Tech Plan

 

Clinton Public Schools - A Learning Place
Technology Plan
2007-2010


Approved by the Clinton Board of Education on March 5, 2007

    The Clinton Schools exist to guide life-long learners in acquiring the skills they need to locate, access and evaluate information, to contribute positively to a changing world, to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and to respond productively to the challenges and opportunities of a global society.

    Clinton is a small rural community in western Oklahoma. The school district enjoys an unusually diverse ethnic make-up (8.89% Black, 9.89% Native American, 31.92% Hispanic, .57% Asian, 48.61% white) and currently has 74.25% of the student body who qualify for free or reduced lunch. The district has qualified for E-Rate funding for the past nine years for tele-communication, Internet access, and internal connections. The district's cultural and economic diversity creates a climate of haves and have-nots in the areas of technology access and literacy, and the district administration continues to place a high priority on closing these gaps which are created by the home and society but must be recognized and addressed by the schools.
    The school system is also known for the services it provides for students identified with special needs and it therefore draws students in need of such services, and currently has a higher percentage of special education students than the state average  The district has been informed that this population did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward the 2005-2006 goals of No Child Left Behind, and the administration is currently seeking every avenue to improve this performance level as well.
    Clinton Schools is structured as grade level centers so that, even though well over half of our students are high poverty, all receive the same high quality access to instruction through the best technology currently available to the district. None of our school sites are currently identified for school improvement or corrective action under section 1116 of Title I.

1. Strategies for Improving Academic Achievement and Teacher Effectiveness
    Clinton Public Schools is focused on the goal of improving student academic achievement and places a high priority on accomplishing that goal for ALL students. Administrators and curriculum design teams use a wide variety of data to analyze student performance and map out strategies for improvement for each disaggregated group as identified by the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). The district has identified the following strategies to move forward with these efforts:

  • Provide the tools and the training so that district leaders can collect, organize, analyze, disaggregate, and report on student achievement data.
  • Involve teachers in the process of looking at student performance data to inform curriculum and instruction decisions and practice.
  • Provide technologies to support student learning in current district wide curriculum initiatives in the areas of process writing, early literacy, and mathematics and in the ongoing work of curriculum development and instructional practices.
  • Increase teacher capacity to use technology by providing reliable Internet-connected workstations for teachers as well as classroom presentation stations and sustained professional development.

2. Goals
  • Improve student achievement, as measured by the standards of Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS), through the use of technology.
  • Ensure that all students become technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade.
  • Advance research-based instruction through technology-integrated curriculum development.
  • Promote effective integration of technology into on-going professional development.
  • Provide adequate access to the technology necessary to meet the academic and operational needs of the school system.
  • Effectively use E-rate funding to acquire new technologies to include but not limited to wireless campus access, voice-over IP, current industry standards in network cabling and high speed networks.
  • Provide an adequate tech support staff to see that all technology operations of the district are supported and maintained. Both technicians, charged with setting up, maintaining, and fixing equipment, and education technology specialists, charged with working with teachers to implement regular technology use in the classroom are essential to the district's technology efforts.

3. Steps to Increase Accessibility
1.    Maintain the wireless Wide Area Network for high-speed, dedicated Internet access through a central location or the district. Currently the Local Area Network at each site is operated by Windows 2003 Server software on a Xeon server. All classrooms are wired and the necessary Ethernet 10/100 switches and routers are installed to have at least two and in most cases four network/Internet drops in every classroom in the district.
2.    Seek ways to increase available bandwidth through wide area networking and local area networking to each of the five sites of the district in order to provide Internet access, data storage, teacher websites, streaming media content, etc.
3.    Continue to increase the number of student computers to reach a two academic users per computer ratio. Currently, the district maintains approximately 800 computers for academic use as well as other technologies, and has 1913 students. To reach this goal by 2010, the district must aggressively seek funding for end user hardware through both local and federal funding as well as private grants and donations.
4.    Upgrade teacher workstations so that at least one computer per teacher meets or exceeds the Oklahoma State Department of Education's Updated Computer Standards (see attachment).
5.    Maintain a replacement cycle of three years or less for computers and other technologies that become available.
6.    Provide professional development so that all teachers are prepared to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction. See details in Section 5 below.

4. Promotion of Curricula and Teaching that Integrate Technology
    Curriculum development for Clinton Schools is an on-going process. Initiatives in the areas of process writing, early literacy and mathematics are currently in progress and give direction to decisions concerning teaching and learning as well as the distribution of technology resources throughout the district.
    Vertical teams of teachers and administrators in the areas of reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, counseling, the arts, and technology education meet monthly throughout the school year to align the district's teaching and learning to state and national standards. They also research the latest teaching strategies and methodologies and serve as leaders in implementation at each grade level.
    Each team is currently doing research on the technology available to enhance and support teaching and learning in their curriculum area. Their current research has led them to see the great benefits of true integration of technology, and they are leading the district's teachers to value technology and its use in the classroom as something much more than extra or add-ons or the latest toy.
    In addition, the district's Gifted Advisory Council, Staff Development Committee and Federal Programs Teaching Team meets regularly and are aware of the importance of integrating technology into the teaching and learning of all students, faculty and staff in Clinton Schools.

