4/7/2020

Chicago Public Schools Is On a Mission to Provide Personalized Instruction for Students of All Abilities

To prepare their students for success in an increasingly global economy, the Chicago Public School District is committed to strengthening its students’ academic performance. By 2024, through its five-year plan the district hopes to have 65% of its 2nd graders at or above national attainment benchmarks for reading. In order to achieve this aim and ensure that all of their schools are equitable, inclusive, and supportive of every student, CPS has adopted a Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework (MTSS), with the goal of  identifying struggling students early so that they may effectively intervene.

Lexia® Core5® Reading, Lexia’s personalized literacy instructional program for students in grades Pre-K–5, is approved by Chicago Public Schools and aligns with MTSS goals to help students become proficient readers and confident learners. This research-proven program provides explicit, systematic, personalized learning in the six areas of reading instruction, targeting skill gaps as they emerge, and providing teachers with the data and student-specific resources they need for individual or small-group instruction.
 

Students Make Literacy Gains Through Personalized Learning
 

Educators are expected to differentiate and adapt instruction for every student in their classroom but often lack the necessary time and resources to successfully do so. Incorporating a blended learning program like Lexia into the classroom helps alleviate these problems.

With Lexia, each student controls the pace and path of their learning. When they first log in, students are placed automatically at the proper level based on their performance and work independently on developing fundamental reading skills. Lexia provides explicit, systematic, and adaptive learning, along with scaffolding for struggling students who may need additional instruction.
 

Data-Driven Instruction Predicts and Prescribes
 

The use of a data-driven problem-solving process is the backbone of an effective Multi-Tiered System of Supports. Lexia’s patented embedded assessment tool, Assessment Without Testing®, collects students’ real-time performance data as they work in the program, without ever pausing to administer a test. These data reports help teachers quickly prioritize and identify tiers of instruction and instructional groups without sifting through pages of data. 

Lexia’s data reports also help teachers predict their students’ risk of reading failure and provides each student’s percent chance of reaching end-of-year benchmarks. Color-coded icons signify risk level in order to visually help educators to quickly assess and compare the risk of reading failure associated with their students, classes, schools, or district. Based on this data, Lexia provides educators with a “Prescription of Intensity”—recommended levels of instructional intensity for each student—designed to improve each student's chance of reaching end-of-year benchmarks.

Struggling Students

If a student struggles in a particular activity, the program provides a level of scaffolding, removing some of the answer choices and stimuli on the screen. Once the student demonstrates that they understand the skill, they have the opportunity to try the activity again. If the student continues to struggle, Lexia provides explicit instruction on the concepts and rules of the skill, allowing the student to demonstrate proficiency and then return to the standard activities.

For each particular skill a student struggles with, Lexia offers structured, skill-specific instructional materials, called Lexia Lessons, which provide step-by-step lessons following the Gradual Release of Responsibility model for a teacher or paraprofessional to address the student’s specific skill gap.
 

On-Target and Advanced Students

Advanced students have the opportunity to accelerate beyond their grade level skills, as they are given the ability to demonstrate proficiency in each skill area, and are advanced to the next level in the program if no instruction is needed. When a student successfully completes a skill, Lexia provides a set of paper-and-pencil activities, called Lexia Skill Builders, for independent work or activities in peer groups. These activities are designed to build automaticity that has been mastered in the online activities and expand students’ expressive skills through discussions and written responses. Extension activities can also provide additional flexibility for teachers; while some struggling students are pulled aside for direction instruction, on-target and advanced students can continue to work independently.
 

Your Success is Our Success
 

No two schools have the exact same needs—that's why Lexia's Success Partnerships are customizable and can be delivered through a variety of flexible models for different learner types. To achieve your school or district's unique goals, Lexia’s team of implementation experts partner with you to develop a year-long, personalized implementation plan that takes your student population and professional learning needs into account.

With Lexia Implementation Services you are fully supported from day one, making the process as seamless as possible. From technical set-up guidance and on-site training, to organizing, scheduling, and delivering web-based professional learning sessions, we set you up for success. Online, self-paced training courses in areas like structured literacy and the science of reading give teachers the extra boost of confidence they need to meet the demands of differentiated instruction.

Lexia Academy supports educators’ professional growth with self-paced, meaningful, and relevant learning opportunities—anytime, anywhere. Courses are structured with incremental learning segments to help busy educators of all levels immediately apply their newly acquired skills in the classroom.

Our multimodal learning formats are designed to facilitate direct application and bolster knowledge acquisition. You can learn about literacy instruction best practices via interactive content including videos delivered by our literacy experts, and reinforce learning with digital badges, printable instructional resources, and course completion certificates.

With Lexia, teachers in Chicago are empowered to provide personalized learning for students of all abilities and support the strong literacy goals of the CPS five-year vision.