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Lorenzo de Zavala
Elementary School

Profile

Of the 615 students who attend Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary in rural Edinburg, TX, 90% are economically disadvantaged, 61% have limited English proficiency, and 23% are migrants.

Goals

Serving an At-Risk Student Population

With a highly mobile student population, Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary was looking for a technology solution that provided individualized instruction and a way to assess and monitor progress on a regular basis. In 1992, the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District had implemented SuccessMaker®, a Pearson Digital Learning product, at all 26 elementary schools. When Graciela Perez became principal of de Zavala in 1998, she decided to use technology to support the school's instruction and curriculum by expanding the use of SuccessMaker to all students, every day. Mrs. Perez had previously implemented SuccessMaker at Hargill Elementary in Edinburg and had great success in student achievement.

"Since we had SuccessMaker, I wanted to use the software to its full potential," said Graciela Perez, Principal of Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary. "The benefits are tremendous and the self-esteem of the students makes it all worthwhile. Our demographics indicate that this is a low-socioeconomic, linguistically challenged, and highly mobile population, and yet we have been able to achieve great success with this program."

Implementation

30 Minutes for Every Student, Every Day

Each student at Lorenzo de Zavala uses SuccessMaker for 30 minutes of reading and mathematics instruction each day. De Zavala has two SuccessMaker computer labs, each with 24 workstations. The early childhood lab serves kindergarten through second-grade students, while the intermediate lab serves third through fifth-grade students. Both labs are supervised by paraprofessionals, who enroll all students, modify instruction on an individual basis, and monitor students' progress daily. In fact, at Lorenzo de Zavala the classroom teacher takes a grade daily in computer lab.

Classroom teachers accompany their students to the lab each day to monitor performance and record progress. To help individual students improve skills in areas where they are weak, teachers can request individualized skills worksheets from the lab teacher. Teachers can also take a snapshot of a certain skill so they can reteach that skill in class.

"Since most teachers had never experienced this type of structure before, the initial SuccessMaker implementation wasn't easy," said Principal Perez. "But our teachers now feel that SuccessMaker has empowered them by providing them with an individualized system for instruction. They love it!"

To further integrate SuccessMaker into the classroom, Lorenzo de Zavala has correlated the regular curriculum in grades K-2 with SuccessMaker courseware for reading and mathematics. The teachers in grades 3-5 integrate ExploreWare courses such as Reading Adventures and Science Discovery with their classroom curriculum.

At the end of six weeks, classroom teachers turn their students' SuccessMaker scores in to Perez along with copies of all reports that have been generated. After Perez has closely reviewed each report, she meets with the classroom teacher, the curriculum assistant, and the lab teacher. "The campus principal must be the one to set the expectations and model by example, " said Perez. At these meetings, teachers must propose a strategy for addressing each student's areas of weakness. The five lowest-performing students are identified, and the classroom paraprofessionals write lesson plans for working with those students to help them improve. According to Perez, "SuccessMaker has significantly impacted instruction by helping teachers become more aware of how to help their students succeed in the areas of reading and math." De Zavala also shares the reports with parents and students.

De Zavala uses the SuccessMaker gains report to identify the class with the highest gains in reading and mathematics for each grade. The most improved class receives a large congratulatory banner to hang outside the classroom for the next six weeks, plus a party where each student receives a sports bottle or popcorn-filled megaphone emblazoned with the school logo.

"Our students feel successful, and they love the fact that their teachers and their principal are monitoring their progress," said Perez. "They look forward to going to the lab, and compete with each other to see who can improve the most."

In addition to recognizing whole class achievement, Lorenzo de Zavala features the photographs of the three students with the highest gains in the SuccessMaker Hall of Fame. Three new students are selected every six weeks when report cards come out.

Lorenzo de Zavala also extends the use of the lab to the many non-English speaking parents in the community. Parent volunteers visit the lab for 30 minutes each day to use Discover English and Spanish math courseware. According to Perez, "SuccessMaker has proven to be a successful tool not only for our students, but for their parents and the community."

Remarkable Results

Significant Gains for All Students

Lorenzo de Zavala has seen tremendous improvement in Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) scores from 1998-2002 and Texas Academic Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for 2002-2003. Not only has the school improved as a whole, but students with limited English proficiency and migrants have also seen impressive gains.

• Schoolwide TAAS state percentile rankings in reading have steadily improved from 59.8% in 1998 to 78.5% in 1999 to 82% in 2000.
• In mathematics, schoolwide TAAS state percentile rankings have increased from 62% in 1998 to 84.2% in 1999 to 86.7% in 2000.

Students with limited English proficiency have made remarkable improvements in mathematics and reading:

• Third-grade TAAS mathematics state percentile rankings went from 63% in 1998 to 73% in 2000. Third-grade reading rankings improved from 67% in 1998 to 77% in 2000.
• Fifth-grade TAAS mathematics rankings increased from 75% in 1998 to 88% in 2000.

For migrant students, TAAS mathematics and reading gains were equally impressive:

• Third-grade TAAS mathematics state percentile rankings went from 86% in 1998 to 90% in 2000. Third-grade reading rankings dramatically improved from 67% in 1998 to 90% in 2000.
• Fourth-grade TAAS mathematics rankings increased from 75% in 1998 to 86% in 2000. Fourth-grade reading rankings significantly improved from 75% in 1998 to an amazing 100% in 2000.
• Fifth-grade TAAS mathematics rankings made a tremendous leap from 75% in 1998 to a perfect 100% in 2000. Fifth-grade reading rankings improved from 75% in 1998 to 88% in 2000.

The success at Lorenzo de Zavala has continued to grow throughout the years. Below is a TAAS comparison report by special populations for 2001-2002 for reading and writing in grades third, fourth and fifth.

In 2003 the scores with the implementation state assessment TAKS went down slightly in some areas but were high in others. Perez says, "We continue to experience success in our student achievement, and I credit SuccessMaker for the fantastic scores in Third Grade reading, which was 87 percent in March and 100 percent in April." She says, "None of our third graders failed the TAKS in April and no one had to attend summer school. The math scores of 89 percent were also high. This new test was much more challenging than the TAAS test and yet we were able to maintain our achievement levels."

"The use of SuccessMaker has had a significant impact on student achievement, as evidenced by the high scores on our state assessment tests," said Principal Perez. "By helping students achieve reading and math success, SuccessMaker has also helped them improve in other content areas. It is a great vehicle for instruction, and the faculty at Zavala has become great teachers with its help. We have trained our entire district and have presented at valley, state and national conferences because we wish to share our success story with others."

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