Alpine School District Digital Teaching and Learning Grant Application
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Alpine School District Digital Teaching and Learning Grant Application I. LEA’s Results on the Readiness Assessment Required in Section 53A-1-1404 Our district prepared a leadership team and we completed the process for a self-assessment using the Future Ready Dashboard. We had previously used this same tool for an assessment in December of 2014. Our full results are available at the link below. Alpine District Future Ready Assessment August 2016 The three page summary of our evaluation is included below: II. Inventory of the LEA's Current Technology Resources, Including Software, and a Description of How a LEA Will Integrate Those Resources into the LEA's Implementation of the Three Year Proposed Program Part A. This link is to the Summary Report from last December using the State Technology Inventory tool, and it is included on the next page. Our current practice is to try to have an access point in every other classroom, plus additional points in office and common areas around the school or classrooms where additional connectivity needs have been identified. Also included is a link to a spreadsheet that has detail of all of our responses plus school specific detail generated from the state inventory tool. Our process is to update the inventory and count by location each December so the numbers in the spreadsheet represent the count last December. However, we have added the two new schools we opened at the beginning of the school year with their current inventory. We also recognize that some of the information in last year’s inventory may not be completely accurate. Our commitment is to fix this as we move forward. As we completed the inventory last year, we undercounted the instructional spaces in many locations. As we update this, our access point ratio will decrease. We will participate in future inventory efforts with UETN as requested. Part B. Alpine School District has a good base on which to build and existing resources will be used to full use in our plans moving forward. While we plan to add as many as 20,000 devices over the next three years, we currently have over 40,000 devices in the environment as of last fall. Existing resources will be used extensively in our plan from devices to software to infrastructure. In all of the targeted schools and teachers, they have existing teacher machines. Some also have student devices available. Our plan is to bring in new student devices in our targeted areas and have school use the existing student devices in other classrooms. We believe that by deploying technology with necessary training, support and other components in place we can model how this existing technology can best be used. We also have software tools available in many places as detailed in section 5 of this application. We will adopt and use new tools but will take full advantage of existing resources. Our existing wireless infrastructure is built to handle classroom sets in our classrooms. Where we find limitations because of physical structures, distance or extra devices, we are prepared to bring in additional access points. III. Statement of Purpose that Describes the Learning Objectives, Goals, Measurable Outcomes, and Metrics of Success an LEA Will Accomplish by Implementing the Program Alpine District has focused its Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals around increased student learning. Our vision articulates a process to achieve personalized learning for students through formative assessments with feedback, timely data to base decisions for instruction and intervention, and personalized intervention and enrichment to achieve mastery of essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Specific and Actionable Root Causes of Performance Challenges Lack of Resources - Alpine School District is a large school district functioning at or near the bottom of per pupil expenditure, yet competing with other Wasatch front districts for salary, facilities, and resources to draw talented people to the organization. Traditionally the district has funded a computer for teachers, administrators and secretaries on a rotation basis as well as one computer lab for elementary schools and two for secondary schools. Additional labs, mobile devices and other technology are purchased through school funds, district CTE funds, grant money or any other resources that can be found. With this inconsistent funding stream, devices for student learning are inadequate. Between district purchased lab machines, CTE purchased devices and school purchased computers or devices, we currently have around 29,000 student learning devices. With over 78,000 students that means that we are just over one learning device for every 3 students. Very few resources have been dedicated to educational technology support as well with only two individuals on a district level with full time responsibilities to support instructional technology. Consistency and Coherence with devices- With the vast majority of learning devices being bought by schools with grant or school funds, we have very inconsistent environments. A few schools have purchased many devices and have reached 1 device per student, although they deploy in classroom sets rather than to students. Other schools do not have access to federal funds and have not prioritized and have very few learning devices. Within the school, this inconsistency is also evident with some teachers within a grade or department having digital resources while their counterparts do not. Also, since devices are often purchased with one time money, schools often try to hold on to devices well past the point where they should be rotated. So many of our devices have limited use as they are past the point they can be updated. Additionally, with devices being purchased through grants or schools, different people have chosen different types of devices. For teacher rotation machines we provide Macbooks for elementary teachers, but secondary teachers choose between a Macbook and a Windows machine. Elementary labs are Macs and Secondary labs are Windows, with the exception of some CTE labs. We have over 8,000 iPads in our environment and over 8,000 Chromebooks or Chromeboxes. We also have carts of macs and PCs for student use. Often teachers teaching the same subject and trying to do the same function have different devices making sharing of best practices and available digital resources difficult. Deployment models are also mixed with some schools choosing to put a few devices in each class, while others choose to deploy mobile carts. Consistency with Digital tools and Professional Learning - We also have little consistency with digital materials and tools. We have a district wide literacy curriculum available either in print or digital format. Other text materials are chosen from an approved list but schools have different choices with some converting to digital resources in some areas, but most relying mainly on print. We provide a district implementation of Google Apps for Education and Microsoft Office, but other tools are chosen by schools, so many different learning programs are in use between and even within schools. With only two individuals for instructional technology training and coaching, different individuals take on this responsibilities in our schools informally. Training and evaluation are not planned and comprehensive in many cases. Consistency with Pedagogy - We firmly believe that instruction should be the driver for change and not technology. Our district vision is one of professional learning communities making important decisions about curriculum and instruction to reach intended outcomes. Our district outcomes have been focused on completion where we have seen great success with 95% of our 9th graders on track to graduate and a 93% high school graduation rate. We have personalized learning through instruction and intervention to help students reach levels of learning to pass classes. With recent core shifts and changes in SAGE testing, we have not had a district wide coherent approach to instruction to achieve more rigorous and deep outcomes required for 21st century success after graduation. Pockets of schools, teams, and teachers have developed their instruction and curriculum, but it is not consistent or widespread. Plan to Address Root Causes of Performance Challenges While specifics of our plan are outlined in section IV of this application, our plan addresses these goals through some foundational principles. We are currently refining a district level definition of learning that includes academic content knowledge, 21st century skills, and dispositions to prepare students for success in college, career and workforce. With a more refined and complete target of student learning, we recognize a need to shift our current practice. Our plan addresses three distinct shifts in practice to bring about our intended 21st century learning outcomes:. ● A shift in curriculum and its essential elements ● A shift in assessment to address the components of student learning ● A shift in pedagogy We will achieve these shifts by attending to building leadership capacity, developing teachers to shift their pedagogy within the context of the core subjects, and helping teachers learn how to use 21st century devices and tools in their teaching and assessment practice. Through this plan we address a lack of resources through providing learning devices along with digital tools and materials, network needs, support, and training to teachers in every school in our district. While some teams and grade levels are not directly impacted, we will use this model to teach schools so that we can leverage their resources to be effective in other areas. We plan to address consistency by deploying standardized devices as well as standardized learning materials so that teachers and teams can learn from each other. We plan on this becoming an ongoing commitment so that devices and tools are not deployed without an ongoing plan to refresh as needed. We also plan to address consistency in pedagogy through significant training in curriculum and pedagogy before any technology is deployed, so we can assure that technology is not just used to entrench further poor instructional practices.