VICTORIA ISD: District Receives $125,000 Blended Learning Planning Grant

By Press release submission

Oct 26, 2020

Victoria ISD issued the following announcement on Oct. 22

VISD receives $125,000 Blended Learning Planning Grant to create Math Innovation Zones at two campuses.

Victoria ISD is the recipient of a $125,000 Blended Learning Planning Grant. This grant will create Math Innovation Zones at Hopkins Elementary School and Patti Welder Middle School. The district may also be eligible for continued funding in the amount of $100,000 during the first year of implementation.

Math Innovation Zones is a four-year process to design, launch, scale, and sustain a high-quality blended learning model in math throughout a K-8 feeder pattern. Blended learning is defined by the Clayton Christensen Institute as:

A formal education program in which a student learns:

at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.

Blended Learning combines face to face instruction with online learning by leveraging technology to assist teachers in diagnosing student prior knowledge, differentiation of academic paths for each student, and adjusting lesson execution based on real-time information about student mastery. Blended Learning can be categorized into one (or a hybrid) of four models: a rotational model, flex model, a la carte model and an enriched virtual model.

“VISD is working toward creating multiple learning pathways for students and teachers to inspire and empower their teaching and learning so that students and teachers may develop “their” genius,” explained Melissa Correll, VISD’s Director of Innovation. “By offering a technology-rich learning environment with a blended learning pathway we will increase equity of access in our district by allowing student and teachers choice in their preferred path, pace, and place.”

Planning for the Math Innovation Zones at Hopkins Elementary School and Patti Welder Middle School will take place during the 2021-2022 school year, with the blended learning model opening to students in the 2022-2023 school year.

Original source can be found here.