Challenge

International College is a leading bilingual (English and Spanish) school based in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The student population is diverse, with 550 students across 19 nationalities. Most of the students speak English as a second or, in some cases, third language.

In 2020, International College began to search for a new learning program to replace the one they originally used to acquire a platform that better suited their needs. The school was also looking for a learning program that would adapt to the southern hemisphere’s academic calendar. Furthermore, student voice and input are highly important to the learning process at International College, so they needed a program that their students would choose to support them with their learning.

Mr. Samuel Irving, Deputy Head of Primary at the school, states that “as a forward-facing school that looks to embrace impactful educational technology, we had a subscription to an alternative adaptive diagnostic platform before learning of Edmentum. Our existing service struggled to adapt to the southern hemisphere’s academic calendar, which prompted a search for alternatives. Our students trialed a shortlist of adaptive platforms, including Edmentum, rating and reviewing them on numerous criteria. They ultimately selected Edmentum for its engaging learning path lessons and the satisfaction derived from mastery of individual skills.”

Solution

Since this decision was made, Edmentum Exact Path has been used at the school effectively to cater to their third- to sixth-grade students’ needs by providing them with individualized learning paths.

Indeed, the individualized learning paths have particularly supported their English language learner (ELL) students. As the vast majority of the student cohort are non-native speakers of English, this is a significant benefit for the school. Exact Path supports these students by giving them learning resources at their level to complete at their own pace, directly helping them with their English learning.

Expanding on this, Mr. Irving says that, “The vast majority of our students are non-native speakers of English, which inevitably leads to significant variations in our classrooms’ Lexile Levels. We use the Reading and Language Arts Diagnostic Results to identify areas in need of grade-wide reinforcements."

Furthermore, the school has also experienced exemplary customer support from Edmentum since the relationship began in 2020. This has supported the International College with viewing Edmentum as their ‘partner’ and seeing them as a solution to their needs. Mr. Irving says that, “From the moment we made the switch to Edmentum, the client support has been industry-leading. Edmentum has run countless workshops for our teachers and administrators, helping them to get the most out of the platform. All our requests (no matter how mundane!) receive prompt, friendly, and detailed responses. They have also volunteered to run a workshop for families, which we will be looking to organize in due course.”

Result

Since using the learning program, International College has seen real success with Exact Path, particularly with the support they have received. This has helped them with feeling highly satisfied with their choice of partnering with Edmentum. The school has already recommended it to other schools in South America, as Mr. Irving states, “We have already recommended it to two bilingual schools in Argentina! Edmentum Exact Path has offered us a sense of security on several levels. Not only has it helped us to navigate the pandemic in a way that ensures continuity for our community, but it has also helped us to adapt our curriculum in a data-led manner to best support both teachers and learners. This has been underpinned by the excellent technical support we have received from the team at Edmentum.”

Edmentum will continue to support the International College in Uruguay with its future endeavors and providing them with those significant individualized learning opportunities. Edmentum will also continue to provide the highly commendable support the school has commented on and received so that the International College’s goals are always met successfully.