School Board Purchases New Platform To Help Bring DMS Students To Proficiency

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

The major topic of the April 22nd meeting of the Dade County Board of Education was permanently adding a subscription-based learning site called IXL Learning to the Dade Middle School (DMS) toolbox of resources.

First, Superintendent Josh Ingle reported that Dade County High School seniors attended a personal finance seminar with Dale Alexander (who also spoke to last year’s seniors).

Ingle noted that the STEM camp for rising third-sixth graders will be May 28-31st. The previous school board meeting discussed the grant that Tonya Gatlin applied for that will fund this camp.

Called ACE (Automate, Capture, Equip), the summer camp is free for students and only has 100 slots available. Three CTAE (Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education) teachers will lead the camp: Josh Hurst, Mike Beeler, and Allison Vice. Email tonyagatlin@dadecs.org for more information.

Ingle also reported that the Georgia Department of Education released the 2022 CTAE graduation rate. Across the state, 97.75 percent of students in CTAE pathways graduated, which is over 13 percent higher than the standard graduation rate.

He added that the plan for ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) is available for public review. Ingle said, “Once these federal funds go away, there will be no more.” Contact or stop by the central office to see the plan.

Under action items, the monthly financials were approved as usual, with Loran Grasham reporting that we are nearing the bottom of the SPLOST V pot, with $120,446.62 left and a major computer purchase (as approved at last month’s meeting) coming up. SPLOST VI is currently at $7,656,609.49.

The board approved an expense of $19,403.70 for additional Davis Elementary School construction materials and inspections (as part of the rebuild project).

Returning to the STEM summer camp, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce which states that the nearly $28,000 grant from the chamber will be used for the camp.

Michelle Beeler (DMS principal) and Michael Wilborn (DMS academic coach) then reported on the test run of IXL Learning this year at the middle school and proposed purchasing the subscription for next school year.

IXL Learning is an online platform that assesses students’ skill deficits and produces a personalized learning plan based on the assessment. Beeler and Wilborn explained that the MAP assessments used by the school show the deficits but stop there. Beeler said, “We have all this rich data, but what do we do with it?”

The school plans to add Extended Learning Time (ELT) back to the schedule, which is when students needing IXL can use the program. Beeler said that ELT had been ineffective at the middle school “because we gave teachers a roster and said, ‘These children have deficits. Figure it out.’ IXL meets the need.”

Wilborn noted that COVID-19 did impact student learning, but he said, “One of these days, we have to drop the fact that we went through COVID and these kids were out of school, and we’ve gotta progress and get these students where they need to be.”

He then reported that the middle school was able to test the program this year on the bottom 20th percentile of students (54 students) for free. To fully integrate IXL into the school, it costs $24 per student who needs the program.

Through the test run of IXL, the school found that 38 of the 54 students moved out of the bottom 20th percentile. Wilborn noted several students in particular who moved from percentiles in the teens to percentiles in the 60s–a major improvement. He noted that many who didn’t test out of low percentiles had poor attendance records.

Wilborn noted that by encouraging teachers to “teach the standards,” learning gaps have been missed, saying, “If teachers are just focusing on the standards for their grade, you’re never filling in the deficits that kids have.”

Beeler and Wilborn explained that the elementary schools will not use IXL because there are other elementary resources and the schools don’t want students to be burned out on IXL by the time they reach middle school.

Jennifer Hartline (Sand Mountain district) and Jayne Griffin (At-Large) asked several questions to better understand how the program works. In particular, Griffin asked if the school will still need IXL in five years. Beeler and Wilborn answered that it depends on the status of students entering from elementary school.

Beeler added that looking at students entering kindergarten and first grade, “You’ve got one child who’s been read to, they know their alphabet already, and you’ve got one child who doesn’t even know their name. As long as that exists, you’re always going to have gaps.”

Griffin also asked if IXL was difficult for teachers to learn how to use or if it felt like one more thing they had to do. Ingle said, “I think they appreciated it because now they have a tool to provide these interventions rather than trying to create something on their own.” Beeler said that Wilborn did much of the prep work for teachers.

Ingle recommended the $12,000 purchase for the first-year subscription to IXL Learning. Because it has never been used in Dade schools before, it is a SPLOST-allowable purchase. The board approved the purchase.

The personnel report is as follows:

• Retirements (end of FY24 school year): LaMerle Howard
• Resignation from Athletic Director (end of FY24 school year): Jonathan Page
• Resignations from Coaching (end of FY24 school year): Jennifer Wood (tennis), Molly Rogers (cheer), Tammy Stevens (basketball, volleyball), Dustin White (track), Andy Williams (wrestling), Chris Brown (softball), James Emmett (football)
• Resignations (end of FY24): Megan Baugh, Kathryn Gadd
• Hire: FY25 Certified Personnel, Spring Shutt, Hannah Richmond, Brandi Parker, Allison Jackson, Jacey Hill, Dora Lea Branch, Kathy Hiland
• Hire Substitute Teacher: Katelynn Stevens
• Voluntary Transfer: Allison Thompson, Bailey Godwin