Learning Leap White PAper

Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

A Catapult Learning Summer School Case Study

Dr. Marcella L. Bullmaster-Day, Ed.D.

Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

“The Catapult experience was awesome! The staff was knowledgeable and most helpful. I couldn’t have chosen a better way to spend my summer… I hope to do it again.”

— DPS Teacher

“The Catapult Learning program was great.

My child gained more knowledge for the upcoming school year. The field trips were very educational. My child was excited to go to summer learning every day.”

— DPS Parent

“My son loved the summer learning program.

He loved all the incentives that were given to him and his classmates. It helped. I would recommend this program. Thanks!!”

— DPS Parent

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Contents

Page:

High-quality managerial expertise and outstanding day-to-day implementation . . . . . . . . . 6 Motivating, research-based, well-designed curriculum materials and activities. . . . . . . . . . . 8 Knowledgeable, skilled, well-prepared professional staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Family involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Impressive results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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Š2011 Catapult Learning. All rights reserved.

Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

Early every Monday through Friday morning for six simmering summer weeks in Detroit, nearly 3,000 students, grades K – 8, could be spotted all over the city heading purposefully into 16 public schools. There, from 7:30a.m. until 2:00p.m., the youngsters were welcomed enthusiastically by a cadre of caring, professional, wellprepared teachers and tutors who skillfully engaged them in intense work on mathematics, reading, and writing skills, led them in a rousing variety of enrichment activities, took them on knowledge-broadening weekly field trips, and rewarded them for their effort and progress.

This was Detroit’s Summer Academy 2010, a partnership between Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and Catapult Learning, where students made significant learning leaps in six weeks; on average raising their reading and mathematics performance by five and seven percentile points, respectively.

How were these dramatic gains achieved? What worked and why did it work? Catapult Learning partnered with DPS to seamlessly integrate the following four critical elements into an effective operational system that accelerated student learning while reducing school leaders’ complex administrative duties: • High-quality managerial expertise and outstanding dayto-day implementation • Motivating, research-based, well-designed curriculum materials and activities • Knowledgeable, skilled, well-prepared professional staff • Active family involvement

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High-quality managerial expertise and outstanding day-to-day implementation In Detroit, Catapult Learning professionals established a strong positive relationship with building administrators, teachers, students, and parents, demonstrating unwavering dedication to three foundational principles: Partnership, responsiveness, and results. One Catapult supervisor and one regional education quality manager assigned to each school carried out Catapult Learning’s system of multi-faceted checks and balances to monitor and maintain on-site quality control throughout the Summer Academy. This team oversaw personnel management, supervision and training, review of administrative functioning, and continuous educational program monitoring and evaluation.

Core academic instruction was the responsibility of DPS teachers, each of whom taught either reading and writing or mathematics and enrichment, and each of whom had a full-time Catapult Learning tutor teamed with him or her to build personal relationships with students and parents while assisting with the academic and enrichment programs. In addition, having two additional Catapult implementation professionals working in each school gave the DPS teachers a strong sense of support and created a working climate conducive to success.

“Catapult found a way through incentives to motivate students to come to school, have good behavior and make an effort to learn.”

— DPS Principal

Grouped in classes of 20, students worked with two DPS teacher -tutor teams (reading/writing and math/ enrichment) four days each week and went on an educational field trip one day each week. The Catapult Learning management and implementation team saw to it that all supplies for every aspect of the program were always ready to go; materials were pre-packaged and

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©2011 Catapult Learning. All rights reserved.

Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

provided in a timely manner. The teamwork and commitment of every professional involved in Detroit’s Summer Academy was manifested through the many instances in which Catapult Learning staff members went “above and beyond” to do whatever it took to ensure the program’s effectiveness.

Catapult’s implementation management expertise was also evident in the immaculate record keeping and the steady stream of clear communication that was maintained throughout the program, including regular student progress updates and reporting of results to DPS and school administrators.

