Submitted by Nancy P. Tkatch, Administrative Director, West Side Career and Technology Center
Note: The information in this profile represents 2013-14 unless otherwise indicated.
School Overview
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School Description
West Side Career and Technology Center (CTC) wants to better use technology to re-engage students, enhance instruction, provide flexible scheduling options, increase academic achievement, and provide an innovative learning experience that prepares its students for the 21st-century workplace. West Side CTC implemented a hybrid-learning pilot with one cluster of students to more closely align its career and technical programs with its academic programs and allow students to progress at their own pace.
Blended Learning Program
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Program Model
Program model: Station Rotation
Model description
Math and science classrooms are set up for a three-station in-class rotation and students rotate between the stations at the teacher’s discretion. One station is set up for direct instruction from the teacher, another station is set up for independent and/or collaborative learning, and a third station is set up for online learning.
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?
Students who are in the blended-learning program are grouped in “clusters” and spend up to two of their academic class periods in the Hybrid Learning environment. Students spend approximately 20 percent of their time using educational software.
Briefly describe the offline components of this blended-learning program.
Students receive direct instruction from the teacher at one of the rotations and work in a small collaborative student group on a project at another station. Collaborative projects typically span multiple days.
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 are responsible for linking the different learning stations for students. They receive data from the online content providers and use formal and informal assessment data on regular basis. The information allows teachers to group students both heterogeneously and homogeneously, depending on the lesson and goals. Teachers utilize mastery data to inform their instruction as well as to determine what work students need to work on with online content.
How does this blended-learning program fit into the rest of the students’ school day?
Hybrid learning is taught during students’ regular class periods and therefore is a seamless part of their school day.
What are the teachers’ roles and responsibilities in both the online and offline components of this blended-learning program?
The teachers are responsible for creating all aspects of the blended-learning program. They develop lessons for the direct instruction component, create collaborative activities and assign online content. They create a student agenda for students to access that provides a road map for their week ahead.
What other adults are involved in this blended-learning program (e.g., paraprofessionals, learning coaches, counselors) and what are their roles and responsibilities?
Teachers at West Side CTC have the support of an instructional coach provided through the local Intermediate Unit (IU18). The instructional coach is on-site regularly to help teachers implement the Hybrid Learning program successfully and provides support in terms of class activities, data-driven instruction, and classroom management.
Briefly describe the set-up of physical space for this blended-learning program.
The school has transformed regular classrooms to facilitate hybrid learning. Math and science classrooms have a designated area for direct small group instruction, independent learning, and collaborative work.
How are students grouped within this blended-learning program?
Teachers place students in rotation groups using both the data available from the online content providers and personal observation.
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 can control the pace at which they complete the assigned independent work. That said, all assignments have a due date, which means that students can only control their pace to a certain extent.
Describe the academic results of the program, using quantitative data where possible.
The school does not have academic data to share at this time.
Describe any other distinctive characteristics of this blended-learning program if they have not been captured above.
As a member of the Pennsylvania Hybrid Learning Institute (PA HLI), West Side CTC has a comprehensive and customized evaluation plan. The purpose of the evaluation plan is to provide information designed to improve educational programs and to demonstrate accountability to program objectives. PA HLI uses a rigorous and systematic process to evaluate whether new hybrid-school implementations are achieving their desired effects. In the PA HLI Evaluation Plan, every hybrid-learning task is tied to a specific desired outcome in order to track results. A program management analyst collects data through monthly visitations and observations, surveys of students, teachers and parents, and a variety comparative data. West Side CTC receives monthly status reports as well as quarterly program reviews in conjunction with its Intermediate Unit so it can work on any identified opportunities.
Have you or are you planning to scale your program model to more/other schools?
Yes.
Contact Information
Name: Nancy P. Tkatch
Title: Administrative Director, West Side Career and Technology Center
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.wsctc.net