Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a high-performing school district. But as California’s Guadalupe Union School District works to update facilities, bolster learning programs, and mobilize its surrounding communities, educators are making measurable progress toward their goals for academic excellence.

The district just completed a successful launch of its Gift of Literacy program, a new offering of digital books and news articles to encourage students and families to read together at home. Built around Renaissance myON^® and Renaissance myON^® News, the winter-break programs have generated results that surprised even the most optimistic supporters. Guadalupe Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Gina Branum explains, “We wanted a hook, programs that make reading so engaging that students would rather read than watch movies or play video games. It worked. On the Wednesday before holiday break, students signed into their individual myON accounts for the first time. By early dismissal on Friday, they had logged 3,239 minutes reading. But more encouraging was that they continued reading over the weekend. From that Friday afternoon to 9:15 the following Monday morning, they read another 1,293 minutes and raised average Lexile^® scores by three points.”

Guadalupe Superintendent Dr. Emilio Handall explains the significance. “We know that the more students read, the more they learn and achieve. We want everyone—staff, parents, guardians, and the surrounding communities at large—to encourage our children to read at school, at home, over break, and every day. The Gift of Literacy program is just one example of how Renaissance is helping us put our community model into action, enabling our efforts to extend literacy development beyond traditional classroom walls.”

We wanted a hook, programs that make reading so engaging that students would rather read than watch movies or play video games. It worked.

Gina Branum, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Guadalupe Union School District

The challenge

Boost literacy in an underperforming district

Guadalupe is tucked into the northwestern corner of Santa Barbara County, just a few miles from the California coast. Handall says that while his students benefit from living in a safe, rural community of largely agricultural workers, a 92 percent poverty rate has historically limited opportunities. Some 1,300 students attend the district’s two schools—TK–4 at Mary Buren Elementary School and grades 5–8 at Kermit McKenzie Intermediate School—and just about 50 percent are classified as English learners. Underperforming, the district was ranked the lowest performing in the county when Handall came on board.

Recent projects to strengthen educational services include state-funded facilities improvements and a 1:1 tablet initiative for junior high students. “While these efforts have helped,” says Handall, “we needed more concentrated focus on student achievement. To that end, we’ve worked to develop a coherent plan that involves our stakeholders. We’ve gained synergy by integrating initiatives and programs across the district, as well as utilizing in-place resources. In the process of consolidating services administration across our two sites, for example, we were able to add myON to our suite of Renaissance assessment and practice solutions. Tapping into educators’ familiarity with Renaissance allowed us to achieve very rapid gains.”

The results

Enthusiastic readers, engaged stakeholders, and small successes

In addition to myON Reader and myON News, Guadalupe’s suite of Renaissance solutions includes Renaissance Star 360^® and Renaissance Accelerated Reader^®.

We had them at login

Branum says that in addition to participating in the selection of myON, members of the district’s Curriculum Council were among the first users. “The Council includes representation from all grade levels, as well as educators who work with students with disabilities, English learners, and our bilingual program. After just a short time navigating through myON, members recommended a full rollout. With their blessing and during the rush between Thanksgiving and winter break, we brought all our teachers on board. Although we initially worried about the scope and brisk pace of the project, our teachers were determined not to withhold any opportunities for students to read. Within just a few weeks, they had carved out time to introduce myON in each of their classrooms.”

Better than presents!

Branum says that evidence of success came quick. “On the Friday before break, one sixth-grade teacher emailed me to confirm that all of his students were online and reading. Then he added, ‘In fact, they’ve just voted to postpone their gift exchange until after break so that they can keep reading their myON books and articles today!’ Imagine that, all those gifts piled up and the students told him, ‘yes, yes, we’ll open those—but later after we’ve finished reading.’”

Although Branum says she can’t yet completely explain the enthusiasm, she suspects it’s a combination of engaging visuals, the availability of news articles with audio support, personalized selections of leveled texts, and the ability to toggle between English and Spanish text translations. She adds, “We’ve also observed that myON generally seems to provide higher-quality translations than those available from other products we reviewed.”

Laying bricks every hour

“We knew from Star 360 and state-testing data that student engagement was a districtwide problem,” comments Branum. “Obviously, that impacts literacy levels. When students turn away from more complex texts, they struggle to comprehend materials in other subjects, morale drops, and doors start to close. The excitement and energy around myON is helping to turn that around. Students find it motivating, for example, to see their own Lexile levels and growth. myON also complements how we’re using Accelerated Reader to set individualized goals and track progress.

“myON is much more than an engagement tool. It’s also a powerful instructional resource to help educators personalize instruction, gain additional reading-skills data between scheduled Star 360 assessments, and provides another channel for reporting progress back to families.”

myON is much more than an engagement tool.

Gina Branum, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Guadalupe Union School District

“Engaging stakeholders to build a shared vision, communicating progress, involving teachers in decisions, and supporting them are all keys to our initial success,” concludes Handall. “As we work to accelerate student achievement, we need to remember that we’re still early in the building process, and progress often comes one brick at a time. We expect that throughout the process, Renaissance will continue to be an important contributor. The timeliness of Renaissance data, the quality and breadth of Renaissance solutions, and the company’s understanding of today’s students combine for a partnership that Guadalupe educators can leverage each day to expand opportunities and improve the lives of students.”

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