Management and implementation

Wellprepared professional staff

Curriculum materials and activities

Family involvement

Figure 1: Catapult Learning's

interconnected system of critical success elements

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Motivating, research-based, well-designed curriculum materials and activities With a focus on eliminating summer learning loss, Catapult Learning created an innovative summer learning program (since named Learning Leap) that combined targeted academic instruction, cultural enrichment activities, and self-selected learning enrichment opportunities that provided intellectual stimulation in a positive, lively environment. Utilizing Catapult Learning’s award-winning AchieveReading™ Flex, AchieveMath™, and AchieveWriting™ instructional programs, teachers administered the Stanford Diagnostic Reading and Mathematics Tests as pre- and post-tests, and used ongoing formative assessments and scoring rubrics to determine and monitor student strengths and needs throughout the program.

Summer Academy teachers and tutors created a cheerful, workcentered atmosphere by maintaining neat, well-organized, inviting classrooms that supported learning. They set clear and consistent expectations for student behavior and participation, provided easy access to student materials, and kept students enthusiastically focused on each lesson. They engaged students in activities designed to connect prior knowledge with new learning. Student work and learning-related displays enhanced the environment in every classroom and teachers promoted an atmosphere of acceptance that allowed students to gain confidence and to take risks to advance themselves as part of a community of learners.

In their reading and writing classes, students worked on phonics/ word study, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary through a systematic, intensive, explicit instructional flow. Using customized, leveled anthologies and student resource books, students were guided through carefully scaffolded lessons that included direct instruction, modeling, guided and independent practice, and

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Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

application activities. Teachers incorporated students’ own background knowledge into discussions, monitored student performance, and used a variety of methods to differentiate instruction to challenge more advanced learners, or to reinforce concepts for students who needed more support.

To develop their oral language and writing skills, students engaged in rich, guided discussions and worked through the stages of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, sharing, revision, editing, and development of a final draft.) They wrote informative, descriptive, personal, persuasive, and narrative pieces, and published their own books to share with family and friends.

In their math classes, students engaged in interactive activities designed to review basic skills and previously taught concepts; learned new vocabulary; and developed conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and problem-solving skills. In guided and independent practice activities, students worked with manipulatives and visual representations (two-color counters, unifix cubes, fraction tiles, number tiles, geometric solids, geoboards, and base ten blocks) to strengthen computation, communication, connections, and reasoning.

Teachers used ongoing formative assessment to inform and adjust their instruction to ensure every student’s understanding, incorporating clearly stated expectations and goals individualized for each student.

Academic progress reports were shared with students’ classroom teachers and parents.

For four days each week, students participated in hands-on enrichment activities designed to promote social, cognitive, and physical development. Enrichment activities were aligned to the Michigan

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Curriculum Framework and encouraged creativity and self-expression. Art activities focused on themes such as science, community and family, social studies, and literature. Games designed to improve students’ reading and math skills, help encourage strategy development, and foster collaboration and cooperation were included in the Game Center.

Literacy activities included shared reading (grades K-1), self-selected reading, and response to reading activities.

Based on research which suggests that frequent opportunities to experience sustained silent reading using self-selected reading materials greatly increases a student’s motivation to read as well as contributes to the development of fluency in reading, each classroom was provided with a library of new, high-interest books designed to engage struggling and reluctant readers.

Students in grades 3-8 participated in Reader’s Theater activities. Reader’s Theater is an engaging and entertaining way for students to build reading confidence and “bring literature to life” by using just their voices and actions. It is designed to build students’ vocabulary, comprehension, and reading fluency by interpreting and acting out story dialog, without memorization. These skills, as well as oral communication, creativity, and self-expression, are enhanced in a supportive, non-threatening

“This program has helped my son a lot. He is more open to learning new things. He has learned to make friends. His spelling, reading, and math skills have improved a lot. I really thank his teacher a lot.”

— DPS Parent

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Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

environment. Each week one group was selected to perform their Reader’s Theater book for their classmates.

One day each week, students in the Detroit Summer Academy visited such educational settings as the Detroit Zoo, Detroit Science Center, Charles Wright Museum, and Greenfield Village/ Ford Museum. Each trip included one or more learning themes related to the week’s direct instruction.

The enrichment component of the Summer Academy was enthusiastically received by both students and teachers and sometimes the rewards were especially moving. One little girl who had experienced an emotional trauma had not spoken in a number of months, but she became enthralled by the Reader’s Theater activities in her Summer Academy class and began to speak again!

