Embarc (formerly BYOC) Success Story: Preparing Lifelong Learners in Gasconade County R-I

Hermann, Missouri, home of Gasconade County R-1 School District, is tucked away in the Missouri River Valley. Located about an hour west of St. Louis, tourists are often drawn to this historic, picture book village. The district has over 860 students in grades K-12, above average state test scores, and the staff is dedicated to making the students lifelong learners by having a solid curriculum in place.

A New Solution

When administrators at Gasconade County R-1 found out their current curriculum tool was no longer going to be supported, there wasn’t much of a complaint. The tool was not user-friendly and there were no reporting options that would give satisfactory data as to how standards were covered in a course. Teachers and administrators worked together as a team to research new curriculum tools for the district and found the answer in Embarc (formerly BYOC). Shortly after the selection process, Maranda Anderson was hired as Director of Curriculum, Assessments and Federal Programming for Gasconade County R-I and began guiding the curriculum writing process.

Reporting and Analysis

"The greatest value of Embarc  is it’s reporting transparency," said Anderson. "We can run a report that shows our building principals exactly what a teacher is covering in their classroom that week, including standards. When a principal enters a classroom for observation and is confidently armed with the knowledge of what is being taught, teachers then see that administration is invested in the curriculum tool they are using."

When a course is created in Embarc, state and national standards are aligned to the course to show where in the curriculum specific grade-level standards are being taught. This has become an important part of the curriculum writing process for teachers, because, according to Anderson, being able to run a report in Embarc to see where there are gaps in standards coverage helps with maintaining Gasconade County R-1’s above state average test scores.

"When a principal enters a classroom for observation and is confidently armed with the knowledge on what is being taught, teachers then see that administration is invested in the curriculum tool they are using."

Staff Buy-in and Curricular Transparency

"Not all teachers are tech-savvy and working on curriculum can fall low on their list of priorities," said Anderson. "In Embarc we are getting teacher buy-in because they are seeing how simple it is to choose from the bank of standards to tie into their coursework. This helps answer the question ‘why are we struggling in this area on a state test?’ The answer can be found by looking at coursework that has been entered in Embarc."

"In Embarc we are getting teacher buy-in because they are seeing how simple it is to choose from the bank of standards to tie into their coursework."

The teaching staff at Gasconade County R-1 isn’t alone in seeing the benefits of using Embarc for their curriculum platform. The school community is also enjoying the new transparency in curriculum by accessing Gasconade County R-1’s public Embarc website, which is available to all districts that use Embarc. When a course is marked as “published” in Embarc, meaning it has been through a revision process and is ready for the community to view, it is shown on the district’s public Embarc website. Although the coursework is on the public website, Anderson explains that they consider all curriculum a living document and that it is constantly evolving throughout the school year. This allows teachers to revisit, edit, improve, and fine-tune according to the student experience as the school year progresses.

>>> Read how to navigate instruction and map curriculum for success in uncharted waters.

Focused and Responsive

A strong focus on curriculum and listening to customers is what differentiates Embarc and continually drives the team forward. "Your responsiveness to customer feedback is very impressive," Anderson recalls. "You truly listen and implement partner suggestions whether it’s from comments at a user meeting or an email sent to customer support." Gasconade County R-1’s success in using Embarc is not rare. Other districts have discovered that managing their curriculum using word processing documents and spreadsheets has limitations. Those tools are designed to meet the needs of the masses and try to impress by having overwhelming capabilities, versus specifically focusing on curriculum. What Gasconade County R-1 has found is that Embarc is curriculum-focused and customer-driven - a perfect recipe for success.

"You truly listen and implement partner suggestions whether it’s from comments at a user meeting or an email sent to customer support."

>>> Have questions about BuildYourOwnCurriculum? We've got answers!

The Product

Embarc (formerly BYOC) is a widely awarded curriculum and learning management system technology connecting learning objectives to a continuous cycle of curriculum development, delivery, assessment, and refinement across teachers, classrooms and grade-levels in K-12 school districts. The collaborative nature of Embarc improves efficiencies by reducing duplication of effort and enabling teachers to seamlessly share best practices. With Embarc, educators can consistently keep curriculum aligned to evolving standards by allowing them to easily identify disconnects and emerging areas for improvement.