Raising Blended Learners is a statewide initiative to seed and scale personalized learning across Texas in an effort to improve student achievement across diverse demographics, particularly among schools and districts with persistent achievement gaps.
As part of this initiative, Raise Your Hand Texas commissioned FSG to conduct a 4-year evaluation of the program’s impact on students and schools and the success of the initiative as a whole. Last year, FSG wrote about the 2015-2016 planning and selection year of Raising Blended Learners, how the program was designed, and how the planning process was experienced by participants.
In Year 1 Evaluation Report, we share our developmental evaluation of the 5 demonstration sites to understand the early stages of how models are being implemented, how sites are defining success, and how early success and challenges are being experienced.
Top Takeaways
- Implementing blended learning is as much about shifting student, teacher, and administrator mindsets as it is about implementing new technology.
- Early challenges highlighted the importance of providing teachers and students with tools and year-round support that can help them successfully adapt to the new models.
- At the end of the year, all surveyed teachers said they would not go back to traditional instruction, reporting that blended learning helped them better engage with their students and meet their needs.
Pasadena Teacher
