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Background & Context
Lake Wales High School sits in central Florida, where the ESOL classroom is full of students who came to the U.S. from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and beyond. Some have been here for years. Some arrived just months ago. All of them are working to find their voice in English while keeping pace with high school graduation requirements.
The school is a “B” school working hard toward an “A.” That climb depends on every student — including the ones still learning the language of the test.
At the center of that work is Dr. Marisol Peltzer, who teaches about 90 multilingual students across five classes. She knows the experience from the inside. Dr. Peltzer arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela as a child and remembers being the angry kid in the back of a New York City classroom — until one teacher sat down beside her and refused to let her fail.
“I want to give my kids the opportunity, through being literate, to have access to education.”
— Dr. Marisol Peltzer, ESOL Teacher, Lake Wales High School
That sense of mission is everywhere at Lake Wales. But mission alone could not solve the problem in front of her.
The Challenge
When Dr. Peltzer reviewed her students’ scores, the pattern was clear. Reading was strong — some students were scoring 5s. Listening was holding steady. But speaking and writing were stuck.
Students could pull facts from a passage. They could not yet:
- Combine ideas from more than one source into a clear claim
- Organize a written response with evidence and supporting detail
- Use adjectives, adverbs, and transition words with confidence
- Speak up in academic conversations across their other classes
The challenge was not only instructional. It was a math problem. Dr. Peltzer had 90 students at different proficiency levels — newcomers, long-term English learners, and students who also received ESE support — and only one of her.
“I knew that I couldn’t give them individual feedback for writing, like, 90 kids.”
— Dr. Peltzer
Beyond the academics, there was a quieter problem. Newcomers were shutting down. One student went an entire semester without speaking in class. Another resisted coming to school at all because nothing felt like progress.
The Search for a Better Solution
Dr. Peltzer was not looking for a single-skill tool. She needed a platform that could grow with each student — across reading, writing, listening, and speaking — and give her the feedback engine she could not produce alone.
She also needed something her students would actually open. Worksheets and after-the-fact test reports were not going to move shy newcomers into classroom discussions.
She found that combination in Connect to Literacy™ from Summit K12.
The Solution
Connect to Literacy™ became part of the daily routine in Dr. Peltzer’s ESOL classes. Students log in regularly. Each one works inside a Personal Learning Plan with weekly goals. Dr. Peltzer checks growth every single day.
For writing, the platform’s AI scoring changed what was possible. Students hit submit and see their score — a 1, 2, 3, or 4 — along with model sentences and clear feedback on what to add next time. When a student scores low, Dr. Peltzer pulls them aside, has them rewrite the response on paper using the AI’s notes, and signs off before they move on.
“Summit starts with an S — it leads to success, because it’s data-driven and research-based.”
— Dr. Peltzer
For newcomers, the Newcomer Track meets students at their actual level. One quiet sophomore — the one who had not spoken all semester — started coming to school at 6:50 in the morning to practice on the platform before the bell.
“The whole semester, I had not heard his voice. And now he’s coming to school at 6:50 in the morning.”
— Dr. Peltzer
The platform’s design helped students see growth as it happened. They earned coins. They watched their progress bars climb. Classes started competing for the biggest gains on the end-of-course exam — with Dr. Peltzer personally buying dinner for the winning class.
The shift showed up in their own words.
“The first time I logged into Summit, I didn’t speak much English. It helped me with my confidence.”
— Gabriel, Lake Wales student
“Before, I had trouble making friends. It gave me the confidence to have friends.”
— Christine, Lake Wales student
“I can write longer answers and speak up more in class discussions.”
— Ariana, Lake Wales student
By spring, five Lake Wales ESOL students had been nominated for Student of the Year. A student who had been in the U.S. less than two years was on track to graduate with a 3.5 GPA through the alternative graduation portfolio — using Summit reading passages as daily practice. Newcomers were posting five-point reading gains on their progress checks. And students were asking — out loud — when the next assessment would be.
“They’re not nervous about the test. They say, ‘we got this.’”
— Dr. Peltzer
Most Impactful Features
- AI-powered writing feedback that gives every student individualized scoring and model sentences
- Personal Learning Plans with weekly goals that turn growth into a visible daily habit
- A Newcomer Track that meets brand-new arrivals exactly where they are
- Speaking and recording practice that builds confidence before the test, not after
- Practice formats that mirror WIDA and end-of-course exams, so test day brings no surprises
- A reward system tied to classroom incentives and friendly class-to-class competition
Ongoing Partnership and Support
The Summit K12 team made the transition simple. Full training took about three hours — a fraction of the multi-day rollouts Dr. Peltzer had seen with other programs. Support has stayed responsive, with named partners she can reach when she needs to fine-tune practice or interpret data.
“If I can use it, anybody can use it. It doesn’t leave gaps. It fills the gaps.”
— Dr. Peltzer
Lake Wales is heading into next year with a plan: expand the rewrite-on-paper practice, triangulate Summit data with end-of-course results, and keep pushing the school’s “Race to an A.” Students are already setting their own language goals. One of them is even logging her younger sister into Summit at home.
That is what a sustainable literacy engine looks like — students who chase their own growth, a teacher who can finally meet every learner with feedback, and a campus where multilingual students don’t just catch up. They get nominated for Student of the Year.
