Background & Context
At Jordan Middle School in Northside ISD, Texas, Emerging Bilingual scholars range from absolute newcomers to students on the cusp of advanced-high proficiency. They make up about 15% of the student population, and to serve them demands a program that can tailor instruction to the pace and proficiency level of each student.
Now in her second year with Connect to Literacy™, Sonia Olliendeck has found exactly what she needed to help each of her students grow by at least one proficiency level per year - an objective supported by Summit K12’s guarantee.
The Challenge
For most students, social English comes fairly easily. The gap — and the one that shows up most on assessments — is academic language: complex sentences and subject-specific vocabulary.
Students don't always see that gap coming. They feel confident in their English — until they step into a content-area classroom and struggle. That moment hits hard.
"They feel very confident in their general English. But when they go into the classroom and notice they're not doing so well, that's where they lose their confidence" — Sonia Olliendeck, ELD Teacher, Jordan Middle School
Closing the academic language gap demands precision. The previous tools — books, fluency resources, and a textbook — weren't built to identify learning gaps and deliver tailored instruction. They needed something that could meet every learner exactly where they were and move them forward.
The Search for a Better Solution
The school looked for a program that would allow them to identify precisely what each student needed and deliver it immediately, without wading through content they had already mastered. Personalization, ease of use, and real-time feedback were non-negotiable.
Connect to Literacy™ checked every box. The platform's Personalized Learning Plans generate a clear, individualized starting point for every student. Navigation is simple. Feedback is immediate. And unlike the textbook, it puts the teacher in control — enabling them to pull progress data and deliver exactly the right content for exactly the right student at exactly the right moment.
The Solution
The shift reflected a deliberate instructional philosophy: use Summit K12 to lead, and pull selectively from the textbook only where content aligned.
"Summit seems to be the portion that's making the most progress and change for my students," she says. "I'm able to go directly to what this class needs — I can meet them right where they are."
The platform's structure made lesson planning faster and more targeted. For students, three tabs — PLP, progress, and teacher-assigned work — meant they were where they needed to be within seconds of opening the LMS.
The school also introduced a deliberate onboarding approach that has made a meaningful difference: before sending students to work independently in their PLPs, they front-load instruction — modeling examples of writing and reading tasks, walking through how to check answers, and teaching students to take ownership of their own progress. That investment in process, explains Ms Olliendeck, is what turned the platform from something students clicked through into something they actually learned from.
Most Impactful Features
- Personalized Learning Plans — Students are directed immediately to exactly what they need, eliminating the friction of unit-by-unit content that doesn't match their current level
- Teacher-Assigned Activities — [Teacher Name] uses this feature for whole-group modeling, carefully selecting tasks from the later part of each PLP to avoid overlap with content students have already completed independently
- Building Blocks Tracks — For true beginners, [Teacher Name] starts here rather than the PLP — giving students the phonics, word-building, and foundational skills they need before moving to proficiency-level work. "That's really important," she says. "I see growth because of that."
- ClassCade Gamification — Coins, challenges, and class competitions have turned independent practice into something students actively pursue. Middle schoolers who would ordinarily resist extra work are asking to open ClassCade during class. Olliendeck uses it as a class incentive: the period with the most progress earns ClassKade time. "They're all trying to work really hard," she says
- Immediate Feedback — Students see their scores right away — and they notice. Raised hands, real-time celebrations: "Miss, I finally got a three!", and self-tracked progress in personal grade books have made growth visible and motivating
- Student ELD Reports — After each grade cycle, Olliendeck reviews the reports to track activity completion and compare guided versus independent work — giving her a precise picture of where each student stands
Ongoing Partnership and Immediate Support
The school’s Summit K12 experience has been shaped significantly by their account representative, Amy — whose support they describe as consistent, knowledgeable, and genuinely responsive.
"She really breaks it down on what to look for," Olliendeck says. "Any questions we have, she's been there to answer them."
Training sessions have covered reporting, implementation strategy, and assessment preparation — including a Countdown to TELPAS walkthrough and access to on-demand video resources for any questions that come up between sessions. The Language Lounge — Summit K12's monthly professional learning community — provides additional support between check-ins, with recorded sessions organized by topic so teachers can find what they need, when they need it.
The Results
The most telling result at Jordan Middle School isn't in a report — though the reports show growth too. It's what middle schoolers are saying.
Students who started the year with grunts and groans are now asking for more time in Connect to Literacy™. They're tracking their own scores in personal notebooks. They're raising their hands to share progress. They're telling their teacher the speaking module helped them find their voice — and that seeing the assessment format in practice took away the fear of the real thing.
- Measurable BOY-to-MOY-to-EOY growth tracked through Summit K12 student ELD reports across all four language domains
- Student-reported confidence following TELPAS: "I think I did really well. I gave my best effort."
- Increased student engagement — students asking to use the platform more, including after school
- Speaking confidence — students specifically citing the speaking module and immediate microphone feedback as transformative for their TELPAS readiness
- Self-directed progress tracking — students keeping their own grade books and taking ownership of their growth
"The fact that they want to do better," Olliendeck reflects, "will help them do better."