5. Professional Development
    The Professional Development Plan for Clinton Schools includes a technology component designed to further the effective use of technology to enhance learning throughout the district and include the opportunity for our technology staff to attend national conferences on an annual basis to stay current with available technology. Professional development for technology integration is most effective when it is in the context of curriculum content, effective pedagogy, and student learning, not focused on the technology itself. To that end, technology professional development is designed to move teachers through the five stages of the instructional model (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation, invention) to the point that technology is a natural and normal mode of instruction delivery.
    Several current district technology projects include strong professional development support:
  • PowerSchool Student Information System
        The recent purchase and implementation of the PowerSchool Student Information     System has necessitated an intense focus on professional development. During the     summer more than sixty administrative and support employees were trained, and then     when school started the entire teaching faculty was trained using a train the trainer     model. The database includes demographics, attendance and enrollment information,         special programs participation, historical academic and assessment data. In the spring the     Parent Portal, which allows parent communication with teachers concerning assignments,     conduct, and performance will be operational, and additional training will be needed at     that time.
        Eleven teachers have been contracted as PowerSchool Tech Mentors to provide     on-going professional development and tech support for PowerScool to teachers at their     sites. Bi-weekly training sessions are conducted by district personnel for a variety of     groups, both certified and support, working with the database. This professional     development will be needed for several years as the full implementation of the     PowerSchool product unfolds.
  • Technology To Teach Project (funded by a Title 2D Competitive Grant)
        Directors for the project are both experienced in classroom technology and     especially in delivering high quality technology professional development to teachers in     the classroom. The central focus of the Technology to Teach Project is supporting     teachers as they learn to implement the use of new technologies acquired into their     regular    teaching practice. To achieve that, the directors have established an on-line blog     for project participants where each is expected to post and respond on a weekly basis.     Directors will also be working with teachers individually to prepare specific lessons     infused with technology interactivity. Participants will receive Oklahoma Marco-    Polo/PASSport Training and participate in a three-day summer institute. Three     administrators involved in the project will participate in OK-ACTS as well.
  • On-going Professional Development Strands for Basic and Advanced
        Clinton Public Schools Professional Development Plan includes a component     known as strands in which each teacher chooses a focus for their professional     development for the year and attends five sessions dealing with that topic and works to     improve their professional involvement with that topic throughout the year. During 2006-    2007 approximately a third of the staff selected a technology related strand. Some are     participating in a basic strand where they focus on word-processing, e-mail, and data     management. Others opted for advanced training in a specific area including digital     photography, web design, and classroom performance systems. This self-selected method     of professional development delivery will be fine-tuned and continued in the coming     years.
  • Web-based training
        For the first time the district is implementing an organized effort to make use of     numerous web-based training venues. Teachers will be registering to use Atomic     Learning which provides web-based software training for more than 100 applications     students and educators use everyday. The short, easy-to-view-and-understand tutorials     will be an integral part of a professional development program, a valuable curriculum     supplement, and an anytime/anywhere training resource.
        Teachers already have access to United Streaming and the related education     resources available from Discovery. Teachers will also be accessing Southern Regional     Education Board's Evalu-tech and Educational Technology Cooperative for on-line and     other technology resources. Other resources such as the Annenberg Foundation's     learner.org website and Learning.Com's EasyTech and LiteracyTech Assessment will     also be reviewed and sited for teacher use.

6. Technology Type and Costs
Clinton Public Schools currently receives approximately $5400 in Title IID Educational Technology funds. Those funds are allocated to improve the wireless connectivity in the high school facility, to provide registration and travel costs for two technology staff members to attend a national conference, and to provide other incidental technology professional development resources throughout the year.  See below for details on the very important diversified funding sources available to support technology in Clinton Schools.

