Turning Minutes into Milestones: How Lawton Uses Purposeful Screen Time
Lawton Public Schools in Southwest Oklahoma gets results from purposeful screen time: short, focused Waterford sessions built into the school day. In one full year, the share of PreK students meeting kindergarten readiness benchmarks rose from 58% to 80%.
At a glance
- 58% → 80% of PreK students kindergarten-ready in one year (ESGI)
- 55.2% → 72.1% of K–1 students meeting literacy benchmarks (STAR Early Literacy)
- ~2,400 PreK–1st students across 19 elementary sites; 59% free or reduced lunch
The Challenge: Tools Not Built for Young Learners
Lawton hires more than 80 new teachers a year, and over 80% lack traditional education degrees or early childhood backgrounds. The district’s old software was built for older students and adapted down, which frustrated PreK and kindergarten teachers. Teachers also spent hours on one-on-one progress monitoring, time taken away from instruction.
The Solution: Purposeful Screen Time with Daily Guardrails
With funding from the Oklahoma Horizon Digital Enhanced Campus program, Lawton piloted Waterford Early Learning with 1,300 PreK students in February 2025. The district then expanded to kindergarten in 2025–26 and first grade in 2026–27. The rollout rested on four shifts:
- Age-appropriate design. Waterford is built for PreK–2, with songs, stories, and interactive instruction.
- Firm screen-time limits. Students use it 15 minutes a day for reading and 15 for math and science, on five rotating iPads per classroom.
- Built into the schedule. Waterford runs during center rotations and daily WIN (What I Need) time.
- Automated dashboards. Students are automatically grouped by skill, and teachers get linked resources, so they spend their time teaching rather than testing.
The Results
After a full year, 80% of PreK students met kindergarten readiness benchmarks, up from 58% at the start of the year. K–1 students meeting literacy benchmarks rose from 55.2% to 72.1%. Grade-level PLCs now use dashboard data to adjust interventions.
“Waterford fills in a lot of the holes for phonics and phonemic awareness… And Waterford can also fill in the gaps that new teachers have. Everyone loves it.”
Lupe Ostruske, Director of Elementary Curriculum
The results are consistent with Waterford research showing kindergartners scoring higher in literacy and math when the program is paired with classroom instruction, and with a 38-study meta-analysis.
Key Takeaways for District Leaders
“If you’re on the fence, just try it,” says Ostruske. “When I went into the classrooms, kids were engaged.”
- Choose tools built for early learners, not software adapted down from older grades.
- Set firm screen-time limits so use stays short, focused, and goal-directed.
- Build usage into existing schedules and routines.
- Support new teachers with automated data that groups students for them.
- Center PLCs on early literacy data.
Discover What’s Possible in Your District
Request a demo to see how purposeful screen time can work in your PreK–2 classrooms.