How Arlington ISD Consolidated Instructional Technology with Wayground
In a district with 77 schools and more than 53,000 students, managing too many tech tools can be overwhelming. That was the challenge facing Arlington Independent School District in Texas.
When budget cuts forced a closer look at spending, the district realized it needed to reduce its number of tech tools—ideally without negatively impacting student outcomes.
Challenges
Like many districts, Arlington ISD had accumulated a number of instructional apps over time. While some were licensed at the school or district level, many free software programs were used informally among teachers with varying results.
As a technology integration specialist supporting secondary schools, Jim Holland’s job was to ensure these tools went through the proper approval process and held up to instructional scrutiny. Security and privacy is paramount at the district, so the team spent time vetting products to ensure they met requirements.
“What we were finding is that most teachers were using apps for things like in-class review that weren’t really affecting instruction,” Mr. Holland explained. “The apps were not looking at the data and adjusting instruction because of it. They were more like games rather than what we would consider valid formative instruction.”
When teachers did find effective edtech tools, the usage spread by word of mouth. This meant that some students received strong instruction, but others didn’t—an inequity that the district office wanted to amend.
When the district faced budget cuts, all those apps became harder to justify. “We were paying for many different systems, but during budgeting changes we began looking for places to consolidate and cut,” Mr. Holland said. “We started to take a look at usage data and to see if the usage really justified the purchase.”
But digging into the data on a granular level proved to be a challenge. While most tools provided basic usage metrics, they lacked meaningful insight into engagement or student progress. Many tools weren’t integrated with district rosters, so student performance wasn’t connected with their information. Without consistent data, it was hard to see how students were doing and what actually helped their learning.
“While some of the systems that we paid for had good usage, the consolidation of those into a streamlined product could provide some better results,” Mr. Holland said. As a result, the Arlington team began looking for one platform that could replace several tools.
Solution
After evaluating Arlington’s suite of edtech programs, the Technology Integration and Innovation (TI2) team decided to consolidate some of the tools into one: Wayground. “We determined that Wayground provided more of what we needed in one platform than other apps did separately,” TI2 Director Steve Simpson explained. Now educators could access quizzes, presentations, and interactive video all through Wayground.
To simplify the transition, the Wayground team helped Arlington migrate data from other tools into Wayground. That way teachers wouldn’t lose any work they had put into apps that were being phased out. Wayground also synced with the district’s LMS, Canvas, to ensure all student data was connected.
Many teachers had been using Wayground already, so rolling out the tool district-wide would be a welcome change. “Onramping was so smooth for us compared to what we had for other systems,” Mr. Holland said. “We were able to be very intentional about the rollout and training up front, as opposed to this hodgepodge of systems where teachers picked up learning on the go.”
To help teachers understand Wayground’s full potential, Mr. Holland created a list of “Five-Star Features” that supported Arlington ISD’s focus on assessment, feedback, and standards alignment. Mr. Simpson developed a staff professional development activity with a deck of “Did You Know?” questions to highlight how teachers could use Wayground’s top impact-aligned features.
Once the district rolled out Wayground, teachers began using it across multiple instructional priorities, including formative assessment, student engagement, and lesson design. Teachers were quick to adopt it, thanks to a lot of buzz that generated organically. “We used to have to entice teachers to use certain systems, but with Wayground, teachers are like, ‘I'm definitely using that,’” Mr. Holland said.
Results
After consolidating multiple tools into Wayground, Arlington started seeing improvements across several areas.
More Secure and Lighter IT Workload
Limiting the number of app approvals has saved the TI2 team significant time and eased their concerns about security and privacy. After shifting from using multiple different apps with all kinds of privacy policies, Mr. Holland said, “We're confident now because Wayground security and privacy is very good.”
Now when the team receives requests to vet new tools, they feel confident directing teachers to Wayground to meet their needs. As Mr. Holland said, “If Wayground can do something, then why are we chasing another tool?”
Easier for Students and Teachers
Consolidated logins and rostering have simplified the process for both teachers and students. Students know exactly how and where to log in, and teachers can track their work in one easy-to-find place. Everything is in the LMS, so all student data is connected. Plus, with only one product to learn instead of many, professional development is easier and teachers are better equipped to support students.
Smaller Budget Impact
The TI2 team was expected to justify every tool because of the district’s pared-down budget. Shifting from multiple tools to Wayground helped cut costs without impacting student success. Fortunately, high usage shows the district that Wayground is worth keeping.
Data to Compare Year Over Year
Before Wayground, Arlington primarily relied on anecdotal data when measuring engagement and formative assessments. “We had no way to paint a picture of what was really going on in the classroom, whereas now we can with the data we get from Wayground,” Mr. Holland said.
Now with three years of data in Wayground, Arlington can see that the tool is improving how teachers write assessments. Assessment data shows that teachers are asking more higher-order questions that push students to think critically. These questions help teachers see more clearly whether students really understand the material.
Mr. Holland is impressed by the data showing how much Wayground usage has grown over time. A recent contest encouraged teachers to use Wayground’s Presentations—interactive slides that turn lessons into live, student-paced participation—which led to a remarkable 45% increase in use. Mr. Holland has also seen many educators using Wayground’s Accommodations to meet students’ learning needs, whether with read-alouds, translations, or extra time. “So very few systems that I know of provide the accommodations that Wayground uses,” he said. “To be able to set that up and discreetly give accommodations to students is a huge win.”
In the future, the district hopes to show how Wayground improves student performance on the STAAR exam, the Texas state assessment. Arlington educators have been taking advantage of Wayground’s question type formats that reflect what students will see on the STAAR exam. “Wayground gives teachers opportunities to expose students to those formatted questions ahead of time,” Mr. Holland said. “When they encounter them on the actual standardized test, there’s less panic.”
Looking Ahead
Arlington ISD continues to deepen its integration of Wayground into instruction. For teachers, that long-term commitment matters after seeing other tools come and go. “We're feeling confident enough now to invest time into the system because we know it's stable,” Mr. Holland said. “We know it's going to be around, and we know that the Wayground team responds to our feedback.”
By consolidating into Wayground, Arlington ISD made instructional technology simpler for teachers and more consistent for students—all while giving the district clearer insight into what’s happening in classrooms.
