“Equipped Learners, Brighter Futures,” is the Abilene Independent School District’s vision statement for their students and their actions prove it. They have built a state-of-the-art facility, The LIFT Center, dedicated to providing all of their high school students with cutting-edge CTE courses that equip them with the skills necessary for a successful future. 

Coding and computer science (CS) is one of the most valuable skills someone can have in the world today. Because of that, Abilene ISD adopted the Texas CTE "Programming and Software Development" program of study. With this new change, they needed to implement a curriculum solution that aligned with and supported their new approach to offering CS courses.

| "Many curriculum resources promise support during the sales process, but leave much to be desired once the product is acquired. Skill Struck is not one of those companies. We have been extremely pleased with the implementation support and response time to questions as we revamp our Computer Science program. We are already looking to expand our use of Skill Struck at my campus and there’s potential for it to be used at all levels of K-12 education." - Jay Ashby, Director of The LIFT Center Principal of ATEMS Abilene ISD

An Easy-to-Use and Rigorous Computer Science Solution

Implementing a student-led and easy-to-use solution with rigorous curriculum was essential for Abilene ISD. Daniel Kaplinski, the LIFT center's CS teacher, was newer to coding and diligently searched for a solution that could support him in confidently teaching CS. He was impressed not only with Skill Struck’s wide range of content but also appreciated the textbook, checkpoints, challenges, and how the platform presented to the students. He also found Skill Struck had a robust Python curriculum which was unique compared to the other solutions he had found. Skill Struck provided him with the curriculum and support needed to teach Computer Science 1 and Computer Science 2 at the LIFT center.

The Results

The LIFT center has been using Skill Struck since the beginning of August 2022 and already Mr. Kaplinski is having great success.

“The curriculum has not only grasped the attention of the students but has held onto their attention. It is amazing to see these students come in every day eager to see what I present to them next in Skill Stuck… the technical team has helped me with everything that I have reported to them. They are fast not only in responding to me but also with finding and implementing a solution.” - Daniel Kaplinksi, Abilene ISD CS Teacher

Looking to the future they plan to expand Skill Struck to their 3 high schools that feed into the LIFT Center by next school year. Offering Fundamentals of Computer Science at the high schools will provide a larger pathway to Computer Science 1 giving more students access to these courses and the opportunity to realize the benefits of learning to code. 

Since implementing Skill Struck in August 2022, Abilene ISD students in the LIFT Center have: 

• Completed 1,334 checkpoints 
• Started CS Basics, CS Principles, Computer Programming, and Python courses. 
• Completed 9,034 challenges

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To learn more about Skill Struck, visit us at www.skillstruck.com.