Data Driven Review (Green Dot Challenge) for SSA Achievement

The goal of our program is to show accelerated growth and gains in student achievement for the third consecutive year in a row. The gains will be due to a structured approach that allows the students to review the science concepts the State of Florida designates as a Standard from grades six through eight. While reviewing, student progress is collected and reported to the teacher as raw data that is easily accessible and immediately acted upon. The word acted here is not hollow. Students who do not master the learning standard are retaught, assigned remediation work, and allowed to test again upon completion to demonstrate their progress in mastering the concept.

The Green Dot Challenge is structured to begin in the fourth quarter of the year. During the fourth quarter the Collier County Public School’s scope and sequence sets aside the final quarter to review the standards learned across three years for SSA testing. While the students are in class concepts that the teachers deemed important enough to emphasize in the science standards are actively reviewed. Simultaneously students would be given a short homework assignment covering the concepts learned in the grade 8 material. Finally, through Progress Learning (formerly USA Test Prep) students would select three review assignments to be completed out of a pool of 33. These review assignments are not random; each are highly focused upon the Florida State Science Standards for grades 6 - 8. Students are allowed to choose which of the three Florida Science standards they will work on each week but eventually all 33 will be addressed. They are then independently tracked by the program in the standard they selected, this is entirely self-guided and then graded in such a way that if the children scored 80% or above, they would earn a "green dot." This earned “green dot” meant that they had mastered the concepts contained in the standard. If their score was less than 80%, the program would assign them a remediation assignment. This usually takes the form of a short exploratory video that retaught the concept contained in the standard. After completing the remediation content, which normally consists of review videos and questions, the students are allowed to test again to demonstrate growth. The students are allowed to review, consult with their former instructors, partake in review via Khan Academy, retake the test as needed, and demonstrate their growth. Should they achieve 80% or above they are then assigned the level "Green". At the conclusion of the week (Friday) the teacher examines the report generated by progress learning. If the students complete the three new standards with the rank of green, they earn credit for doing the work. If it is on time, they also earn a ticket. Tickets are given once a week for that week. They must have completed three new green dots to receive their “pass” grade for that week, and it must be completed on time to earn their green dot challenge ticket. The students are then allowed to write their name in permanent ink upon the back of the ticket they earned, their teacher's name, and period. During the lunch period, the students take their ticket and turn it into the green dot box. At the end of every two-week period five people are drawn from the box and they win prizes donated by the teachers and the participating vendors. At the end of the day they pick up their prizes and take photographs for recognition during the weekly news announcements. Prizes can be Golden Gate High School gear to something like wireless earbuds, rod and reel combinations, and a flat screen television. The best parts of this system that we are asking for is that the students want to do their best, they want the tickets that represent their chances to win, the system can't easily be gamed, questions asked in review are randomized, from a pool, and are reassembled after every attempt so that no two combinations are exactly the same. Finally the system allows struggling learners the grace to be retaught at home, to relearn old concepts and their own pace, and the ability to refresh their memory on the concepts that they may have forgotten in the year(s) that follow. The first year (2024 -2025) that we engaged in this platform we saw historic gains in our school wide science scores. Our scores rose from 50% to 58% proficiency. The unprecedented rise in our scores contributed to Golden Gate Middle School being named an A school for the first time in recent memory. The second year running this program was last year and funded by Champions for learning. In the 2025 -2026 academic calendar year, our scores once again rose from 58% to 63% proficiency allowing us to retain our forward momentum and keep our A school classification for the first time in the history of Golden Gate Middle School. We are asking for funding once again from Champions for Learning since with it we will have the opportunity to present longitudinal data to demonstrate the effectiveness of this program in terms of student outcomes. Our school demographically is classified as a Title 1 school with multicultural and multilingual influences requiring multi-level learning style platforms. It is the opinion of the teachers here (Mr. Fernando, Mrs. Payne, and Mrs. Brodowsky) that we can deliver meaningful changes in student outcomes for children who attend schools that are traditionally classified as Title 1 by implementing review platforms such as the "Green dot challenge." Funding this project represents targeted funding because your funds take direct advantage of cultural trends within the current generation that finds great value in overcoming "challenges" and broadcasting both their competitiveness and their achievement to their peers. Finally, this project is intrinsically motivating, the prizes and the challenges hide the fact that they are relearning the concepts in one quarter that took years to teach. It builds their confidence and prepares them to take a test by increasing their resiliency, grit, and determination.

The benefit of funding this project is that your money is going to the entirety of the eighth-grade class here at Golden Gate Middle School. All the teachers who are requesting this grant (Mr. Fernando, Mrs. Payne, and Mrs. Brodowsky) are committed to making this program succeed across the entire student body. We already have a working framework in place that is tested by two years of implementation. A school environment that wants to contribute to our success, private donations and funding sources for prizes already in place, pledges in place to continue, and a commitment that engages all of the members of the community such as small businesses like Il Primo Pizza to provide the prizes that children get excited about and want to win. This is what we believe will also translate in the end of this academic calendar year into data that will show conclusively to the district that this program is capable of raising student achievement in the most at-risk students and that the framework that has been implemented is something that the district should seriously consider at other title schools throughout the district.

We are asking from the Champions for Learning Grant the maximum of $2000. This will cover the cost of the Green Dot Challenge and access to all the middle school science standard questions, remediation materials, and tools across grades 6 – 8 starting in the fourth quarter. This will also cover the cost of taxes that are imposed at the point of delivery. Should any funds remain we request that they be allowed to be spent upon supplemental prizes for further motivating student achievement.

2000.00

Progress Learning: Green Dot Challenge Suite

$1,900