A short public service announcement created by members of Davis High School’s magnet media program has led to a serious bump in the number of students getting ready for the next round of STAAR End of Course (EOC) exams.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/123665724 ” ]

The video, which features senior Esenia Mendoza, began appearing on the large screen in the commons area each morning beginning March 30. It was created to encourage students to take advantage of the STAAR EOC tutorials now available online. 

Since the first round of STAAR EOC exams took place on March 30 and April 1, the video came too late to boost the number of Davis students accessing the tutorials for English I and English II, but the figures have been more impressive for biology, U.S. history, and algebra I. Biology, in particular, saw a 66-percent increase after the video began airing, while Algebra I saw a 20-percent increase, and U.S. History saw an almost six-percent increase.

Number of Davis students accessing
STAAR tutorials before March 30                                 after March 30

Biology                                   304                                            504
U.S. History                           610                                             645
Algebra I                                334                                             400

Davis HS campus technologist Wayne Hughes cites the value of differentiated instruction as the reason for the video’s success. “We have many types of learning styles,” he explained, “and many students respond well to seeing videos made by their peers.”

The video is also now appearing on all student and teacher dashboard pages on the PowerUp: HUB, to encourage students at all high schools to take advantage of this valuable resource.

The next round of STAAR EOC exams takes place May 4–8, 2015. For more information, please visit HISD’s STAAR website. Also read this related article on the popularity of the district’s online tutorials.