Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 33

West Side School District
/// Dayton, Idaho
Enrollment: 635
Spencer Barzee, who serves as both the superintendent
and middle school principal for the rural district, where
more than half of students receive either free or reducedprice lunches, said the common-core preparation is
creating significant pressure to raise academic rigor,
improve professional development, and upgrade technology
simultaneously.
As a small district, West Side doesn't have the resources
to hire separate curriculum developers, with the principal of
each school typically responsible for providing professional
development. Further, the district employs one instructional
technology manager, who also works as a classroom teacher.
The district recently received a grant to equip its 140 middle
school students in grades 6 to 8 with individual iPads. When it
comes time to take the Smarter Balanced field tests later this
spring, middle school students will take them on their iPads,
with elementary and high school students rotating through
computer labs.
"We get better results if we test our kids in the morning
than the afternoon," explained Mr. Barzee. Each of the
district's three computer labs contains a mixture of HewlettPackard and Dell desktop computers. "We put students on a
rotation before lunch. The middle school is easier. They can do
it at anytime, in any class."
Nevertheless, lack of adequate and aging school computers
is a concern, particularly when the district runs the Smarter
Balanced assessments while simultaneously streaming
online content as part of daily instruction. "We've never
tried to stream 200 computers at the same time with video,"
said Mr. Barzee, whose colleagues in other districts plan to
halt demands on their networks to ensure that sufficient
bandwidth is available come assessment time. n

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
/// Nashville, Tenn.
Enrollment: 87,000
Bandwidth concerns aside, Kecia Ray, the executive director of learning technology for the
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, which employs 6,000 teachers, is finding the teaching piece of
the common-core puzzle far trickier to navigate than expected.
Currently, the district has about 60,000 digital devices in its stockpile-a combination of desktops,
laptops, tablets, and netbooks. But with many showing significant wear and tear, the district plans to
add 12,000 more by the end of this calendar year.
As a member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, an 18-state
consortium better known as parcc, Tennessee will participate in field tests later this spring and
online assessments by the 2014-15 school year. When talking with colleagues across the state and the
country, Ms. Ray considers the district's technology inventory to be about average.
When it comes time to take an assessment, she believes that testing should occur in the same
environment as instruction. "Lining students up and taking them to labs doesn't provide an
authenticity of assessment," said Ms. Ray. "You should be in the same space where instruction took
place and with the same devices."
Within three years, the district plans to have enough devices in its arsenal to meet a 1-to-1
computing goal. In the meantime, each school will deploy carts containing class-sets of laptops for
this spring's field tests. Each cart comes equipped with enough devices to test the largest class at
one time. And for testing in the spring of 2015, the carts will rotate among each grade until testing
is complete.
"Assessment is not an event. It's part of the instructional process," said Ms. Ray. "It doesn't need
to be an event when you add technology to it. I think we're in a good place. We're getting there." n

75.9%

Ed-Tech Challenges
67.5%

A survey of 250 district ed-tech leaders posed the
question: What are your top three challenges for putting
in place technology-enabled learning environments?
39.8%
27.7%

5.4%

Lack of
support from
the school
board

Lack of
support
by the
community

28.9%

Lack of
vision from
senior
district
leadership

Relevant
training and
professional
development
unavailable

Metropolitan School District
Of Warren Township
/// Indianapolis, Ind.
Enrollment: 11,500
When scanning the landscape, Mr. Ryan of the
eLearn Institute counts the Metropolitan School
District of Warren Township in Indianapolis, Ind.
as a prime example of a school system leading the
way. In September, the district put in place a 1-to-1
computing program for grades 1 to 12 after winning
a competitive Race to the Top grant.
John B. Keller, Warren's director of eLearning,
who formerly worked for Indiana's Department
of Education, explained that the state has yet to
decide whether to participate in Smarter Balanced,
the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers, or create its own assessment.
Four years ago, Indiana began requiring schools
to administer computer-based assessments
throughout the state. Although every student in
Warren has his or her own Chromebook (with iPads
used in kindergarten), the devices aren't compatible
with the current state tests, but they are compatible
with common-core tests.
"We're thrilled with the Chromebooks, which we
consider an exciting device instructionally," said Mr.
Keller, who recently completed his first year with
the district. "But we still have computer labs, and
that's where the testing will be done."
Though many assume a 1-to-1 computing
environment is necessary when administering
online assessments, Mr. Keller explained that you
simply need enough computers to accommodate
each school's largest class. The easy part, explained
Mr. Keller, was getting the devices.
"The more enduring challenge has been to ensure
that our staff is properly equipped to use them
effectively. That's really been the hardest part." n

10.8%

Personalized
learning
is not
supported by
technology
or practice

SOURCE: Consortium for School Networking

Breaking
down silos in
the district

Budget
Changing
constraints
the culture of
and lack of
teaching and
resources
learning to a
student-centered
environment
with ubiquitous
computing

TECHNOLOGY COUNTS 2014

>> www.edweek.org/go/tc14

http://www.edweek.org/go/tc14

Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014