A Diverse District With a Big Goal
Harrison County Public Schools sits along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and serves families from around the world. As the second largest district in the state, it runs 21 schools and supports about 815 multilingual learners from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Students arrive speaking around 12 different home languages and span a multitude of proficiency levels in English.
The district’s EL Specialist, Shelly Silvas, knows the work is never the same on any two campuses. Some schools serve a small handful of multilingual learners. Others serve dozens. What they all share is one goal: help every student grow on the ELPA21 proficiency scale and exit the program as rapidly as possible to access other opportunities.
When the first ELPA21 results came back, the elementary schools had a breakthrough year. A total of 164 students exited the program in a single cycle, the most the district had ever seen. The high schools told a different story. Older students were stuck, and since the tools used by the district were built for younger kids. Shelly needed something that would meet teens where they needed to grow.
The Challenge: High School Writers Who Weren’t Moving
At Harrison Central High School, EL teacher Debbie Bird was new to the role and facing a hard question: how do you teach a test you have never seen, to students who have been in the program since kindergarten? When the past year’s ELPA21 scores came back, one weakness stood out for almost all of her students. Writing was the skill that was holding them back.
Down the road at D’Iberville High School, Mayra Ramshur taught a class that looked like the whole world had come together in one room. Sixty percent of her students were Hispanic, ten percent were Vietnamese, and the rest came from the Philippines, China, and the Middle East. She did not speak every home language, and her students did not always feel safe speaking up. She had one clear goal for the year — move every student up at least one proficiency level.
Both teachers needed the same thing. They had to find a way to identify each student’s real needs, give them practice that mirrored the ELPA21 assessment, and free up time to coach them face to face.
The Search for a Better Solution
Shelly first heard about Summit K12 during a webinar. She came in unsure and walked out completely sold on the concept. The platform puts each student on a personalized learning pathway, deciphers what they need to focus on, and lines every activity up with the ELPA21 — including the benchmark practice assessments. When she found out about free family access accounts, Shelly knew that Connect to Literacy would elevate outcomes across the district.
One school got creative right away. Many families did not have steady internet at home, so staff opened the computer lab during after-school events and sports nights. Parents and students could log in and learn together, creating a connected learning experience for the whole community.
The Solution: A Tool That Frees Teachers to Teach
Once Connect to Literacy™ was up and running, the biggest shift was how teachers could focus their time. The platform handled the grading, scoring, and feedback that used to eat up Debbie’s afternoons. That freed her up to do the work only a teacher can do — sit next to a student, read the feedback together, and provide targeted instruction that really helped students to move forward.
Debbie built a simple routine that became her classroom signature. Students wrote a response and got instant feedback from the platform. Then they met with her at a small table. Together they walked through the rubric one line at a time, talked about what the feedback had flagged, and drafted a revised response. After that, they went back to the computer for another round and could compare the results. Students really started to understand how to stretch themselves and improve their scores.
“Once that was all freed up for me, I was like, oh, this is just communication, accountability, checking up. Because you’re doing those hard parts, I could do these parts — and I could go over the feedback, and set goals.”
— Debbie Bird, EL Teacher, Harrison Central High School
Across the bay at D’Iberville High School, Mayra saw a different kind of breakthrough. Students who rarely spoke up in class started leaning over to compare answers and share their thoughts. Speaking practice on the platform helped them work on their pronunciation. Reading practice pulled them into their notebooks. And when a quiet student from China named Jessie Lin shared her feelings about the program, they truly reflected the impact it was having.
“I feel that it is good because it has different things that I can learn, like writing and reading. I learned many things, and it shows what I need to learn.”
— Jessie Lin, Student, D’Iberville High School
Most Impactful Features
- Personalized Learning Plans that find each student’s real gaps and skip the work they have already mastered
- Instant, rubric-based feedback on writing that frees teachers from hours of grading and opens up time for one-on-one coaching
- ELPA21-aligned practice across reading, writing, listening, and speaking, so students see the test format long before test day
- Built-in benchmark practice that gives teachers real data to act on in December, not in May
- Free family accounts that bring learning home, with creative wins like after-hours computer lab access for families without internet
- A platform built for older learners, so middle and high school students actually want to use it
The Results: Confidence That Travels Beyond the EL Classroom
The biggest results at Harrison County didn’t just show up in a score report. They showed up in students who had been stuck for years and finally started to move forward, gain confidence, and feel motivated.
Debbie watched her students climb one to two points after each round of revision, a kind of growth she had rarely seen before. Many of these students had been English learners since kindergarten. Moving even one point used to feel out of reach. Now they were doing it on purpose, and they were doing it more than once.
“The magic of Summit was knowing what the test was like so I could do well on it.”
— Student, Harrison Central High School
Mayra witnessed her students taking charge of their progress, comparing exercises with classmates, and pushing each other to do better. The shyer ones found a way in and the confident ones got a chance to lead.
Maybe the biggest surprise was what happened outside the EL classroom. The ELPA21 asks students to make claims, back them up with evidence, read charts, and interpret graphs. That is the same thinking their English and science classes ask for every day. Debbie watched grades go up in subjects she did not even teach.
“They’re having more success in other content areas because they understand things we’ve gone over in class — reasoning, evidence, charts. I’ve seen grades go up. It’s not just an English competency increase — it’s across all content.”
— Debbie Bird, EL Teacher, Harrison Central High School
Advice for Other Districts
When Shelly is asked what other district leaders should know before they start, her answer is simple. Do not let the platform do the teaching for you. Use it as a partner.
“I would say to think out of the box. Don’t just feel stuck to the computer. Face-to-face instruction is still the best. Use the program to find the gaps, then come back together as a class, in small groups, in conversation. Be creative with it.”
— Shelly Silvas, EL Specialist, Harrison County Public Schools
Mayra says the same thing. 20-30 minutes of focused practice every day — paired with strong classroom teaching — is what drives meaningful, rapid growth. Debbie also mentions that the more she dug into the platform, the more tools and strategies she found to support her students.
Important Gains Reflected Across the District
Harrison County is completing its first full year preparing students for ELPA21 with Connect to Literacy™, and the early signs are clear. High school students — long the hardest group to advance — are posting major gains. Teachers have the oversight and time to sharpen instruction, and students are building confidence. The district now has the tools to personalize instruction at scale and meet every student with teaching that satisfies both proficiency and grade-level expectations.
