complete their online work, content area teachers teach small-group mini-lessons on difficult concepts and interact one-on-one with students. In the credit-recovery lab, certified teachers meet with students to discuss progress and performance. If students have difficulty mastering content, teachers offer face-to-face individual tutoring.
In addition, a summer school option for credit recovery was piloted for the first time in summer 2013. In conjunction with Edgenuity’s online content, the summer school option includes individual and small group face-to-face instruction.
How are the online and offline components of the program connected to provide an integrated learning experience for students? How do data from different learning modalities inform each other?
Teachers involved in the ACT preparation and/or credit-recovery programs use online data primarily to monitor student progress. Students are prescribed coursework in the ACT preparation program based on areas they struggled on in the ACT pre-assessment and then teachers can monitor student progress through the coursework and provide individual or small-group instruction for students who are struggling or aren’t progressing. Teachers use online data the same way in the credit-recovery program as they not only ensure student progress but also monitor student progress and identify which students are struggling so that they can provide those students with extra support and instruction.
How does this blended-learning program fit into the rest of the students’ school day?
Monday through Thursday, before the start of school, students work on their ACT Virtual Tutor courses in a computer lab for 40 minutes. After the morning online session, certified teachers provide small-group instruction to review concepts and skills. Students in the credit-recovery program are scheduled for one, 50-minute period when they access their Edgenuity course in the computer lab. The period students are in the computer lab varies based on students’ individual schedules.
What are the teachers’ roles and responsibilities in both the online and offline components of this blended-learning program?
Kaneland assigned the heads of the Math and English Departments to supervise the ACT preparation course computer lab. In the lab, the department heads walk around the room to answer questions and clarify content. Content area teachers from each department are responsible for teaching small group mini-lessons on difficult concepts and the application of skills.
Three certified teachers monitor students while they work online in the credit-recovery lab. Each week, teachers pull data from Edgenuity’s learning management system and worked with students to establish pacing goals.
What other adults are involved in this blended-learning program (e.g., paraprofessionals, learning coaches, counselors) and what are their roles and responsibilities?
Kaneland assigned the RTI Facilitator, Ryan Malo, to act as the ACT program coordinator. The RTI facilitator regularly capitalizes on Edgenuity’s learning management system to monitor students’ attendance and performance data.
Counselor Erin Shore oversees the credit-recovery program and offers academic counseling. Shore collaborates with teachers to ensure that students are supported. Each week, Shore pulls data from Edgenuity’s dashboard to make sure students remain on the ideal pace.
In 2013, a summer credit-recovery program was implemented to extend the school-year option. This program was run by teacher Richard Zabelin, and addressed the areas of English and math. Zabelin monitored student data and pacing to ensure course completion.
Briefly describe the set-up of physical space for this blended-learning program.
Students in the ACT preparation and the credit-recovery programs use desktop computers. Typically, computers are stationed at the perimeter of the room. In some rooms, additional rows of computers are created at the center of the room.
How are students grouped within this blended-learning program?
In the ACT prep program, students are placed in the program based on an ACT pre-assessment they take at the beginning of the school year, but once in the program, students aren’t grouped together for the most part as each student has unique areas that they need to work on and thus progress through their coursework individually.
The same is true for students in the credit-recovery program, as they have specific areas they need to work on and thus are not grouped together for the most part. The only grouping that takes place occurs when teachers look for commonalities in which students are struggling with particular concepts and, for efficiency’s sake, try to group students with similar struggles together for the breakout sessions.
Do students have some element of control over the pacing of their learning? Are students tied to a semester-based course schedule or can they complete courses at any time? Briefly describe any requirements or benchmarks in place to ensure student progress.
Students do have control over the pacing of their learning as they are not tied to semester-based course schedules and can complete courses as quickly or as slowly as they want to, for the most part. The school allows students to move through coursework as quickly as they like by streamlining the coursework and ensuring that once students complete their lessons they can quickly move on to the next lesson without having to wait for others to catch up.
At the same time, the school also allows students to move as slowly as they want, within reason. Teachers do monitor students’ progress and when they see students who are in danger of falling way behind or are stuck on a particular lesson, they have structured support in place to help those students catch up.
Describe the academic results of the program, using quantitative data where possible.
The academic results of the ACT prep program are reflected in the ACT data from the grade 11 student administration of the ACT in April 2013. The academic results of the credit-recovery program are reflected in student successful completion rates, as well as the graduation rate.
ACT achievement for individual students, as well as collective results for a school, are influenced by many factors, which were not measured. However, one variable—the ACT Prep course—was a new program and correlates to positive results.
ACT English – 75% met the college readiness benchmark (CRB), increase of 9%
ACT Math – 49% met the CRB, increase of 4%
ACT Reading – 62% met the CRB, increase of 18%
ACT Science – 41% met the CRB, increase of 13%
Credit-recovery achievement is measured by successful completion of coursework. Coursework for credit recovery was completed both during the school year and during a summer school program. The summer school program results were as follows. In 2012–13, 23 students completed coursework in the areas of: Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, English 9, English 10, and English 11. These students recorded a 100% completion rate and a 100% pass rate.
Credit-recovery achievement can also be measured by graduation rate, as on-time recovery of credit allows students to graduate with their class, a characteristic of the way that Illinois calculates graduation rate. Though Kaneland’s graduation rate has maintained at very high rates over time, we did see a rise with the graduating class of 2013. The graduation rate for 2013 was recorded at 97.4%, an increase of 5.7%.
Have you or are you planning to scale your program model to more/other schools?
The school has no plans to scale its program at this time.
Contact Information
Name: Erika Schlichter
Title: Director of Educational Services 6-12
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.kaneland.org