EDTC 6140 Planning for Technology

Assignment 4: Needs Assessment

Barbara McMillanInstructional Technology Specialist

Rockingham County SchoolsNovember 6, 2008

Rockingham County SchoolsObjectives for Technology

Rockingham County Schools technology objectives are aligned with the 5 state and district goals for future ready students. These goals are:

1. NC public schools will produce globally competitive students

2. NC public schools will be led by 21st Century professionals

3. NC public school students will be healthy and responsible

4. Leadership will guide innovation in NC public schools

5. NC public schools will be governed and supported by 21st Century systems

Rockingham County Facts• Total Land Area: 566 sq. mi. • Altitude (at  County Seat of Wentworth):  898 ft. above sea level  • Total County Population: 91,928 (State Rank: 25) • Population of Unincorporated Area of County:  53,075 • Population Density per Square Mile: 162 • County Tax Rate: $0.705 per $100 valuation • County Seat: Wentworth, NC • Six Municipalities:

Eden (pop. 15,238), Madison (2,262), Mayodan (2,417), Reidsville (14,485), Stoneville (1,002), and Wentworth (2,779)

Rockingham County Schools

• Over 14,000 students enrolled• Employ over 2000 certified and classified

staff• 8 Elementary Schools• 4 Middle Schools• 4 High Schools• 1 Early College High School• 1 Alternative School

Department of Media & Instructional Technology 920 Johnson Street Reidsville NC

Interviewee Description • Assessing the needs of the district involves the entire

learning community. In order to gather the information necessary to implement this plan, a survey will be given to school faculty, administrators, parents, and students.

• All of the survey participants will be given an online survey with questions designed for each particular group. All surveys will be conducted using Google Forms, and all results will immediately be recorded in a Google Apps spreadsheet. – Parents without Internet access will be invited to take the survey online

in media centers at each school. A time frame consisting of one week with extended media center hours will be open for the parents’ convenience.

– Students will also complete the online survey through computers in the classroom, computer lab, or media centers at each school. There will be a two week time period allotted to allow for all students to complete the survey.

• Responses to all surveys will be anonymous.• Business & community input will be gathered in focus

groups where participants will be asked 2 open ended questions.

Focus Group IHuman Resources Representatives from Local Businesses in Rockingham County

Open ended questions:

• What technology skills do you feel are important for students to learn in order to be “job ready” upon graduation?

• What types of electronic projects should teachers assign students to prepare them for your workplace?

Focus Group IIAdmissions Representatives from

Rockingham Community College, NC A&T University, UNCG

Open ended questions:

• What technology skills do you feel are important for students to learn in order to be ready for college?

• What types of electronic projects should teachers assign students to prepare them for college?

Technology Plan Surveys

• School Survey for Tech Plan-Globally Competitive Students

• Parent Survey for Tech Plan

• Student Survey for Tech Plan

• Administrators' 21st Century Classroom Best Practices Survey

Data Examination • Usage reports from online subscription services

including:– How To Master (21st Century technology skills LMS)– Simple Assessment (student & teacher technology

assessment)– Discovery Education (formerly United Streaming)– School Island (web-based review, testing, and assessment

tools for elementary-high school students in the areas of Math, Social Studies, Science, English, and Foreign Languages)

– Blue Diamond (web-based application is a framework for North Carolina Standard Course of Study curriculum based assessment generation, administration, and evaluation)

• Data from focus groups open ended questions• Data from completed online technology plan

surveys

Sample Data Analysis

Link to

Findings

My findings and recommendations for the technology plan will be compiled and presented to the District Media and Technology Advisory Committee. MTAC will review the findings, make revisions, and vote on it. Upon approval by the committee, a final report will be presented to the Superintendent and School Board for district approval.

ReportThis report was developed using input from district teachers, administrators, and support personnel about our current status, including what is working and where we need to improve. Input was also garnered from students, parents and community stakeholders. Through this process of striving for continuous improvement we will meet the goals we set for our students in the following areas (discussed on the following 5 slides):

1. we will produce globally competitive students

2. we will be led by 21st Century professionals

3. our students will be healthy and responsible

4. leadership will guide innovation in our schools

5. our schools will be governed and supported by 21st Century systems.

