Luella High School Students Increased Their Standardized Test Scores with Membean

Lisa is the high school English Department Chair at Luella High in Georgia, where she teaches 11th and 12th grade AP English. Before discovering Membean, she was teaching vocabulary by pulling words from novels. She was spending countless hours curating words, writing lesson plans, planning activities, and writing and grading assignments. Once her students were done with each book, they were also done with those vocabulary words, most of which were subsequently forgotten. Consequently, Lisa went on a quest for a more effective and efficient tool.

Lisa first learned about Membean from a colleague. She really liked that Membean allows teachers to pilot the program without making any commitments. She was impressed with the improvement that her colleague’s students had shown by training with Membean. She was hoping that her students could achieve similar success.

“After implementing Membean, from 2018 to 2019 we saw an increase in 9th grade scores of 12.49% and in 11th grade scores of 7.47%. In addition, the school was recognized by the district for exceptional growth in the 9th grade scores.”

Luella High School follows a block schedule where English classes take place three days each week; and with the advantageous long periods of time, the English department has added ten minutes of Membean training to each class period for a total of forty minutes/week. A staff member working on her doctorate discovered that there was a correlation between EOC assessment scores and accuracy during training—the higher the accuracy during training, the higher the EOC assessment score.

“The first year we used Membean the number of our students classified as ‘accelerated’ in reading and vocabulary doubled. The following year that number jumped up another 10%!”

The teachers train with the students and monitor training minutes and accuracy closely. “Because students know their teachers are training with them, they are more invested and motivated,” says Lisa.

“We are instituting more Membean-based class activities, such as writing about texts using Membean words. Making Membean an active part of our instruction has improved our practice tremendously.”

The more time students and teachers spend with Membean, the better the results they see.