Salado Elementary School in the East Central Independent School District has joined a handful of other districts across the state in recent years in trying a unique approach for teachers and students that gives children control of how they want to learn certain subjects.
Normally, teachers familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of state standards, then translate them into lesson plans before providing the content to students. Lesson plans are tweaked as the year progresses to focus on areas where most students in a class are struggling.
But under that model, students who fall behind might stay behind for the whole year, and others who are moving more quickly than their peers might stagnate.
Jennifer Salinas, a first-grade teacher at Salado, saw problems with the old way of doing things first-hand.
“When you have struggling learners, who are always being … spoken above because they don’t understand, then you’re losing them the whole time. So they’re not engaged in their learning,” she said. “And you have your higher learners who are bored, and they’re not engaged because they know how to do that skill.”
The newer approach, known as blended learning, uses technology to pull back the curtain on the standards for students by letting them see exactly what they are expected to be learning and giving them a level of control over how to get there.
“It breaks down their math skills into different areas,” Angela Elston, another teacher at Salado Elementary School, said. “So they understand, like, I’m really good at algebraic reasoning, but I’m not so good at measurement.”
Students in every grade will be using the blended learning approach starting next year, when sixth grade is added. Salado also has a dual language school that will not adopt the blending learning method.
According to administrators and teachers, that level of control has unlocked potential for thousands of students across the state, leading to higher achievement scores and more engaging classroom experiences. One student in the Cisco Independent School District, in North Texas, that had never passed a standardized test before did so after his school shifted to blended learning in 2016, according to an analysis of the program.
“Before, I didn’t see students having that understanding of themselves,” Elston said. “They’re coming to really understand what their strengths and weaknesses are.”
Salinas said student engagement and competence are being built in students “because they can see the fix … and are excited to continue learning. They want to learn; they don’t want to be bored at school or feel like they’re not successful.”
The Charles Butt Foundation, a nonprofit focused on education, has funded blended learning in two cohorts of schools starting in 2016 with millions of dollars. The University of Texas at Austin also offers professional development courses on the approach.
According to the foundation, 98% of participating schools in the first year met academic standards, and more than half of campuses received at least one academic distinction.
Students choosing their path
The process played out in a fourth-grade Salado Elementary classroom in March during math workstations, one part of the day.
Christian Menendez pulled up his lowest scores from a diagnostic he took earlier in the week on his computer. As part of his “playlist,” which charts his progress and goals for the year against the backdrop of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, he pointed to geometry.
“My geometry is 560, and my goal is to bring it up to 580,” he said, explaining that each correct answer can increase a score by ten points.
Once students master a skill, they can continue practicing with harder questions, or move on to other skills during the allotted time each class period.
Clicking further, he saw lessons and exercises to master the various building blocks of the state standards.
Sometimes, Christian said he would miss answers on purpose to ensure he understood the process correctly since the correct approach would pop up.
Christian, who has excelled beyond his grade level in several areas, was working on different assignments than neighboring students, who were also working on playlists toward other goals.
Joanie Brillant, a fourth-grade teacher on the job for 26 years, said autonomy is critical.
“It’s an individualized plan. It’s for them. It’s not something we’re doing as a class,” she said. “It’s based on the results of their assessment, the skills that they have on their playlist, so, you know, it’s on you. This is what you need. I’m not telling you you need this to be able to move on, to move forward, and I think that has been very successful for the students.”
According to district officials, the practice is primarily being used in math at Salado, but the critical student and data-driven approach also translates into other subjects, including literacy.
Other parts of the schedule include guided and independent reading, phonics and word study, guided math and social studies.
Districts still have control
The new model is another change in a constant cycle of curricula, standards and teaching fads that compound the already tricky system teachers are currently navigating. But the Charles Butt Foundation hopes the model, and associated results, will move the needle on how classrooms are formatted across the system, and make teaching easier.
In the pilot, districts maintain control over how many schools, which grades, and which subjects the model is implemented in, according to Christine Lowak, the director of raising blended learners for the Charles Butt Foundation.
However, growing pains remain as the traditional classroom is “turned on its head.”
“Asking someone who has been delivering the results that the district and the state say are important, and saying, ‘Hey, by the way, we think this works better,’ … you’re messing with us now, because this is something that I’ve poured my heart and soul into,” Lowak said.
Many teachers, including Brillant, said they would never return to the old method of teaching after making the switch. Another goal, teachers say, is to cultivate students that are able to understand where they are struggling and explain how they need help.
“Our goal is to hear your child tell you what they need versus an adult in the school that you don’t really know,” Brillant said.
Data leads to specialized instruction
The “blended” in blended learning refers to a mix of online and in-person instruction, where students may use technology like a computer or tablet to access lessons, take dynamic quizzes to receive feedback and check their progress through regular academic diagnostics.
While online learning tools were already creeping into every level of education, the COVID-19 pandemic forced districts to speed up their understanding and implementation of online components as physical schools shuttered.
But the popularity of the model has the added benefit of allowing teachers to see exactly where students are struggling. So instead of teachers creating a lesson for the whole class reflecting a struggling concept, small groups can be coached on specific topics to achieve the state standards.
That was the approach taken in the Tomball Independent School District outside of Houston, which saw significant success in reading comprehension after initiating blended learning in 2020.
Reading comprehension for the cohort has increased by 57% since blended learning was introduced, according to the Charles Butt Foundation.
Jennifer Gonter, a reading specialist at Wildwood Elementary in Tomball, told the foundation that the technology aspect of the model allowed her and teachers at her school to examine student data over time and adjust instruction to meet the needs of individual students.
“In first grade alone, we have seven different flex groups on seven different skills,” she said. “We’ve really been able to dig into that data, and make sure that our flex groups and our intervention are personalized, and they’re filling in the gaps that you need, as opposed to what a grade level needs.”
The Charles Butt Foundation is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
