Parkland’s Blended Learning Program – Executive Summary
March 27, 2015
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I.
Program Overview
A review of the PSSA and Keystone data indicated there was an alignment issue with our present
math/Algebra curriculum and the PA Core competencies. To address this issue we focused on taking a K12 longitudinal look at our Math curriculum and outlined some program changes recommended by our
math department chairs and our secondary administrators for implementation during the 2014-2015
school year.
A large part of the restructuring involved implementing a blended learning program in 13 of our Algebra
classrooms at both the middle school and high school level. Parkland High School, Orefield Middle
School, and Springhouse Middle School created a personalized learning environment for a pilot group of
840 students to encourage higher levels of student engagement with the ultimate result of increased
student achievement. Below is our program team:
The teachers involved in this pilot program have volunteered to participate. They were especially excited
about the potential of this program after site visits to other school districts (Manheim Township and
Lebanon High School) and how they were able to successfully implement a hybrid learning approach to
improve student achievement. Blended learning has many connotations, but at the heart of this new
movement is the desire to take full advantage of newer technologies that allow educators to teach
students anywhere, at any time, at any place, and at any pace necessary for students to achieve their
fullest potential. We are using technology as a fully complementary component to excellent teaching
that is data-driven, personalized, and impactful.
This program is the result of a Blended Learning Committee at Parkland consisting of 15 administrators
and 15 teachers chosen from our union leadership, who have been actively involved in the design and
implementation of the program. After several meetings to discuss how best to implement blended
learning at Parkland, the committee focused on three key items needed for successful implementation:
1) digital content and software resources; 2) increased access to personal learning devices supported by
a strong infrastructure; and 3) ongoing, sustained and high quality professional development programs.
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1. Digital Content and Software Resources
Parkland has made investments in the creation of Parkland-versions of VLN content for math and
currently has 30 fully digital math courses in place. These courses follow the scope and sequence of our
traditional face-to-face courses. This content will meet the needs for the Core delivery of content and
may be used in a stand-alone manner to deliver new concepts, to provide enrichment, or to remediate.
Here is an example of a course:
We also piloted two math software programs, IXL and ALEKS, with some of our Algebra I students during
a six-week time span with promising results. Although both were excellent, after the pilot the teachers
decided IXL would be the best fit for our curriculum since it aligns to the PA Core standards and students
found the graphical interface more engaging.
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2. Increased Access to Personal Learning Devices
The middle schools use technology devices in the blended learning classrooms by providing 15 personal
computing devices for primary use at the independent and collaboration stations. There is the ability to
use five classroom desktops and student owned devices to create a more 1:1 technology presence in the
classroom. Teacher-created videos have been incorporated into the blended learning delivery model
and teachers have established a framework for creation, curation, assignment and assessment. Using
the existing classroom furnishings allows the teachers to easily accommodate any non-blended courses
they will manage in the first year program.
Students are encouraged to bring their own devices to school and the addition of those devices has
allowed more pervasive access to devices on a daily basis. With this model we have been able to achieve
a 1:1 computing environment in all classes. To support the increased number of devices on our network,
the district recently upgraded our wireless network infrastructure so that each classroom has its own
wireless access point (802.11ac) capable of supporting up to 60 devices.
3. Ongoing, Sustained and High Quality Professional Development
Teachers participating in the pilot are provided monthly training on data-driven instruction and 21st
century learning skills by the PA Hybrid Learning Institute staff. Although this is not a new concept to
our staff, this program has taken the concept to a higher level and made it the operational standard in
these pilot classrooms. In addition, teachers receive ongoing coaching and support from Parkland staff.
These training sessions build internal capacity to turnkey similar training in the future by this core group
of teacher leaders. Building administrators are actively involved in the monthly networking meetings to
review the progress of the program and address any concerns. This initiative is establishing exemplars
that will be scalable to other subject areas as we move forward as a district with blended learning.
The program employs a blended learning rotation model that is consistent among school buildings.
Operational models were established for three distinct learning stations created within the classroom –
direct instruction, collaborative and independent. Blended learning strategies, like flipped classroom,
are also used within the delivery models with consistency regarding classroom management, content
curation and assignment and student evaluation. By design, teachers have the flexibility to use the
three-rotation model, the flipped classroom approach, or whole group instruction (either with or
without technology). This flexibility was important for teachers to feel comfortable with trying blended
learning. They were concerned about having to follow a “cookie-cutter” approach, so we ensured the
modality they use is driven by the content they are teaching on any given day.
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Evaluation is an important part of the blended learning pilot program. Month-by-month, data analytics
are used to track the accomplishment of hybrid learning tasks and provide performance reports to the
program team. These performance reports are used to check school progress and identify areas where
additional training and coaching may be required. The goal is to perfect these pilot models and expand
the use of blended learning throughout the district during the 2015-2016 school year.
II. Conclusion/Next Steps
The vision of the Parkland School District Blended Learning Pilot Program is to ensure every student can
meet his or her fullest potential in an educational environment that provides the necessary materials,
means, support and opportunities. This student-centered, technology rich approach to learning requires
the breakdown of traditional limitations of instructional time, access to materials and instructional
support, and is built upon the foundations of:
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personalized learning pathways specific to student needs with access to robust, rigorous,
differentiated instructional materials, both inside and outside the classroom setting and beyond
the traditional school day ;
support for the professional growth of teachers and administrators through the development of
a clearinghouse of best-practice strategies and techniques;
ongoing evaluation and refinement of materials, tools, technologies and techniques to maintain
and sustain the blended learning program.
Although we are just in the early stages of implementing this new program, the initial results are
promising. In each class at least 2 students were interviewed about how they liked the new blended
learning approach as part of the monthly fidelity checks, and all students shared they preferred this
method of teaching and learning and would not want to go back to a traditional way of learning math.
They also unanimously reported the classes seem to go faster and are more engaging.
Our teachers are also reporting positive changes, citing improved quality of interaction with students,
and students becoming more comfortable with independent learning opportunities. We have had
several teachers ask if they can participate in the program next year, which is encouraging. We are now
forming a second cohort of teachers for the 2015-2016 school year which will consist of an additional
18-20 teachers.
Additional information about Parkland’s blended learning initiative can be found online at
http://www.parklandsd.org/departments/technology/blended-learning/
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