Motivation was the engine that drove students’ involvement and created a productive learning environment through the entire Detroit Summer Academy. The more students saw themselves succeeding, the more they wanted to succeed, propelling an upward spiral of effort, achievement, reward, self-confidence, and further persistent effort. Attendance, effort, positive learning attitudes, and achievement were rewarded with praise, certificates of achievement, and tokens that students could redeem for games, books, pens, sports balls, and other items at the Awards Center. In spite of the summer heat (the schools were not air-conditioned), a visitor walking into any DPS Summer Academy classroom would find students engaged, working intently, seemingly oblivious to the heat and humidity!

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Knowledgeable, skilled, well-prepared professional staff Over 150 DPS classroom teachers taught in the Summer Academy, each teamed with a Catapult Learning tutor. Catapult Learning hired tutors with previous teaching experience and an understanding that every child can learn every day. Tutors had strong interpersonal skills, flexibility, enthusiasm, kindness, and willingness to work with parents and administrators to affect positive change in student academic achievement.

DPS teachers participated in 12 hours (two days) of in-session training and six additional hours of follow-up training. Tutors participated in a six-hour in-session training. In addition, teachers had 30 minutes per day of preparation time during the program and 90 minutes of reinforcement professional development per week. These lively professional development sessions with teachers and tutors included intensive training in administering assessments, planning and pacing instruction, monitoring student progress, and implementing researchbased strategies in mathematics, reading, and writing instruction.

Group work, practice, and modeling during professional development sessions allowed teachers and tutors time to become familiar, comfortable, and confident with Catapult Learning instructional methods and materials, including the Motivation and Enrichment programs and the scope and sequence of the Summer Academy Program. Strategies for planning, listening, questioning, supporting struggling learners, overcoming challenges, differentiating instruction, using manipulatives, and promoting critical thinking across the curriculum were also included in the professional development workshops.

Throughout the summer, DPS teachers were enthusiastic in their appreciation and implementation of the Catapult program. They expressed satisfaction with new methods that they would continue to use with their students during the school year.

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Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

Family involvement The Catapult Learning team held parent orientation meetings at the beginning of the Summer Academy where they described the instructional program and reporting procedures, showed parents the instructional materials and sample student work, encouraged and answered questions, and introduced parents to their children’s teachers. Parents were invited to sit in on classes and become guest readers.

Parent workshops were offered to teach at-home strategies for reading, mathematics, and school success.

Throughout the program parents received instructional progress reports along with informal notes and updates on activities. The Summer Academy culminated in an End-of-Program Celebration ceremony.

On the last day of the program, Kathleen Crown and Joanne Hawley, who had led parent workshops during Weeks Three and Four, went around to the schools to collect final paperwork. When they arrived at the last school, they met a parent who had been waiting for them for several hours. She said, “I wanted to see you and thank you for the workshop you did,” handing Kathleen and Joanne each a wrapped present.

She explained that she was so grateful to have learned about practical steps she could take to make her home conducive to learning; e.g., turning off the TV and providing a quiet place to work. She hadn’t been aware of these strategies and of her many options for strengthening her daughter’s academic learning. At the culminating End-of-Program Celebration, she had witnessed the level at which one of the kindergarteners could read and had realized that she needed to work more intensely to help her fourth-grade daughter improve her reading. Knowing that Kathleen and Joanne were constantly carrying instructional materials, her thoughtful gifts for the two Catapult presenters were large tote bags!

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National Percentile Rank of Mean SDRT4 Score 25

Percentile Rank

20 15 10 5 0 Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Pre-Program

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Post-Program

Figure 2: Detroit summer reading gains by grade level (Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test)

National Percentile Rank of Mean SDMT4 Score

Percentile Rank

20 15 10 5 0 Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Pre-Program

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Post-Program

Figure 3: Detroit summer math gains by grade level (Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test)

Impressive results Catapult Learning’s powerful, well-integrated Summer Academy system of excellent management and implementation, curriculum materials and activities, teacher/tutor professional development, and family involvement yielded solid, statistically significant reading and mathematics gains by previously low-performing Detroit students at every school and in every grade level.

