Cedar Rapids schools celebrate closing pandemic learning gaps

CEDAR RAPIDS — A pilot program at Jefferson High School is being expanded to all ninth-graders this year after it’s been shown to improve grades, attendance and engagement.

The program — called BlendED — gives students a choice in how they want to learn as a part of the school’s Freshman Core program.

While standard freshman classes are 90 minutes long, Freshman Core breaks that down into shorter, “more digestible,” 30-minute classes, said Jefferson High Principal Mike Hawley, during a Board of Education meeting in August.

Students can choose to repeat a 30-minute class for better understanding or use the extra time to work.

Data from the school district shows students in BlendED had an easier transition to high school, a higher rate of credits earned and increased likelihood of graduating.

During the 2021-22 school year, students in BlendEd had a lower failure rate at 8 percent compared to students not in BlendEd who had a failure rate of 17 percent, according to data from the district.

BlendED is one example of ways educators in the Cedar Rapids Community School District are working to improve academic achievement.

Standardized test scores from the 2021-22 school year show that many students are returning to pre-pandemic learning levels. However, high school students are lagging behind and large achievement gaps remain for non-white students and students in special education and English Language Learner programs.

Officials said some of the ways educators are working to close achievement gaps are creating a culture in schools where every student feels a sense of belonging, using data to target instruction to individual students and implementing a new math curriculum at elementary and middle schools.

Harrison: 'Leader in Me’

Harrison Elementary School Principal Trista Manternach also celebrated her students’ academic growth last year and shared how they achieved it at a Board of Education meeting last month.

Harrison Elementary saw an 18 percent growth in scores on the Formative Assessment System for Teachers — the second highest in the district — during the 2021-22 school year compared to the year before, Manternach said.

The Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST) is an assessment taken in the fall, winter and spring by kindergarten to fifth-grade students that measures growth in reading and math.

Overall, students at Harrison Elementary tested 63 percent proficient in spring 2022, an improvement from 45 percent proficient in the fall 2021.

Students in second grade had the lowest achievement scores, testing at 23 percent proficient in fall 2021 and growing to 31 percent proficient by spring 2022.

Manternach attributes the low scores to those students being “pandemic babies” who were in kindergarten at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Their first year of school was cut short, and their first-grade year was a mix of virtual, hybrid and in-person instruction.

It’s hard for them to get caught up because of the basic reading skills they missed, Manternach said.

Manternach also celebrated that non-white students and students in special education and the English Language Learner programs are growing academically at about the same rate as their peers, although their scores are still lower than students not in these groups:

Manternach attributes the school’s success to a schoolwide instructional model implemented seven years ago. With this model, students are taught to have a “growth mindset” and set, track and celebrate their individual goals.

Teachers help with this by monitoring students’ progress each week and working with the student to help close any learning gaps they may have, Manternach said.

Harding Middle School

At Harding Middle School, educators use iReady data — a test taken by sixth- through eighth-grade students three times a year to measure student performance in reading and math — to determine which students need intense intervention in either reading or math.

Harding Middle School Principal Linda Reysack said using this data educators are able to collaborate with each other and the student to help them succeed.

Students set goals using this data. Students who receive intense reading intervention during the 2021-22 school year had an 18 percent growth in proficiency in reading, Reysack said.

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