Challenge

In 2008, Tracey Liparela, assistant to the superintendent of Lake-Lehman School District (LLSD) in Pennsylvania, began searching for an educational partnership that would provide an evidence-based standards mastery tool that could complement the district’s existing curriculum.

“I didn’t want to overhaul a reading or math or science series; I was looking for something that could be used in conjunction with our curriculum that wasn’t a workbook,” Mrs. Liparela explained. 

Mrs. Liparela found Study Island, Edmentum’s standards-aligned practice, test-preparation, and assessment tool, and a new partnership that would grow and expand over the years was born. In the decade-plus span that has followed, Mrs. Liparela would seek Edmentum’s support to address other needs as well, including course customization and virtual options that address student choice and staff shortages.

Solution

Study Island

Because Study Island is built from state standards, teachers weave its usage into their daily instruction and even utilize the Teacher Toolkit within the program to access lesson plans, project-based learning activities, virtual labs, and an array of different educational videos.

Mrs. Liparela stated, “Study Island runs the gamut from our elementary kids all the way through high school. We have experienced the parallel that exists between students’ success in Study Island and their success on a state assessment.”

There is not a singular time in the school day for students to be logged in to Study Island; teachers intersperse its usage throughout their instruction so that students are answering questions that directly connect back to the content that is being taught. 

Mrs. Liparela remarked, “Teachers love that it is something that helps the kids throughout the year as they work their way toward what the expectation is going to be in the spring for the state assessments, and it doesn’t feel disconnected from the curriculum.”

Courseware and EdOptions Academy

Shortly after LLSD implemented Study Island, district leaders realized that they also needed to be competitive in the cyberschool space to keep students within the district. After a few failed partnerships with other companies, Mrs. Liparela turned to Edmentum to see how she could expand the current partnership to include a fully virtual option for an in-district virtual school. In 2020, a handful of teachers piloted Edmentum Courseware with a cross section of students with different ability levels. Immediately, teachers and students took to the program. 

“Teachers loved it,” Mrs. Liparela reported. “They loved that they could make changes to the classes, that they could skip tests if needed, that they could let the kids retake tests. We learned so much about the platform that we now modify all the courses to match exactly what is happening in the brick-and-mortar setting so that no matter what setting students are in, they are
working on the same content at the same time.” 

Courseware became so quickly engrained within LLSD’s own virtual program that when a teaching position could not be filled, Mrs. Liparela once again turned to Edmentum for support. The district implemented EdOptions Academy to fill the staffing gap utilizing Pennsylvania-certified virtual teachers. Not only could LLSD continue to offer all the courses it had in the past, but administration could look to expand course offerings as well. 

Mrs. Liparela elaborated, “Some of the kids will do all their core academic content face-to-face, but they want to take the forensics class, or the marine biology class. The stuff that I can’t fill a classroom of kids and eat up a whole period, schedule-wise, we can offer them the cyber platform [EdOptions Academy], so it’s awesome.” 

Result 

Having a variety of options that allow students to practice what they are learning and expand their course options has truly made a difference in the culture at Lake-Lehman School District. Using Study Island to analyze data and adjust teaching and learning has supported student growth year after year. In fact, during the 2023–24 school year, students earned nearly 20,000 Blue Ribbons, a built-in reward for topic mastery, in Study Island. 

At the end of the 2022–23 school year, the number of students scoring proficient and above on the Pennsylvania System School Assessment (PSSA) was higher than the state average in math, English language arts, and science. High school students also scored higher than the state average on literature and Biology Keystone Exams.

Courseware and EdOptions Academy have continued to support students as they make critical decisions about their future, and the programs, including Study Island, help to ensure student success. With a graduation rate for the 2022–23 school year of 98.5 percent, students have been meeting the goals of the district’s vision statement and becoming successful members of the community with a desire to continue to learn and succeed.