SVVSD receives Innovative School Systems grant to support remote class options

Nov. 6—Two Lyons Middle/Senior students worked through a test in AP micro and macro economics on their iPads on Monday in a room off the school's library, switching to pencil and paper for questions that required drawing graphs.

Once finished, they submitted their test answers, including a photo of their work on paper, to their teacher, who is teaching the class in person at Longmont High School. The Longmont High class, as well as students at other high schools joining remotely, was visible on a large screen as they worked.

"Its going better than I thought it would," said junior Jordan Boldt, one of the two Lyons students in the class. "All our questions can be answered by the teacher. We can control our learning a little more. We can work ahead when there's homework."

St. Vrain Valley piloted the AGILE — Advanced Global Interactive Learning Environments — program with about 50 high school students last school year, then enrolled about 250 high school students this fall.

The program allows district high schoolers without access to their desired class to remotely join a class taught at another district high school. St. Vrain also is offering access to some of its classes to a small number of high school students from rural Colorado school districts.

As the district works to expand the program, a new grant will provide $136,000 for those efforts. The money will go toward technology, stipends for teachers and other program costs.

The Innovative School Systems Grant is part of a new initiative by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and the Walton Family Foundation. The overall goal is "to support public school systems that are proposing bold ideas to transform student learning," according to a news release. St. Vrain is one of 11 school systems nationwide chosen to participate.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education plans to publish lessons learned from the 11 school districts in a blog series, as well as provide a final report.

"When we had the pandemic and school shutdowns, we saw the power of remote learning and hybrid learning," said Kahle Charles, St. Vrain assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment. "We can give our students more opportunities and the ability to direct their own learning."

He said the district's plans include exploring offering the program at middle schools. Next semester, the Innovation Center also will offer remote access to some of its classes, while the district's Career Elevation and Technology Center will offer access to some of its classes next school year.

At the remote sites, students use their iPads to access class content and watch the in-person class on a large screen. At the host sites, the district uses specialized cameras that track the teacher using sound. Teachers receive training in best practices for remote learning and meet together monthly.

Lyons students had the option to take three AP classes remotely this year, increasing the school's total AP offerings to 11 classes. Along with AP economics, they are taking AP computer science and AP European history. Outside of AP classes, Lyons students can enroll remotely in art history.

"Having access to those classes has been a wonderful addition," Lyons Principal Christopher Frank said. "We would never be able to offer some of these classes at Lyons otherwise because of our size."

Another advantage, he said, is schools don't need to compete for the specialized teachers needed for many of the advanced classes. Plus, he said, it gives teachers a way to keep more specialized classes going.

"A lot of teachers are really passionate about their course areas and want to reach more kids," he said.

Lyons sophomore Sebastian Carheden, who is taking AP computer science remotely, said he signed up because he wanted to learn advanced computer science. He said it's been similar to a regular class, with the teacher presenting information, then giving students time to complete work.

"For a lot of our assignments, our teacher can see what we're doing and we can describe the problem if we need help," he said. "It seems to work well."

Senior Matt Hunter said he's taking the AP economics class because he's planning to major in business in college.

"I want to take the opportunity to learn what I can before college," he said. "The one thing Lyons lacks is lots of classes. This way, you can get all the benefits of a small school and a big school."