CASEStudy
Orange County Public Schools
When Yvonne Fonnett, coordinator of secondary science for Orange County Public Schools was
introduced to SAM Learning’s test prep program for science, she was immediately intrigued. “A few
teachers had already asked me if I knew of anything that they could use for intervention and when I saw
SAM Learning’s HSEE prep program, I got very excited.” The district needed a program that would give
students an opportunity to learn by themselves. She had hoped she could find something that students
would find stimulating enough to keep their interest but with the added bonus of having a clear
connection to preparing for the state’s assessments. The program from SAM Learning of the U.K. filled
the bill perfectly and it offered math content as well.
Teachers realize that assessments are important but
students do not always connect with the urgency to do well
until their performance on those assessments is tied to
“For the state of Florida,
the SAM Learning program
is a very good fit.”
graduation. “There are always students who have an innate sense of determination or who are college
bound but there are far more students who need a unique or distinctive learning program to encourage
them to improve. The difficult thing is to find a learning program that appeals to these less-motivated
students,” she says.
This online learning program did have a clear appeal to students because it is what curriculum
designers call “student-driven,” meaning that it is created from the student’s perspective. “Our program
was built from the ground up,” says David Jaffa, founder and president of SAM Learning U.K. “We looked
at what students want to be working on, considered their motivations and then created a system that
would appeal to them and would inspire them to improve.”
When Ms. Fonnett saw SAM Learning’s program for the first time, she instantly knew it would
be a good pilot for her district. “There is an appealing simplicity to how this program works,” she said.
“We had clear needs. We needed something to help our students prepare for the science portion of
their high school exit exam. This meant it had to be aligned to our standards and work for students.”
-more-
Ms. Fonnett points out that the program’s clean interface not only helps with student
motivation but it reduces distractions. “We have found that when there is too much activity on a screen,
as we see in some programs, students are easily diverted from the primary objective which is learning.”
Once students log on, they find everything they need to keep practicing and practicing until they
understand a concept and improve their scores.” She also likes
“There is an appealing
the “Improve” materials with audio support and that the content
simplicity to how this
is aligned to state standards and state exams. These exercises are
program works.”
easily located because they are highlighted by the state flag and a
gold key.
The SAM Learning program has been so well received that
when the OCPS math teachers heard it was available for science intervention and test prep, they asked
to use it for mathematics as well – something that was easy to accommodate because the system
already includes both subjects (including chemistry, biology and physics). Now OCPS middle and high
school students have 24/7 access to any of these subjects and the response has been terrific.
“For the state of Florida, the SAM Learning program is a very good fit,” adds Ms. Fonnett. “We
have the confidence of knowing that the math and science content is correlated with our standards and
the students can pick concepts that have been highlighted as especially relevant to their high school exit
exam.” Students are willing to work harder when they see that the effort they expend has a direct
correlation to their chances of passing the exams they need to graduate from high school.
Usage is high indicating that there is no shortage of interest from the students. In the first
month, many schools had logged hundreds of task hours (a monitoring metric automatically created by
the program) and the trend is continuing to climb. “When the trainers from SAM Learning kept
encouraging teachers to let this be a ‘student driven’ program, I was not too sure if the students could
do this,” said Ms. Fonnett. “I have been surprised and excited to see the data showing how the majority
of student log-in time is during after-school hours.”
Visit www.samlearning.com or call 800.481.8101 to learn more.