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Background and Challenge
Bay County District Schools sits in Florida's panhandle — a region that has historically served far fewer English learners than Central or South Florida. In recent years that has changed. Today, the district enrolls 2,013 English learners — representing 62 different languages — and Bay County now ranks among the top 25 Florida districts for ELL enrollment.
With that growth came a challenge. The ELL subgroup kept showing up as underperforming in data reviews. Teachers at the elementary level felt the weight of this most. Adapting instruction to dozens of different language backgrounds — some students are the only speakers of their language in the entire district — while also delivering grade-level content, felt impossible. There was a constant sense of defeat and the tools purchased to help were sitting largely unused.
"Everything seemed separate," says Dr Lisa Tucker, Bay County’s Coordinator of ELL Programs.
"Students were doing one thing in the classroom— but when they would go to intervention, it didn’t connect. We were working against ourselves."
At Cedar Grove Elementary, Principal Crystal Boyette arrived to find her ELL students were among the subgroups showing the least growth. They were not getting enough structured intervention time, and the support they were getting was inconsistent. Then came a federal funding freeze that forced a harder look at every line item. The district was paying a high cost for low usage, and needed a solution that could serve every English learner at every level — at a price that made sense.
What happened next is what Tucker calls “a have-to that turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.”
The Solution
A System Built Around Each Student
After a soft pilot with secondary schools in the spring, Bay County launched Connect to Literacy™ across all grades K–12 at the start of the following school year. The approach from day one was the same across both schools featured here: the platform would serve every English learner at every level, providing personalized learning pathways that focused instruction where it was needed most.
At Cedar Grove, students rotate through stations during a dedicated daily intervention block. One of those stations is Connect to Literacy. The data from that station feeds directly into what happens at all the others. The ESOL teacher and the general education teachers are now all looking at the same progress data and having real conversations about what each student needs.
"There is no autopilot. Every day, every login, it is about what is best for the student," Tucker points out.
Flexible by Design
At Highland Park Elementary, interventionist Kelly Cox and three bilingual paraprofessionals made a deliberate choice not to lock into a rigid schedule. When a student mastered a skill, they moved on. When the data said a group needed more time in one domain, the schedule changed. Admin supported every pivot.
"It is not one-size-fits-all," says Highland Park Dean, Amber Corum. "We don't have to stick to a specific schedule all year. The students' needs adjust, and so do we."
That flexibility also changed how students felt about going to intervention. In past years, students did not want to leave the classroom. It made them feel different. This year, the intervention classrooms became places where cultural assets were celebrated — with room transformations, multicultural events, and goal celebrations. Students started looking forward to going.
Turning Practice Into Competence
Florida's first year moving to online WIDA Access created uncertainty across the state. Bay County's students went in prepared. The practice they had built through Connect to Literacy™ mapped directly to the format, the question types, and the level of response required on the assessment.
"Summit K12 is the best thing that has ever happened to our students," Cox said at a district meeting. "They have meaningful practice that they have never had before. They go in (to WIDA Access) with competence. They know what to expect."
At Cedar Grove, the writing gains were the most visible sign that something real had shifted. Students who arrived in Crystal Boyette's school refusing to pick up a pencil were now writing full sentences and using academic vocabulary with confidence. Their language was more precise. The data behind it backed up what teachers were seeing every day.
What Made The Difference
- Daily, structured intervention time. Every ELL student received meaningful intervention every day — not occasionally, not when scheduling allowed. The routine made the growth possible.
- Data that connected the classroom and the intervention room. Teachers could see what was happening at the Summit station and use it to shape their own instruction. No more working in silos.
- A flexible schedule that followed the student. When a student mastered a skill, they moved forward. When a group needed more time in one domain, the plan changed. Admin supported every adjustment.
- WIDA-aligned practice at scale. Students practiced reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the same format they would face on the real assessment. Familiarity built confidence, and confidence built competence.
- Partnership-level support from Summit K12. Tucker credits Summit's support team by name, calling the relationship more than a vendor connection: "No question has been too big. Everybody has been so responsive — and that is what has made this a success."
Looking forward, Kelly Cox has submitted a grant application for the Hola English Parent Academy — a program that puts complimentary family licenses to powerful use by inviting parents of ELL students into school not as observers, but as learners themselves. Parents step into the same learning journey as their children, and in doing so, something remarkable happens: students become their parents' guides.
That role reversal doesn't just build literacy. It builds confidence, fosters connection, and closes the distance between generations — one lesson at a time.
IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING SUMMIT K12
Dr. Tucker's advice is grounded in what she learned by doing it at scale. If she could start over, she would stagger the rollout — giving the K–2 group its own onboarding timeline, since the setup and support needs for that age group are meaningfully different from upper elementary and secondary.
Beyond that, her guidance is simple: build in sustained professional learning, hold the implementation accountable, and trust the data to tell you what to do next. Don't let the platform become a tool that teachers use because they have to. Let it become one they reach for because they know it works.
"Every day, every login — (Connect to Literacy) is all about what is best for the student," says Tucker.
The results at Bay County extended beyond the elementary level. At Rutherford High School, Dr. Todd Mitchell saw the same alignment playing out in his ELD classrooms:
“Summit K12 provides our students in the English Language Development course with a WIDA-aligned resource to build English proficiency and confidently practice grade-level academic vocabulary. The adaptive learning platform supports our ongoing work to increase graduation rates for English Language Learners.”
