Mount Carmel Prioritizes the Process, Gaining Knowledge While Lessening Anxiety

Well into the 21st century, Mount Carmel Academy's faculty continue to ask themselves how best to serve the young women they teach amid changes to the educational landscape. Which digital management tools enhance and promote expeditious growth? How can students learn to value the learning process over short-term results? Rather than adding more for students to manage, how can teachers maintain key skills while incorporating new technical enhancements?

As part of refining their academic culture, Jen Richard and her colleagues addressed an overdue change: it was time to let go of the vocabulary workbook. Packaged content and standard skills-drills may have worked well in the past, but as students manage time differently—and answer sets are available online—Mount Carmel Academy needed something new. Jen noted,

“This generation doesn't learn by memorizing. We wanted a program that treated our students as the digital learners they are.”

Attracted to Membean's brain science—and resolved to sustain foundational skills—Jen and her colleagues agreed to pilot Membean. Reviewing first-year data and witnessing the students' positive reception confirmed their hopes. Membean promoted language acquisition with effective, updated methods. Mount Carmel Academy implemented it across grades the following year.

Jen and her colleagues particularly love that “success can look different for each student because the program calibrates to her needs. Some students get so excited when they ‘level up’ on Membean. Others might see a leap on standardized test scores.” But while student growth is important to the faculty, students, and broader Mount Carmel community,

“One surprise benefit has been a reprieve in the burden borne by high-achieving students. Assessments are not a big deal. Membean really reduces test anxiety.’

This relief shows up in other places too, such as when a student using the dyslexia filter for the first time commented that she'd never been able to read an online assessment so easily. Jen observed that this young woman “didn't feel like she was pushing a boulder up a hill anymore.” Another student, already fluent in Spanish and French, was hard on herself for perceived gaps in her English knowledge.

“In this year alone, she has grown two levels and has 802 active words. That's really impacted how she thinks about herself. Hard evidence—that's a great tool in my toolbox to help students understand that their skills are stronger than they think.”

Since transitioning to Membean, Jen acknowledges that she doesn't spend as long grading anymore—but this isn't exactly gained time. She just uses it differently. “I pull Membean up and train with my students. They want me to level up, and they cheer me on. I tell them I want to see an imperfect accuracy rate. I want to see that you're being challenged. That penny didn't drop for them until they saw me learning and realized that there's a benefit to getting something wrong.”

Membean serves Mount Carmel through its flexibility, integration of various modalities, and ongoing programmatic upgrades. But in addition to its utility as a digital tool, Jen and her colleagues most love Membean for what it is at its core: “It's looking at roots. We acquire language by seeing relationships. I love the word webs, the hints that help them form connections to words they already know, and that the software brings it back. They're reviewing what they've learned throughout the school year, and the data shows they're retaining those words.” With Membean, Jen says, “We get rigor without increasing anxiety. That feels like a unicorn!”