By Gabrielle Merchen
Staff Writer
Yukon’s Central Elementary and Shedeck Elementary schools have been honored with the 2024 Imagine Learning School of Excellence Award.
Out of over 38,000 eligible schools and districts, 220 schools received the award this year.
Imagine Learning is an organization dedicated to creating innovative K-12 online educational tools. They are currently the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S. as they serve over 15 million students in more than half of the school districts nationwide.
“It hasn’t altered the curriculum that they’re given,” said Michele Hale, Yukon Public Schools’ district math coordinator. “It is used as a supplement to our curriculum and then students have access to it after school if they want to continue and do extra lessons and things at home. It doesn’t alter the tier 1 curriculum at all. It just supports it.”
The schools ascertained the ability to implement the Imagine Learning tools using the Esser funds allotted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of the program was a group effort among teachers, instructional coaches, site administrators, and Hale herself.
“At the schools, it’s a team approach,” Hale said. “Your instructional coaches at the schools are the ones who help monitor and help make sure the kids are on the right pathways, and they do all of the benchmarking. The teachers are also a big piece of that as well.”
The goal of the Imagine Learning Award is to recognize the exemplary implementation of Imagine Learning solutions in schools across America.
The award is part of the Imagine Learning motivational program which sets out to ignite educational engagement and strengthen the confidence of all learners in classrooms throughout the country.
The schools selected as winners showed industrious commitment to the effective implementation of the program.
“Working hand-in-hand with educators to implement innovative digital curriculum programs that empower teachers and truly make a difference for their students is incredibly rewarding,” said Sari Factor, Imagine Learning’s vice chair and chief strategy officer.
“It’s an honor to see the dedication from schools across the country and to be part of their journey to success.”
Kids at Yukon’s winning schools are motivated to achieve excellence in the program largely through Imagine Math’s “think points” system, in which students are allotted points for successfully completing lessons.
The “think points” can go toward things like buying a digital avatar, but many students choose to use their points to donate to charities chosen by Imagine Learning.
Other incentives for the children include pizza parties, lunch with teachers, and other rewards that vary from site to site.
“It helps us monitor their growth and know where they’re at and where they need support,” Hale said of the program. “It gives us a chance to give enrichment and support without their teachers having to be right there. They can do it at home on their own and they can also do it with their teachers in class.”
Research has shown that the successful usage of Imagine Learning programs is directly associated with increased student success and academic growth.
Following official notification of the Imagine Nation Awards, each winning school or district will receive an Imagine Learning banner that displays their achievement.
