Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Curriculum topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Rogers Middle School presents IXL implementation; students and teacher report early gains
Summary
At the Feb. 10 Rockland School Committee meeting, Rogers Middle School staff described switching from iReady to IXL for diagnostics and instruction; the teacher and two students detailed gains and classroom uses for personalized learning and MCAS prep.
Rogers Middle School teachers told the Rockland School Committee on Feb. 10 that the school moved this academic year from iReady to the IXL platform and are already seeing measurable student progress.
Mr. McAllister, a Rogers Middle School administrator, introduced the presentation and said the district shifted to IXL over the summer to give teachers more usable, real-time data across subjects. "We have since shifted to IXL, which was a move we made over the summer," McAllister said.
Ms. Coburn, a Rogers Middle School teacher who led the demonstration, said teachers are using IXL to let students "lead their own learning" and to target instruction to individual skill gaps. She described classroom practices including mastery-skill posters and a voluntary rewards system tied to student progress. "So every time that a student masters a skill on IXL, they color in one of those boxes, write their name in it," Coburn said, describing how students track growth and earn small rewards.
Two students who attended the presentation described personal gains. One student said, "I have gone from a 7 70 to 8 20. I am now able to do an eighth grade level scale. Vocabulary score has raised two grade levels." Another student said their writing test grades improved from "an 87 to a 98." Coburn also cited examples from the platform: one student moved from a diagnostic level described as "6 30" in September to "8 20" in December; another student had mastered 214 skills by January.
Coburn emphasized that teachers can generate short, targeted quizzes quickly and view results in real time to adjust instruction. "I made a quiz in about five minutes the other day," she said, describing a quick formative check she used after a unit on argument skills. The teacher said IXL flags specific weaknesses (for example, counterclaims or question-reading strategies) and mentors adjustments to classroom lessons immediately.
Committee members and other staff members noted they had used iReady in the past and welcomed the additional data IXL provides. The presenter said the system is currently used at the middle school and that the platform offers recommended lessons aligned to MCAS.
The presentation did not include formal votes or approvals; committee discussion was limited to questions and brief comments of support. Committee members and staff framed the change as a classroom-level instructional tool rather than a districtwide policy decision.
The committee's records show the presentation and student remarks occurred during the curriculum corner portion of the Feb. 10 meeting.
