The 2019-20 school year drew concern for students’ learning when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to rapidly transition to remote learning. To understand the impact to student learning, Lexia Learning, a Rosetta Stone company (NYSE: RST), surveyed 3,500 educators and found that during the educational disruption period brought on by school closures during the spring semester, 86% of survey respondents using Lexia® Core5® Reading (Core5) or Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® (PowerUp) with their students felt that the products helped them more efficiently support student needs and learning. Moreover, those students who were able to access Lexia Learning products during the disruption were able to spend more time using the products each week, resulting in increased progress.
"During the stress and uncertainty of COVID, teachers were able to not only provide continuity of instruction, but they were able to support students in making independent progress in these extraordinary times,” said Dr. Liz Brooke, chief learning officer of Rosetta Stone. “Districts need to remain vigilant in choosing blended learning tools that provide some method for monitoring student learning/progress and deliver results in a variety of learning environments. Providing products that are proven to drive progress in closing literacy gaps, and support educators with actionable, real-time data on student progress, whether used in the classroom or at home remains our top priority.”
Educators Using Data Trends
As students worked independently in the online activities of Lexia's programs during the educational disruption period, real-time performance data was being collected through Lexia’s patented Assessment Without Testing®, an embedded assessment tool that allows teachers to access their student’s progress reports through their myLexia® accounts.
Brooke noted, “More educators than ever logged into myLexia during the school closures. In fact, 83% of those surveyed said that Lexia helped them monitor students’ learning during this time period.
“It’s comforting for teachers to have a program that's easy to use, easy to access, and makes it easy to see reliable data on the kids when teaching remotely,” said Meghan Ball, reading specialist at the Arthur T. Cummings School in Winthrop, Massachusetts. “The data shared in myLexia gives teachers the sense of student skill levels at any time of the year, even without our normal benchmark assessments being available.”
Lexia Core5 Trends
Core5 is research-proven and designed to accelerate the development of fundamental literacy skills for students of all abilities in grades pre-K-5. When their schools shifted to remote learning during the disruption period, student access to Core5 became a concern for many schools due to a lack of access to devices and internet connections. Consequently, fewer students logged into the program. But among the students who were able to use the program, there were noteworthy trends:
● Average weekly Core5 usage during the disruption period was 35% higher than average weekly usage during the first two months of 2020.
● The increased time spent using Core5 resulted in students completing an average of four more units per week during the disruption period compared to earlier in the year.
Lexia PowerUp Trends
The PowerUp, the research-proven, adaptive blended learning program is an intervention for non-proficient and struggling readers in grades 6-12. PowerUp provides learners with three different instructional strands: Word Study, Grammar, and Comprehension.
When their schools shifted to remote learning during the spring, students’ access to the program decreased, but as with Core5, there were noteworthy trends among those who were able to continue using PowerUp:
● Average weekly PowerUp usage during the disruption period was 17% higher than average weekly usage during the first two months of 2020.
● During the disruption period, a greater proportion of students using the program (28%) met their weekly usage targets as compared to just before the disruption (18%).
Kristina Pontes, English Language Arts Interventionist, Westport Community Schools, Massachusetts, concluded, "The fact that we could reach our students remotely, at their level, and provide research-proven, quality instruction is absolutely fantastic!"
About Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) is dedicated to changing people’s lives through the power of language and literacy education. The company’s innovative digital solutions drive positive learning outcomes for the inspired learner at home or in schools and workplaces around the world. Founded in 1992, Rosetta Stone’s language division uses cloud-based solutions to help all types of learners read, write, and speak more than 30 languages. Lexia Learning, Rosetta Stone’s literacy education division, was founded more than 30 years ago and is a leader in the literacy education space. Today, Lexia helps students build fundamental reading skills through its rigorously researched, independently evaluated, and widely respected instruction and assessment programs. For more information, visit www.rosettastone.com. “Rosetta Stone” is a registered trademark or trademark of Rosetta Stone Ltd. in the United States and other countries.
