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The station rotation model

Created by Silicon Schools Fund and Clayton Christensen Institute.

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Video transcript

So, let's dive in to the first model, the station rotation model. Take a moment to read the definition. In a station rotation model, as we've said, students are rotating between different stations. So here, what we see, is that some students might start with teacher-led instruction. Then, they move to collaborative activities and stations. Basically projects with other students. And then they move, once again, to that time when they're actually working on the computers and online learning. So, our first protagonist school is KIPP LA. And we're visiting a school called KIPP Comienza Prep that was founded in 2010 by their founding principal, Margarita Florez. This school is super interesting because they used a station rotation model as a core part of their educational model. Essentially, for two different 75 minute blocks, students have rotations within their classrooms to go after their "holy grail," which is all about small group instructional time with one teacher with a small group of students. In that time, they can make fascinating gains on students' comprehension and math skills, while other students in the classroom doing online learning to develop some new skills to practice old ideas. This school is a very typical urban elementary school in Los Angeles Unified School District. It's over 90% Latino and free-reduced lunch students, and they have some of the highest test scores in the state of California in just their first few years of being in their existence. Among the many things that KIPP LA does well in the strategies they use, they're zoning in on blended learning as a key change strategy to get out-of-the-box results.