At the beginning of the program, the Detroit Summer Academy students were on average performing at or near the bottom 10% of student performance levels nationally in reading and well below the bottom 10% in mathematics as measured by the Stanford Diagnostic Reading and Math assessments (SDRT4 and SDMT4) At the end of the program, students had made dramatic, substantial gains, ranging between five and 10 percentile ranking points in reading and between two and 10 percentile ranking points in mathematics (see Figures 2 and 3).

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Š2011 Catapult Learning. All rights reserved.

Learning Leap for Detroit Public School Students

“It was a great

For example, fifth graders about to enter sixth grade performed

program because the

better in reading at the end of the program than students who had

classes were smaller.

completed sixth grade the year before did at the beginning of the

It gave the students

program. Similarly, seventh graders at the end of the program far

one-on-one help.”

outperformed eighth graders entering the program (Figure 4)! Likewise striking gains, approximating nearly a year’s growth in one grade

— DPS Parent

compared to the next in this particular cohort of students were also demonstrated in mathematics (Figure 5). (The Stanford Diagnostic tests, used as the pre- and post-tests in the Detroit Summer Academy, are norm-referenced instruments, designed on a vertical scale to support comparing scores from grade level to grade level.)

Mean SDRT Scaled Scores by Grade Level

Mean SDRT4 Scaled Score

650

600

550

500 Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Pre-Program

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

End of Program

Figure 4: Detroit summer reading gains by grade level (Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test)

Mean SDMT Scaled Scores by Grade Level Mean SDMT4 Scaled Score

650

600

550

500 Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Pre-Program

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

End of Program

Figure 5: Detroit summer math gains by grade level (Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test)

©2011 Catapult Learning. All rights reserved.

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And even more impressive, these gains were program-wide. Every school showed significant improvement in student performance (see Figures 6 and 7).

Mean SDRT4 Scaled Score SCHOOL 1 SCHOOL 2 SCHOOL 3 SCHOOL 4 SCHOOL 5 SCHOOL 6 SCHOOL 7 SCHOOL 8 SCHOOL 9 SCHOOL 10 SCHOOL 11 SCHOOL 12 SCHOOL 13 SCHOOL 14 SCHOOL 15 SCHOOL 16

540

560

580

Pre-Program

600

620

Post-Program

Figure 6: Detroit summer reading gains by school (Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test)

Mean SDMT4 Scaled Score SCHOOL 1 SCHOOL 2 SCHOOL 3 SCHOOL 4 SCHOOL 5 SCHOOL 6 SCHOOL 7 SCHOOL 8 SCHOOL 9 SCHOOL 10 SCHOOL 11 SCHOOL 12 SCHOOL 13 SCHOOL 14 SCHOOL 15 SCHOOL 16

540

560

580

Pre-Program

600

620

Post-Program

Figure 7: Detroit summer math gains by school (Stanford Diagnostic Math Test)

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Š2011 Catapult Learning. All rights reserved.

In summary, Catapult Learning’s successful Summer Academy partnership with DPS demonstrates

About the author Dr. Marcella L. Bullmaster-Day is an Associate Professor and

that there is much more to a

the Associate Director of the Touro College Lander Center for

contract with Catapult Learning

Educational Research in New York City. She has worked as a

than boxes of materials. Learning leaps are made when highquality management, careful implementation, motivating learning activities, knowledgeable staff, and regular family involvement keep the focus on partnership, responsiveness, and, especially, results!

teacher, principal, researcher, university professor, corporate executive, curriculum designer, and professional development consultant in urban educational contexts for over three decades.

Dr. Bullmaster-Day served as Executive Director of Curriculum for Kaplan K12 Learning Services and was Program Chair for Kaplan University’s Graduate School of Education where she developed the conceptual framework and innovative online courses for the University’s Masters Degree in Education. Dr. Bullmaster-Day holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University Teachers College.

2 Aquarium Drive, Ste 100 Camden, NJ 08103 1-800-841-8730 www.catapultlearning.com www.facebook.com/catapultlearning

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