Responses to Sherman Middle School Case Study from Washington, DC IAS Technology Institute participants

Following are the responses to the Sherman Middle School case study received from Technology Institute participants at the Washington, DC Improving America's Schools Conference.

1. Identify the critical issues that most impact this school (what are the school's strengths and challenges?).

Strengths:

History of low staff turnover (permanency of training investment)
Low teacher turn-over of staff
Special Education Instruction - 25% of the staff (gives focus on multimodality needs), one of which is willing to facilitate change through PD
Full complement of Spec Ed teachers
School is relatively new, 5 yrs. old
Possesses hardware and has Internet access
The school has a good start on technology
Computers are fairly new, 3 yrs.
Have Internet-connected computer lab and to each classroom
Has closed circuit TV (is it connected?)
Every classroom has closed circuit TVs
Have access to some peripheral technology
Significant self-identification of professional development in technology!
Have a couple of teachers who are enthusiastic about the use of technology
District Tech Coordinator created competency profile based on State Tech Standards
Reading test scores above average for like schools, but not to district or state level

Challenges:

Provide staff training to integrate the use of technology for teaching and learning
To develop a specific professional development plan that addresses student and teacher needs
Don't have a professional development plan clearly defined. Tech plan is mainly hardware
Lack of administrative support for technology
Student to computer ratio is high (approx 10:1)
Good hardware, but insufficient for student population
High staff apathy for use of technology
Lack of confidence of teachers (even though they have technology at home)
More than half of the staff are at the Insufficient or Developing stage on the Self-Assessment
Very few rate above Level 2
At least 80% of the teachers are at an elementary level of technology competence
District Coordinator designed 12-week optional training program
Insufficient computers in the classroom for student access and connectivity is limited
Only one computer per classroom
Help teachers understand the benefits of technology in specific course areas
Lack of knowledge of assistive technology
Need assistive technology, but do not have funding source
How to meet the assistive technology needs of disabled children
Help teachers understand the applicable technologies that will impact their content specialties
Low math and reading test scores
High percent of students with disabilities

2. What appear to be the staff's greatest needs towards effective technology use?

Re-evaluate technology plan on an on-going basis (at least annually). Plan needs to address more than hardware, but should take into account the professional development requirements
Need cohesive plan for professional development training
PD plan needs to determine the amount of professional development needed and create a standardized format
Need time to learn new skills and processes
Need adequate staff to mentor other teachers
Incentives for teachers to participate
Need more collaboration between District Coordinator and teachers to create the plan
Demonstrate the relevancy of technology in the classroom
Need administrative commitment to ongoing staff development that supports the integration of technology into the curriculum
Achieve administrative buy-in; identify and support building "champion"
Increase teacher buy-in to the value of technology
Need to build confidence and technology basic skills
Address how to apply technology
Develop an awareness of the usefulness of technology as a teaching and learning tool, develop interface skills
Dedicated technology support staff on site
Need to gather information targeted to content area selected for focus (reading & math) to include a broad range of skill levels
Improve contact, comfort as related to pedagogy
Skill integrating technology into curriculum (based on responses to application, research, problem solving and product development and teaching methodology survey items)

3. Develop realistic objectives for this school (be sure these objectives are measurable)

To raise the number of faculty members who rate themselves in level 3 and 4 by 10%
By the end of the school year, 70% of the teachers will be at Level 3
Focus on bringing staff from Level 1 to Level 2 over a six month period
By the beginning of the coming school year, 1:3 mentor-teachers will be selected, trained, and ready to mentor
Since a social studies teacher is willing to be a leader, begin with the social studies dept.
Work with social studies dept. on integration of technology into the curriculum. Improvements can be measured by current survey instrument, student demonstration of projects, social studies dept meetings, measurement via student products, teacher self-report survey improvements
Allocate 4 technology oriented staff development days per year, including providing subs to cover teachers' regular duties (helps to prove administrative support)
Each teacher should have several hours of staff development per week to focus on raising competency level in usage, application, and research
Develop a plan that uses technology to improve math and reading scores
Establish a timeline for the development and implementation of a plan that uses technology to address identified needs
Develop a plan that address the special needs of the students in this school
Develop a plan to use assistive technologies to support the special learning needs of these students
By the end of the coming school year, identify assistive technology and submit for implementation

4. List some strategies you would employ to meet the objectives (consider both what's already working and what needs to be improved).

