United Independent School District (ISD) in Laredo, Texas, contains 30 different campuses, each of which serves about 600 students. At United ISD, four elementary coordinators oversee about eight different campuses each. In 2021, much of that oversight happened virtually due to the pandemic, when about 90% of students were learning remotely.
To achieve their goal of reading skill reinforcement, even during the period of remote instruction, the team of elementary coordinators worked with the curriculum instruction department to secure the funds needed to roll out an initial implementation of the Lexia® Core5® Reading Adaptive Blended Learning program.
After receiving virtual training on their new reading platform, the schools’ reading intervention teachers/language acquisition aides identified which students needed the highest level of intervention. They assembled a small-group-instruction approach based on Lexia’s teacher resources.
After the first semester, United ISD continued with its Core5 intervention for 60 minutes per week. The district’s four coordinators regularly met with the language acquisition aides to review the usage reports and performance data for each campus.
The results were consistently positive. Even during remote learning, about 65% of students were logging into and using Core5. A good 65% of those who used the program advanced at least one or more grade level. The gains made by second grade students who were working hard to acquire a new language (most of them speaking Spanish at home) were particularly impressive to administrators.
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