photo by: Richard Gwin

Second-graders in Paula Barr's Quail Run Elementary class — from left, Richard Li, Matthew Liu, and Cayman Cook — work together on a math assignment, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015.

Despite a new Lawrence school district report on the blended learning teaching method, the effectiveness of the method remains unclear.

“The question we hear a lot in teaching and learning (department) is does blended learning work?” assistant superintendent Angelique Nedved told the school board at its meeting Monday. “Well, I think that we need to take it further than that. We wouldn’t say do textbooks work? Or does lecture work? All of those things work given the context and if it’s the right tool for the student.”

Nedved is one of the main district administrators in charge of the blended learning initiative and presented the report to the school board. The report was a follow-up to one given by Nedved in February that included several positive teacher anecdotes and prompted school board members to request more data.

The blended learning method “blends” lecture-based instruction with small-group or individual activities that often rely on technology and online resources. Throughout the district, about 300 such classrooms are in place. Over the next few years, the district plans to expand use of the method to all of the district’s classrooms, which number more than 700.

While the report did include some data from standardized tests in reading and math, Nedved explained that because not all classrooms are blended, the district can’t measure students’ progress over a long period of time.

“Remember that was one of our challenges because we don’t have the longitudinal data,” Nedved said.

The report included assessment data for fifth and seventh grades. Nedved said those grades were selected because there are a high number of blended classrooms at those grade levels. The report showed that from the fall to spring semesters, the increase in the median math and reading assessment scores of students in blended classrooms was greater than the districtwide increase. For instance, for fifth-graders districtwide, the median reading score increased by 5 points in a semester while for fifth-graders in blended classrooms it increased by 8 points.

“What’s exciting is to see this pattern across pretty much the entire chart,” Nedved said. “Again the level of significance is plus or minus three (points).”

The district also surveyed staff, students and parents regarding their experience with blending learning. The district’s report included the responses from two of the eight survey questions. For teachers, the survey included responses from 104 teachers, or about one-third of the more than 300 teachers districtwide who use the method.

Of the 104 blended learning teachers surveyed in 2016, about 98 percent of those teachers said that blended learning has increased student engagement. About 92 percent said that student achievement has increased as measured by class tests given at the end of a lesson or unit. Nedved said that she thinks the results of tests and quizzes given by teachers throughout the year are a more accurate measure than standardized tests of blended learning’s effect on student achievement.

School board member Rick Ingram said he appreciated that the report provided more data to the board.

“I might quibble with you a little bit about the meaningfulness of some of the data,” Ingram told Nedved. “But I do want to express my appreciation for the fact that this (report) is data-focused, and that we have this program that we all think is really good, it’s nice to see the data actually support that.”

The next school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. May 23 at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.