Carpe Diem’s Personalized Learning Posts Big Gains in Indianapolis

Carpe Diem’s Indianapolis campus, its first outside of Yuma, Arizona, not only defied expectations for any first-year high school, it posted academic outcomes that just may cause many urban educators to reconsider their own expectations.

On the NWEA assessments the school administers to students four times a year, they demonstrated schoolwide average growth of three instructional years in reading and English language arts, four years in math, and three years in science in the school’s first year.

Results on the statewide ISTEP standardized test, an overall pass rate of 87 percent across all content areas, offered definitive validation for the gains (see table below). Carpe Diem’s diverse student population of students in grades 6-12 included 63% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

These results surpassed average English scores the previous year in the Indianapolis Public Schools by 16 percentage points in sixth grade, 28 percentage points in seventh grade, and 42 percentage points in eighth grade.

Carpe Diem’s Founder and Chief EduNeering Officer Rick Ogston explained that, as happy as he was with the first-year results at the Meridian Street school, “I am more thrilled at the students’ lives that have been changed because of their newfound success. Great teachers who leverage technology can do extraordinary things in the lives of their students.”

On the Indiana End of Course Assessment for high school students, 100 percent of students passed English 10 and biology, and 90 percent passed Algebra I. A majority of each scored “strong pass” (exceeded standards).

To be certain, the public charter school faced challenges in its first year. Granted approval in December in the first class authorized by the new Indiana Charter School Board, the school opened two weeks late the following September while resolving local regulatory permits over their new building. Recruitment of students was hindered by systemic harassment by Indianapolis Public School staff, who regularly called the homes of newly-enrolled students seeking to dissuade their attendance.

Such challenges are far from unique across the nation’s charter school sector, especially in communities like Indianapolis where charter schools are relatively rare. More unique were the powerful reactions of first-time students and teachers to Carpe Diem’s unique personalized blended learning instructional model.

Already widely covered in national media stories, Carpe Diem students spend about 50 percent of their day in supported independent learning, rotating into face-to-face instruction throughout the day. Students are granted a great deal of latitude for what they work on, which resources they utilize, and at what pace.

Teachers and collaborative learning coaches track their progress at all times, and leverage real-time data to guide in-person classroom content and one-on-one tutoring sessions. At staff meetings each morning before school, teachers review the previous day’s results together, discussing individual students’ progress and mapping out the day’s plans.

Principal Mark Forner attributes the powerful results to the school culture he and his team established, guided by Ogston. “Kids buy in when they recognize that we understand what’s happening in their day-to-day lives,” Forner observed. “If you have a strong relationship with individual students, they know you genuinely care about them, and they don’t want to let you down.”

Added founder Ogston, “Carpe Diem is about personalized learning, and while it can get a bit messy at times, our Meridian team has proven that it is effective.”

Lexington Institute Executive Vice President Don Soifer serves on Carpe Diem’s board.

Carpe Diem Meridian 2013 ISTEP Passing Rates by Grade and Subject