2022-24 Program Evaluation: Game Development Design School
Leaders at the Game Development Design School (GDDS) in Burleson, Texas, committed to implementing the Modern Classrooms instructional model throughout their school community. One year later, GDDS had seen big changes in teacher instruction and significant growth in schoolwide student achievement scores.
Here's what GDDS leaders Crystal Deaver and Josh White believe made the schoolwide implementation successful:
Educating parents. Crystal informed all parents and guardians of the MCP rollout and encouraged them to enroll in Modern Classrooms Free Online Course to learn more
Weekly PLC meetings. Crystal and Josh meet weekly with teachers in small groups to review each others' work (videos, mastery checks) and assess their alignment with MCP's Implementation and Growth Rubric.
Quick response to teacher needs. After each PLC meeting, teachers are invited to submit questions or needs for resources through a Google form. Assistant Principal Josh White shares, "if there’s something [teachers] have a question about Monday, we can fix it by Wednesday.”
Student Achievement Data
Each year, Texas students take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. Despite facing teacher shortages and implementing a new approach to instruction, student performance improved on the state readiness exam.
Some highlights from the data:
30% more students met proficiency in Algebra 1 and Biology
Proficiency jumped more than 20 percent in all 8th-grade subjects (math, reading, social studies, and science)
Read more about this partnership in TechNotes, the TCEA blog or in the TCEA newsletter on LinkedIn.
