{"id":9899,"date":"2024-04-23T14:54:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/?p=9899"},"modified":"2024-09-22T13:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T17:01:32","slug":"supporting-pine-valley-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/news-blog\/supporting-pine-valley-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastery Over Speed: How Progress Learning Supports Pine Valley Middle School in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

At Pine Valley Middle School in New Caney ISD, Texas, one teacher is making huge strides in her students\u2019 math achievements. Mrs. Abagail Dunnavant, a 7th<\/sup> grade math teacher with four years of experience in this role, has been using Progress Learning since back when it was Education Galaxy. Over the years, she\u2019s witnessed the incredible impact it has had on her students\u2019 success. \u201cI feel like my kids have grown even more because it\u2019s more organized and really fits their needs,\u201d Mrs. Dunnavant reflects. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of growth using it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But what does growth look like in Mrs. Dunnavant\u2019s classroom, and how does she measure it? For her, it\u2019s all about empowering her students to set and achieve their goals. She explains, \u201cI have a Google sheet that keeps track of all the student scores on tests, and I compare that to their 6th<\/sup> grade STAAR score for math. I tell them, \u2018All I care about is that you beat last year\u2019s scores.\u2019\u201d This starts them off with a mindset focused on improvement rather than just meeting a passing grade.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the main features of Mrs. Dunnavant\u2019s teaching method is her emphasis on mastery over speed<\/strong>. \u201cI would rather students start and ask questions and really feel comfortable with the topic than being able to finish something at the end of class,\u201d she says.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How Mrs. Dunnavant Uses Progress Learning<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mrs. Dunnavant uses Progress Learning tools, like the Galaxies, to provide targeted practice and tutorial videos tailored to individual needs. It also provides games to keep students engaged. \u201cMy students love the Galaxies because they have games in between,\u201d Mrs. Dunnavant shares. \u201cThey love that brain break and trying to win those games, and I love that they\u2019re challenging.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Besides being fun and engaging, the Galaxies have proven to be very effective. \u201cI have one student in particular who finished all her Galaxies for 7th<\/sup> grade by December,\u201d Mrs. Dunnavant says. \u201cShe loved how it pushed her, she loved how tutorial videos popped up right after\u2026 She was like \u2018I love how it\u2019s promoting mastery over speed<\/strong>, so I don\u2019t have to be the fastest, I just have to be the smartest and understand the words.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But Progress Learning isn\u2019t just for high achievers. Pine Valley Middle School is a Title 1 school, and there is a wide range of learning levels. \u201cWe have kids all across the spectrum. Some kids are on an 8th<\/sup> grade level, some are on a 3rd<\/sup> grade level\u2026 Progress Learning brings it down to their level,\u201d she explains. When practicing in the Galaxies, \u201cIt\u2019s not about how many stars they\u2019ve completed, it\u2019s \u2018Oh, I\u2019m getting better at this!\u2019\u201d Whatever the student\u2019s learning level, Progress Learning adapts to meet them where they are.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How else is Mrs. Dunnavant using Progress Learning? \u201cOn Tuesdays and Thursdays, we make our own warmup in Progress Learning. Students have two attempts on it, they do it once themselves and then we go over it.\u201d When Mrs. Dunnavant reviews the question as a class, students get the question correct, which earns them 100 tokens that they can use in the arcade. This has been a huge incentive for her students. \u201cAt the end of class, if they have coins to spend in the arcade, they can go play those games until they run out of coins. She adds, \u201cTheir favorite game right now is Naughty Chicken. They love Naughty Chicken.\u201d Who can blame them? Naughty Chicken is so much fun!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She also uses the program for targeted practice after an assessment. \u201cAfter they take their test, we take their test data and we tell them the TEK that they missed the most questions on and we have them work on the Study Plans over that TEK. Everyone\u2019s working on something different but at their own pace, and the Study Plan has tutorial videos so they\u2019re able to get help while I\u2019m walking around and helping other students.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She notes that Progress Learning questions are perfectly aligned with STAAR \u2014 and in fact, might be even harder. \u201cWe love the STAAR rigor and actually a lot of the Progress Learning questions are harder than some of the STAAR questions. We\u2019ll have kids work in the Study Plan and then the kids will take one of their district tests and are like, \u2018Why is the Progress Learning stuff harder than this actual stuff?\u2019 And we\u2019re like, \u2018Well you did fantastic in Progress Learning so you\u2019re going to do fantastic [on the STAAR].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Results<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, what have been the results of using Progress Learning so far this year? \u201cThis year, 62% of my students grew,\u201d she proudly reveals. \u201cThat means that they either got the same score as 6th<\/sup> grade or they did better. I had 2 kids grow by 27 points, I had one student grow 29 points, and another grew 31 points.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

New Caney ISD also does district-wide bundle tests after they finish a unit. \u201cOur 7th<\/sup> graders at our middle school have had the highest scores on their bundle 1, bundle 2, and bundle 3 tests. They\u2019ve been rocking it and it\u2019s really exciting because it\u2019s the full first year we\u2019ve had Progress Learning.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mrs. Dunnavant says that isn\u2019t a coincidence: \u201cThere is a correlation between the kids who just didn\u2019t take to Progress Learning at all or didn\u2019t finish their work or do extra stuff at home. They did not grow in points\u2026 Last year, I had one student who got a 17 on her 6th<\/sup> grade math STAAR test and she got a 57 on her 7th<\/sup> grade STAAR test for math. And she was using Progress Learning heavily.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Spreading the Word About Progress Learning<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mrs. Dunnavant loves Progress Learning so much she didn\u2019t want to keep it to herself. She’s been instrumental in spreading it throughout Pine Valley Middle School and even held a presentation at the district level about how the program has impacted her teaching. \u201cThis year, I\u2019d probably say 75-80% of our campus is using it but they\u2019re all using it in a variety of ways. Like our 6th<\/sup> grade ELA team is using it constantly, making their own assignments and assessments\u2026 and they love it a lot. All of our 8th<\/sup> grade teachers love it because, at the end of the school year, they were able to start introducing them to high school things.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She\u2019s even convinced another middle school to get it. \u201cWe\u2019ve had so much success with it that [we talked] another middle school into buying it this year and I was able to go and teach them how to use it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Amazing job, Mrs. Dunnavant! We can\u2019t take all the credit for your students\u2019 achievements \u2014 clearly, you\u2019re doing something right. Still, we\u2019re glad Progress Learning is supporting your instruction and helping your students succeed.\u00a0\u00a0If you want to see the same results as Mrs. Dunnavant, request a demo of Progress Learning<\/a> today!<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Pine Valley Middle School in New Caney ISD, Texas, one teacher is making huge strides in her students\u2019 math achievements. Mrs. Abagail Dunnavant, a 7th grade math teacher with four years of experience in this role, has been using Progress Learning since back when it was Education Galaxy. Over the years, she\u2019s witnessed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":9900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[299,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texas","category-about-us"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Pine-Valley-Middle-New-Caney-ISD.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14513,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899\/revisions\/14513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progresslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}