Blended Learning Better Prepares Students for College and Career

The Challenge

---

Uinta wanted to better prepare students for college and careers by helping them become lifelong, self-directed learners. Previously, when Uinta graduates arrived at college, many had not developed an internal capacity to set independent goals, manage their own time, or to know where to turn to for help. Uinta turned to blended learning to create an environment in which students could develop these skills and be better prepared for college and beyond.

How We Helped

---

In 2014-2015, Uinta partnered with Education Elements to provide a Blended Learning Fellowship for 54 teachers across the district. During the first year of implementation, we worked with these teachers to develop instructional models and refine instructional practices around the core four elements of personalized learning. In 2016-2017, Uinta offered their second Blended Learning Fellowship and received 65 teacher volunteers.

Due to the success of their blended learning classrooms, Uinta made the decision that personalized learning was for all of their students. Rather than continuing to offer BL Fellowships throughout the 2017-18 school year, they created a support structure to assure all classrooms were able to implement personalized learning. Since then Ed Elements has trained all teachers and school teams to implement blended learning

The Results

---

• While Uinta County School District #1 had previously performed very well on nationally normed tests, the work they have done around blended learning during the past two years has helped to generate gains to scores that had hit a plateau. 
• In SY 2015-16 on NWEA MAP Uinta students in grades K-8 grew 140% in reading and 146% in math. That means that, on average, their progress over the course of the school year was 40% more than national benchmarks would predict for reading, and almost 50% more for math.
• Compared to SY 2013-2014, the year before Uinta implemented blended learning, Uinta's 2015-2016 results show:
• A 5% increase in average reading growth and a 23% increase in math growth.
• A 4 percentage point rise in students meeting or exceeding growth targets in reading and a 10 percentage point rise in math; that's a 7% increase in students hitting their growth targets in reading and a 16% increase in math