Gulfport Virtual Academy's Approach to Teacher and Student Capacity

Overview

Between January 2022 and June 2023, the district featured below was one of 20 participants in The Learning Accelerator (TLA)’s Strategy Lab: Virtual & Hybrid program to address a problem of practice related to virtual and hybrid learning environments. Through their participation in Strategy Lab, this team was guided through a multi-step process to identify their unique goals and gaps before determining and designing measurable solutions to their challenge. The Strategy Lab program was based on the Real-Time Redesign (RTR) toolkit, which takes participants through a rapid, research-based, and field-tested process for making targeted improvement toward more equitable, effective, and engaging virtual/hybrid learning and included:

• Conducting a needs assessment, which included self- and team-assessments as well as empathy interviews

• Researching potential strategies to address the root cause(s) of their problem and achieve desired student outcomes

• Designing a measurable solution

• Conducting and measuring a pilot

• Planning for continuous improvements

For approximately 18 months, this district worked in Strategy Lab’s cohort model to identify and address a problem of practice specific to their virtual program – in this case, teacher and student capacity with technology. The district team gathered data, explored potential solutions, and then designed, implemented, measured, and reflected on a pilot program created to address teacher and student technology knowledge and skills. 

To learn more about TLA’s research on effective instruction as it relates to teacher and student capacity, please visit our Insight: Addressing Teacher and Student Capacity with Technology.

Gulfport Virtual Academy

A small, virtual school based in Mississippi serving 89 K-10 students, Gulfport Virtual Academy’s instructional model includes a combination of synchronous instruction for core classes and structured time for in-person or virtual asynchronous instruction for electives. They joined Strategy Lab because they wanted to grow and improve their virtual program to be a sustainable option for students.

Understanding the Challenge

The team identified two challenges:

1. The need to support students who struggled with asynchronous courses; and

2. The need to empower teachers to try new technologies and teaching practices to support learning in asynchronous courses.

Evidence from the team assessment revealed that district leaders believed teachers took advantage of the provided technology support and professional development. They also shared that teachers used a variety of technology tools for assessment and actionable feedback. However, the team noted that teachers were at the beginning stages of knowing how to leverage both asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences to meet their students’ needs. Of note, they specifically cited a gap around elective courses.

District leaders reported that students in the elective courses struggled with asynchronous lessons due to a lack of accountability, clarity in assignment instructions, and connectivity with teachers. Data from empathy interviews provided keen insight from the students’ perspective:

• Accountability: “Last year, we only [had three Zoom sessions], just in the beginning to see how we were doing. I would like to [have a Zoom session] for that class once a week.”

• Clarity: “The thing I don’t really like has to do with my asynchronous classes. When teachers type [directions] out, it’s confusing and I don’t know what they mean.”

• Connectivity: “In the classes I meet with my teachers regularly, I feel like I’m actually doing pretty good. The ones that I don’t meet with at all, though, I feel like I’m going to start failing because I don’t fully understand the instructions.”

Empathy interviews with parents confirmed what students experienced in the asynchronous classes. Upon further discussion about what they learned from speaking with students and families, the team deduced that synchronous time with elective teachers might be the right catalyst to increase motivation and engagement in elective classes.

Throughout the coaching process, the team discussed current policies and practices, and they ultimately identified a problem of practice: the challenge of how to redesign their asynchronous classes to foster student connection with teachers. To address this issue, the team decided to design and pilot a program to help teachers design effective virtual instruction for asynchronous learning tasks.

Designing and Piloting a Measurable Solution

The leadership team piloted a redesign of their asynchronous elective courses for grades seven and eight. To address student capacity, this redesign entailed adding real-time, synchronous student support. To address teacher capacity, the virtual learning coordinator met with the pilot teacher to set goals and expectations for the redesigned instructional model. The district also provided the teacher with a webcam and a Zoom account.

Although they were an experienced educator, this was the first year the pilot teacher taught computer science as well as the first time they delivered instruction virtually. Students were accustomed to synchronous instruction in their core academic classes, so the introduction of a synchronous session to their elective course would not likely be a difficult transition.

Although the inclusion of a synchronous session in a formerly asynchronous-only class was a challenging adjustment for some students, the pilot teacher relayed that, overall, students liked being able to ask questions and receive clarification around assignments. The district team also shared that they believed this instructional model led to opportunities for relationship-building between students and the pilot teacher.

The district leadership team is planning to use lessons learned from this pilot to iterate and try again. They are looking to expand the synchronous sessions across all electives next year, and they plan to conduct additional empathy interviews with students to better understand their learning needs. This plan aligns with the reason why Gulfport joined Strategy Lab: to grow and improve their virtual program to be a sustainable option for students.