The Yup Team strives to help every student thrive! This means that an award for a partner school recognizing their ability to help students grow deserves celebrating. Today we are praising the Bay Area Technology School in Oakland, CA, otherwise known as BayTech, because the Learning Counsel recognized them with the 2020 EduJedi Gainer Award. So what is the award, and what progress has BayTech seen with its use of digital tools?
What is the Learning Counsel’s EduJedi Award?
The EduJedi Leadership Society is focused on the successful implementation of technologies to help students grow through personalized learning. The organization shares best practices for schools like BayTech to structurally fit technologies together, as opposed to siloed products, for leaders and teachers in education to help create learning gains for schools.
The EduJedi Gainer Award "acknowledges new gains in deploying various digital systems and resources while executing change with students and teachers. Through these gains, this institution is on track to arrest declines in engagement and headed for academic achievement growth." With this award, BayTech is recognized as part of a movement of schools that seeks to retool the education space for success.
Yup CEO Aaron Price says, “Supporting schools like Bay Tech in providing 24/7 access to math help that instills a growth mindset is what we live for at Yup. The EduJedi award recognizes the importance of education technologies in the modern education landscape.”
How BayTech is solving a mathematics crisis
We recently spoke to BayTech Superintendent Dr. Seth Feldman about the award and the school’s successes. Dr. Feldman said a driving force for BayTech educators is to solve the essential “mathematics crisis in black and brown communities,” which are 60-70 math score basis points behind other communities.
BayTech Admin welcoming students back for the remote school year.
While sharing best practices at the National EduJedi Gathering and Awards 2020, Dr. Feldman said the use of innovative technologies like the Yup math tutoring platform keeps his schools and students ahead. For BayTech, whose pupils are all part of the free or reduced lunch program, this means creating first-generation college students.
For their efforts, the school is producing massive results. During the 2019-20 school year, BayTech reduced the percent of students who were two grade levels behind from 80% to 40%. Moreover, the East Oakland school increased from 6% to 25% the percent of students whose Math and English understanding was at grade level. Dr. Feldman attributes this success to structurally utilizing technology to help students.
Digging deeper, Dr. Feldman credits the achievements to two main factors. First, making sure students don’t only learn the “how” of math, but also the “why.” Second, providing students access to learn on their own terms. Both are made possible by utilizing complementary education systems such as IXL and i-Ready together with Yup’s math tutoring platform to effectively teach students math whenever and wherever they need help.
Online Math Tutoring - anytime, anywhere
For BayTech students, this is especially critical. While BayTech offers after-school and Saturday tutoring hours, not all students can make these times, due to athletics or because they are working to support their families. Dr. Feldman knows from analytics that the majority of his students log in to learning platforms late at night and into the early morning. By ensuring that students have 24/7 access to digital tutoring with Yup, students who get home at 11 pm have fewer barriers when they’re motivated to learn math and graduate.
Dr. Feldman and his team strive to use technology to help every student grow and advance in their learning journey. BayTech administrator Cesley Frost has partnered with Yup for over 4 years turning to Yup for online and immediate support for her students. As a charter school administrator, Ms. Frost has found Yup to be even more valuable during the virtual learning period we’re currently in.
Yup empowers students who have the desire to solve their own math problems. The personalized instruction and round-the-clock accessibility lower barriers to education, giving students from all backgrounds equitable access to tools for success. Together with Yup, BayTech and its students are on its way to climb the ranks in EduJedi recognition. Once more, congratulations to Dr. Feldman, Ms. Frost, and their team!