We will produce globally competitive students

• 100% of our classrooms have internet access and the average number of computers per classroom is 3

• only 25% of our teachers had heard of on-line pen pals and only 2% had ever used this tool in the classroom.

• currently 20% of our high school students have taken a class through NC Virtual Public High School

• 85% of our high school students that have failed classes or EOC exams have enrolled in APEX for credit recovery

• 95% of our high school seniors have passed the NC Test of Computer Skills (graduation requirement)

• we currently have 60% of our classrooms at 21st century standards (new teaching computer, mounted data projector with integrated sound, ActivBoard with slate, & Lumens document camera) with the goal of teachers utilizing these systems to increase district AYP by 10%

• still only 50% of our students report that they use the schools media center or flex labs for internet based research and only 13% felt that they could use internet research tools well enough to frequently find the information that they needed.

• 68% of our administrators are using the 21st Century Survey form as they “walkthrough” and observe teachers and students in these 21st Century environments.

We will be led by 21st Century professionals

• By January 2009 we will have a district level 21st Century classroom manager who will coordinate and drive the planning for upgrading an additional 200 classrooms to 21st Century status (bringing our district total to 90% 21st Century classrooms).

• Our staff survey highlighted that in order to have students who can benefit from 21st Century technologies in the learning environment, teachers need to be able to apply technology effectively. To support and train teachers the district will:– By January 2009 have one Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS)

for the high schools and one ITS for the middle schools. This will allow an ITS to be on-site at these schools one day each week providing the necessary support for teachers.

– continue 2 ITS elementary rotations which are not based on geographic zones; rather they are a mixture of higher and lower performing environments. These schools will still have a two week rotation until funding for 2 additional ITS can be obtained.

• We continue to require 3 technology credits per license renewal cycle.

Our students will be healthy and responsible

• Technology supports the Safe Schools Plan by providing surveillance cameras at our schools & in our busses. Communications have greatly improved through the use of technology (administrators have smart phones, key staff are equipped mobile radios or push-to-talk cell phones, and all classrooms have telephones equipped with intercom)

• Digital reporting systems and databases are used to manage food services work with the focus on managing student nutrition, menu and inventory management, and fiscal reporting. Unique ID data is used to identify students electronically making data collection and analysis easy.

• With regard to student discipline data access, by January 2009, our district will be using NCWISE which will greatly improve the reporting and archiving of discipline reports across the district.

• Technology has provided administrators across the district training on the IMPACT program to address flexible access to resources; however only 25% of our schools have implemented this model.

Leadership will guide innovation in our schools

• The Superintendent has been an instrumental leader by designing and implementing grant provisions for building 21st Century classrooms.

• Future Ready Goals are expected to be incorporated in SIPs (School Improvement Plans).

• Our administrators have implemented a process which includes strategies from Focused Leadership Solutions™ .

• Our district has implemented the PEP program, a leadership program for assistant principals.

• Board Certified staff are provided with incentive pay.• Input for strategies regarding Instructional Technology are

gathered through online surveys, MTAC, and site-based planning.

• The Superintendent has formed a partnership with the Annie Penn Trust to provide community based grants for technology and other equipment which has largely funded 21st Century classrooms in our district.

Our schools will be governed and supported by 21st Century

systems.• The district Technology Office applies certain principles when

making technology application and hardware decisions. These are:1. Non-standard to standard2. Proprietary to open3. Single service to converged services4. Scalable, modular5. Single point of failure to redundancy6. Isolated to networked7. Desktop application to web application8. Analog to digital – AV to computer9. AV to Computer10. Hardware to software11. Moving parts to solid state12. Local storage to online storage

• The district uses funding from eRATE, capital outlay, T1, EETT, NCREN school connectivity, local 015, state 015, 024 to support 21st Century systems.

• The district uses the Google Apps for Education Suite of tools which includes web-based email, collaborative calendar, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and websites for teachers.

• The district is in its initial implementation year for NCWISE.