Walton Academy

The Walton County School District serves around 14,000 Pre-K through 12th-grade students in 15 schools. There are three clusters, each with one high school, one middle school and three elementary schools.

Introduction

Walton Academy is an ‘at-risk’ dropout prevention, Title I school offering services to students in grades 6-12. Students selected all scored 1 and 2 on previous FCAT Reading or demonstrated literacy deficiencies via other assessments. All students had 2+ years behind re:reading level.

Focus

84 students were selected to participate in Lexonik. Two teachers delivered Lexonik, one was an ESE teacher who provided Lexonik 2-3 times per week and 2-4 periods per day. The other teacher offered Lexonik daily, one period a day.

Implementation

Grades 6-12. Students selected all scored 1 and 2 on previous FCAT Reading or demonstrated literacy deficiencies via other assessments. All students had 2+ years behind re:reading level.

All students were academically delayed students with varying causation for deficits, including attendance, behavior, learning disabilities, ELL, etc. As this was our pilot year, and at this time, there was limited USA data supporting the program, we had limited expectations on what the results would be. However, we were eager to try the program as each student had a history of not responding to traditional educational strategies. We had ‘hoped’ we could raise reading age gain by one year by the end of the program.

Results

We had an average reading age gain of 35 months among the 84 students involved in the pilot, with a low score of 8 months and high of 85 months. The program was delivered two ways, incentive based and non-incentive based. By far, offering weekly pizza parties, Lexonik T-shirts, etc. had a profound impact on students. Kids were begging to be included in the next groups, observed increases in attendance, reduced discipline among and overall classroom success evident.

Achievements

Campus-wide, this program was embraced and all teachers presented a cohesive approach to utilizing Lexonik resources in classrooms. Median score 71% Student Growth Percentile (SGP) on STAR Assessment for students involved in the pilot. These students significantly exceeded ‘mainstream’ Walton County School District SGP averages in grades 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. The impact of Lexonik was nothing short of miraculous. At this time, Walton Academy ran a year two program, furthermore, the results attracted the attention of Walton County School District who is now in the second year of their pilots.