Bliss students improved in reading by 37% this spring.

The huge jump in proficiency is largely due to the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance’s Launchpad program, said Principal Emily Roe.

“We saw huge benefits from it in a very short period of time,” she said.

Those benefits are no longer available after legislators cut the program’s funding last session as part of sweeping cuts to IDLA’s budget.

The program, which 17 districts and charters used last year, assigns a certified teacher to individual classrooms for reading intervention. It’s also being used for students reading above grade level.

The teacher would work with a group via video conference while the classroom teacher worked with another group of students, allowing for instruction based on students specific needs. The program cost $30 per student per year.

Legislators argued that the state pays twice for students in IDLA classes because both IDLA and local school districts receive money for enrolled students.

The majority of the schools using Launchpad were small and rural, making it difficult to hire educators trained to teach reading, let alone finding funds to pay their salary, said Jeff Simmonds, IDLA superintendent.

“I was really proud of the results of this program,” he said. “It’s probably the most innovative thing we’ve ever done.”

Launchpad provides one-on-one attention

Roe wasn’t happy with Bliss’ 37% proficiency on the Idaho Reading Indicator last fall. The standardized test is taken twice a year by Idaho students in grades K-3.

Launchpad was a unique opportunity, Roe said. With 35 students in grades K-3, Bliss has one teacher for each grade level — that means they don’t have another teacher in the same grade to collaborate with.

With small class sizes, paraprofessionals educated on the science of reading also weren’t in the budget.

“In our small classrooms, with not as much help, it’s hard for our teachers to level out where kids are and to meet their needs,” Roe said.

Launchpad provided teachers with the opportunity to collaborate with their IDLA counterpart and gave students individualized instruction. Teachers split their class into two groups, one with readers who needed a bigger challenge and the second with struggling readers.

“It gave those teachers partners to work with to push each other and to share with each other, but also you’re doubling your resources that you have to now support those kids,” Simmons said.

While not all students logged on to work with the IDLA teacher, the students left in the classroom group still saw the benefits of specialized instruction from their classroom teacher, Roe said.

“Whether that was the lower group or the higher group, everyone in the classroom was getting what they needed,” she said.

By the spring, 74% of Bliss test takers were reading at grade level, above the state average of 70.4% proficient.

‘It takes a person to teach a child to read’

Simmons launched the program in the fall of 2022 as students returned to the classroom following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Launchpad accelerated in 2023, with mostly rural districts signing up, as they found that state literacy dollars weren’t enough to pay a full-time reading interventionist.

“It takes a person to teach a child to read,” Simmons said.

Internally, Launchpad tracked the rate of improvement, with 65% of struggling readers in the program classified as high ROI.

“We saw really strong growth for students that were in the program,” he said.

When the program was cut, districts were disappointed, Simmons said.

“Especially for our rural schools, you don’t have anything else like this that you can replace it with,” he said.

That’s the case for Nezperce, which used the program for three years. Superintendent Brian Lee said it’s hard to find a replacement for Launchpad, especially when trying to limit screen time for the district’s youngest learners.

“Launchpad was different in that there was an actual human speaking to them,” said Lee, comparing Launchpad to software-only programs.

The funds Lee spent on Launchpad are “not even close” to what employing a paraeducator costs, he said, let alone a certified teacher.

In Boundary County, Launchpad was the central resource for the district’s gifted and talented program at the elementary level.

“When you get zero funding for gifted and talented, you have to be creative,” said Andrea Fuentes, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

The Launchpad teacher worked with students in grades 3-5, creating specially designed lessons around individual students’ interests that kept them challenged and engaged, Fuentes said.