How Intervention Helped a Failing School Get an A

Amy Stephens, former principal of Bayless Elementary School in Lubbock, Texas, can’t get enough of Istation. Istation has been her top tool in turning around three schools in Lubbock ISD, transforming them from the lowest-ranked schools to top performers.

Stephens was first introduced to Istation while working as the assistant principal for Bozeman Elementary School in Lubbock. Stephens admits that she and her team of teachers didn’t know much about solid intervention practices and knew even less about small-group instruction. For them, “intervention” meant reteaching to struggling learners the lesson they had heard earlier that day. Additionally, teachers were losing 20 percent of their instruction time by manually assessing students one day a week.

Bozeman brought in Istation, and a more effective process for intervention started taking shape. By the end of the school year, Bozeman was the only campus in its quadrant (the district is divided into four sections) that met district standards on state assessments! When the district passed out year-end awards, it rated Bozeman as the highest-growth campus for that year.

Teachers working with Istation became more effective in the classroom as well. Tanya Phillips, a 4th and 5th grade reading teacher now using Istation, brought 4th grade reading assessment scores up 24 points from the previous academic year.

Stephens knew Istation was what tipped the scales for her students and teachers. This was the start of something great!

When Stephens arrived at Bayless Elementary School for the 2015-2016 school year, students were in need of better intervention practices. They deserved the same opportunities to succeed as the students in more affluent neighborhoods in the district. The school had access to Istation Reading but wasn’t using it with fidelity.

Istation assessment results at the beginning of the year showed about 11 percent of students were on target to meet end-of-year grade-level expectations. After just one year of using the program with fidelity, the assessment data showed 28 percent of students on target to meet end-of-year grade-level expectations!

STAAR results showed improvements as well. After using the program with fidelity, Bayless’s 4th grade average on the Reading STAAR rose 10 points  compared to the previous year, and the 5th grade average rose 23 points that same year. Across all STAAR testing in the 2015-2016 school year, Bayless saw a 15-point total increase from the previous year.

US Representative Jodey Arrington from Texas recently visited Bayless to see how Istation is helping the students and teachers continue to improve.

Lubbock ISD in 90 Seconds - August 31, 2018 from Lubbock ISD on Vimeo.

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