Last Updated on February 27, 2025
Clovis Unified, a top-performing school district in California, serves around 43,000 students across 50 campuses. In 2015, when the district began using the CAASPP assessments, it became clear that listening skills were a major challenge for students.
Benton Lewis, an English Language Arts teacher at Clovis North High School, recognized this gap and introduced Listenwise, a platform offering podcasts and videos designed to improve listening comprehension. After piloting the platform in 2015, Lewis saw an 11-point increase in his students’ listening scores, followed by a 15-point improvement the next year, highlighting the platform’s impact.
As the success at Clovis North spread, other schools in the district adopted Listenwise, and by 2019, nearly 30% of students scored above the listening standard on the CAASPP. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of Listenwise, with the platform offering free access to support remote learning. It became a key resource across the district, helping teachers engage students in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
In 2021, Clovis Unified adopted Listenwise district-wide for all 50 campuses, with a focus on supporting cross-curricular language and literacy development. The platform aligned with core curricula and assisted English Language Development (ELD) teachers in preparing students for assessments like the ELPAC and CAASPP.
By 2024, Clovis Unified saw growth in listening scores, with a 0.47% improvement for all students and a 0.60% increase for multilingual learners, despite statewide declines. This continued success underscores the effectiveness of Listenwise in enhancing learning outcomes, ensuring that Clovis Unified remains a leader in education.
We are fortunate to have a number of instructional resources to choose from, but Listenwise has been a team favorite and we know it’s making a difference for our teachers and students. Listenwise has been flexible in working with us to make adjustments to their products in order to meet our unique teacher needs. We look forward to our continued partnership with Listenwise.
