7/31/2019 Serving English Language Learners Rocketship

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Rocketship MateoSheedy Elementary(RMS), in San Jose,California, is one

of ve schools foundedby Rocketship Education,a charter managementorganization that hasbeen recognized acrossthe country for effectivelyintegrating technologyinto its longer schoolday. At RMS and theother Rocketship schools,

adaptive software is usedto supplement traditionalclassroom instruction,making it possible forstudents to receive trulyindividualized instruction.

Rocketship Mateo Sheedyshybrid school platformcombines traditional

classroom teaching with tutors and technologyto meet the needs of each student. This platformenables teachers to maximize classroom time forinstruction, guided practice, and critical thinkingexercises, while tutors and technology provideadditional independent practice, assessment,and remediation/ acceleration. Moreover, thehybrid school model creates signicant costsavings, which are then reinvested in programsand people.

At RMS, students receive instruction throughoutfour learning blocks, each lasting 1 hour and40 minutes. The time allocations include twoblocks of ELA, one block of math, and one blockof Learning Lab. Such a schedule creates ampleopportunities for teachers to differentiateinstruction and ensure that each student isreceiving the targeted support he/she needs.

Whats more, the longer learning blocks of anhour and 40 minutes each allow teachers tospend more time on guided practice and smallgroup instructiongrouping students accordingto specic needs and spending more time withstruggling students. Meanwhile, the LearningLab utilizes technology to provide individualizedELA and math content to students and daily

Serving English Language Learners atRocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary /San Jose, CA

assessment data to teachers, allowing them tofurther target instruction to students needs.

Led by non-certicated staff members, whosplit their time between coaching studentsusing online learning programs and tutoringstudents in small groups, the Learning Labperiod is broken up into three components:30 minutes for PE/Health/Music/Art, whichtakes place in the lunch room or playground;40 minutes of Reading Lab; and 30 minutes ofMath Lab. (Both Reading and Math Labs takeplace in the computer lab, and up to four classesof students can occupy this space each period.)Students rotate between the three blocks. Whenin Reading Lab, students read short books andcomplete a ve to ten question quiz to assesscomprehension using an online program;students also spend time using an adaptive ELAprogram, such as Compass Learning ReadingOdyssey. The books and assessments are allaligned to a Development Reading Assessment(DRA) score, providing teachers with dailyupdates on each students reading performance.When in Math Lab, students use online contentfrom various educational software providers(including DreamBox Learning, TenMarks, STMath, and others) for independent math practice.Since many of these programs are adaptive inreal-time, each student can progress at a pacethat matches his or her specic learning needs.School-wide assessments are administered everyeight weeks in both ELA and Math, enablingteachers to track student progress and providetargeted supports early on, before students fallbehind. RMS also uses these assessments toidentify the bottom 20 percent of students forin-lab tutoring in both subject areas. New tothe learning lab in 2011-12 is the development ofRISERocketships Individualized SchedulingEnginewhich integrates all academic data intoa single system and allows Rocketship to focus

students Learning Lab time on specic skillsthat align with the units being taught in theclassrooms.

Rocketship Mateo Sheedy ElementaryPrincipal: Maricela Guerrero

School schedule: 8:00am4:00pm

Early release: 8:00am2:00pm (Fri.)

Additional time compared tosurrounding district: 90 min/day

Student PopulationGrades served: K5Number of students: 500Qualify for free/reduced lunch: 91%

Students Scoring At or Above Procienton the California State Test in 2010(difference compared to surroundingdistrict)

ELA: 78% (+17%)

Math: 92% (+25%)

TIME WELL SPENT34