Develop a staff retreat, experience lab, to explore content issues and applications of software by vendors/developers
Create collaborative partnerships with other educational institutions and/or businesses to supplement resources
Based on training plan above, allocate four technology-oriented staff development days per year, including providing subs to cover teachers' regular duties (helps prove administrative support)
Identify and support technology-using teachers as mentors for other teachers
Solicit and identify technology mentors; define their role and provide adequate training; provide enough release time for them to work with technology teams
Provide professional development for the Special Ed teachers and assistants to learn how to use assistive technologies with their students
Provide release time during the regular school day
Create release time during the day
Locate nearby institutions or online resources to match training needs
Provide a take-home computer for those who do not have computers at home
Create learning groups with a mixture of proficiency levels and work toward a common goal
Attend workshops and conferences as needed
Use the existing technology lab to access available online skill development materials via the Internet for improving teacher technology skills

Example of each day (based on self-assessment & identified competencies)
DAY 1 - Introduction to computer operation and basic troubleshooting (presented by Sara & identified teachers)
DAY 2 - Presentingassistive technology options for ALL teachers, regular and Special Ed (delivered by out-of-the-district assistive technology specialist
DAY 3 - Strategies for effective use of technology into YOUR lessons (delivered by Sara and likely out-of-the-district consultant). This will require preliminary research to gather two or three sample "typical" lesson plans)
DAY 4 - Jazz up your lesson! PowerPoint, multimedia, and the Internet into the classroom (delivered by Sara and identified teachers)

Model teaching technology lessons
Test software and appliances to make sure they meet the assistive needs of the Special Ed students; create a budget and seek funding sources for devices; obtain attaining devices and train teachers to use the devices
Research available software for improving reading and math skills to deploy in the technology lab for student use
Daily intravisitation (during preps, lunch) to observe the more skilled integrators of technology in the teaching/learning process
Employ technology for administrative tasks such as record keeping and communicating with students, colleagues, and parents

Do not have faculty meetings. Teachers must check their email for information

5. Identify criteria for measuring the cusses of your plan (what evidence will you look for?).

Re-administer the teacher self-assessment survey to show progress with skills improvement
Retake the self-assessment and look at the results
Look to see if 35 teachers scored at Level 3 or better
Create a hands-on skills test to test Level 3 skills
Look at the number of additional college credit courses that have been taken
Track the number of teachers participating in training sessions
The number of lesson plans with technology components will increase
Increased teacher use of technology, including how they are using it
Monitor student reading and math scores to determine the success of software applications
Count the number of mentors in place to see if ratio was met
Document the training given to the mentor
Create and administer a survey to teachers on mentor effectiveness
Have mentors identify their strengths
Collect satisfaction/value surveys after individual events (e.g., full-day PD session)
Track the number of hours of professional development/technology training per teacher over the span of the timeline proposed above
Track the percentage of instruction that special needs students receive in an inclusive environment to determine the successful use of assistive technologies
Increased use to facilitate teaching an learning (evidence includes student work that utilized technology; teacher use of machines fro communication and teaching and learning activities)
Create rubrics for evaluating teachers' projects that were developed as an outcome of a workshop/series of workshops
Increased use to facilitate teaching and learning (evidence includes student work that utilized technology; teacher use of machines for communication and teaching and learning activities)

6. What kinds of data will tell you if you've met the criteria and how might you collect that data?

Self-assessment scores
Observations of technology use
Observations (principal walking by classrooms to see if computers are on; observation of posted work)
Access logs for email (e.g. like Norwich, CT where it can be seen when folks had accessed email within 24 hours)
Monitor Internet/email usage statistics such as teacher use of email, hits to Reading/Writing websites that are recommended on district website, etc.
Mentor reports
Survey results
Teacher survey collected: beginning, middle, end of year in staff meetings
Interviews (volunteer teachers)
Looking at correlations with student performance and the use of technology
Student use of technology as a result of teachers becoming more proficient
Student work (social studies fair, etc)
Involvement with parents (open house, etc) to see if students use technology in classroom. Have parents participate in a survey to assess level of satisfaction