7. Coordination with other resources
    Funding for technology is generated from many sources and is coordinated by the assistant superintendent and the technology director to see that all purchases support the goals, specifications, and timeline of the District Technology Plan.  District funds provide the bulk of technology funding at this time including the district's discounted costs related to E-rate purchases and salaries for the three member technology staff (see attached CPS Technology Budget). A bond issue to remodel Nance Elementary and Clinton High School will include some funding for technology retrofitting of both of those facilities. A limited amount of technology funding comes to the district from the Clinton Public School Foundation teacher grant program and from student activity funds.
    Funds from several federal programs enhance the district's ability to deliver high quality instruction using technology. Title IA (School Improvement) and Title IC (Migrant Program) funds provide supplemental hardware and software costs in reading and math in grades K-8 as well as related professional development costs. The district's pre-kindergarten program is also funded with Title IA funds and receives supplemental technology needs from that source. Title IID resources are described above (see Section 6). The district has also just acquired a one-time competitive grant for $85,000 from Title IID to fund the Technology to Teach Project for sixth and seventh graders. Title III (Limited English Proficiency) funds provide technology support for language development and curriculum supports for students identified as English Language Learners as well as the software and computers used for the parent outreach component of that program.
    Career Tech funding provides a full time instructor at Clinton Middle School who provides an exploration level of technology instruction. Two full time high school instructors build on this base with instruction in both basic and upper level skills.
    The district is currently completing a grant cycle for a 21st Century Community Learning Center and has provided technology supports in that program as well. Title V (Innovative Programs) has traditionally been used in this district for distance learning opportunities and continues to be used to provide a variety of technology resources. Title VI (Rural Low Income Schools) funds provide more than $25,000 in instructional technology purchases of both hardware and web-based instructional programming. Recent incentive awards from Title I were also used to provide a number of teacher work stations and other technology advancements.
    
8. Integration of Technology with Curricula and Instruction
    The district will continue to integrate the use of technology into the curriculum development and instructional practices of the district.  At this time the anticipated timeline is as follows:
Winter/Spring 2007 - Complete the curriculum review for social studies and the arts, incorporating technology teaching and learning practices.
Spring 2007 - Provide professional development and technical support for Technology to Teach Project participants as they implement the use of new technologies (i.e., Smartboards, projection systems, audio enhancement systems, document cameras, classroom performance systems, etc.) and integrate them into the instruction of reading and math at the sixth and seventh grades.
Summer 2007 - Host a district level Technology Institute for Teachers with an emphasis on creating interactive learning models that effectively engage all students in their own learning process.
2007-2008 - Complete retrofitting of high school science labs and computer lab as well as additional classrooms at Nance Elementary to enhance learning through technology.
2007-2008 - Facilitate a comprehensive curriculum review of reading instruction in the district incorporating technology resources (hardware, software and electronically delivered learning materials) to facilitate optimum student engagement and success in learning.
2007-2010 - Conduct an annual comprehensive technology survey of teacher technology skills and continue to provide several levels of professional development opportunities in the area of technology to meet the needs of all teachers.
2007-2010 - Continue to upgrade the district's networking hardware and connectivity capabilities to meet current and future needs (see site level details in the appendix).
2007-2010 - Maintain a three-year replacement cycle of computers for academic use.
2007-2010 - Add to the number of industry-standard student computers to achieve a 2/1 ratio of students to computers.
2007-2010 - Continue to support the use of technology throughout the district by providing at least three technology support staff members trained in systems management, hardware and software support, as well as instructional services.
2008-2010 - Continue to complete comprehensive curriculum reviews following the OSDE Textbook Subject Cycle (08-09 - Foreign Language, Health, Vocational Education, Computer Education/Instructional Technology; 09-10 - Mathematics) in order to incorporate technology into every curriculum area.

9. Innovative Delivery Strategies
    The district will continue to encourage the development and use of innovative strategies for the delivery of rigorous course and curricula through the use of technology, including distance learning technologies as they are needed by our students. The following are currently in use or under review. Others will be implemented as they become available.
  • Networked and/or online computer software: Renaissance Learning's STAR Early Literacy, English in a Flash, Math Facts in a Flash, STAR Reading, STAR Math, Accelerated Reader Enterprise, Accelerated Math; Curriculum Advantage, Inc.'s Classworks; DynEd International, Inc.'s English for Success and First English; Autoskill International Inc.'s Academy of Reading. Learning.Com's EasyTech and Tech Literacy Assessment.
  • Teacher generated web-pages or blogs.
  • Classroom presentation stations including laptop computers, Smartboards, projectors and audio enhancement systems.

10. Parental Involvement
    Several steps taken by the district have us positioned to greatly enhance effective parent involvement and increase communication through the use of technology. Implementation of the PowerSchool Student Information System's Parent Portal, which is planned for February 2007 will be a great asset in parent/teacher communications. Parents will receive an individual log-in which will allow them to see their child's attendance records and classroom performance toward specific assignments in real time. Direct access via email to teachers, daily school bulletins and other components will bring the parent right into the classroom on a regular basis. The district plans a kick-off event for the Parent Portal Opening as well as on-going training for parents as needed.
    The district has made strides toward the goal of a telephone in every classroom, and we will continue with this initiative as a safety tool as well as an immediate way for teachers and students in the classroom to contact parents on any number of topics. At this time the capability of Voice-Over IP connectivity is also anticipated in the near future.  Parent communication and involvement in their child's learning will also be greatly enhanced as teachers post blogs with class projects and learning goals on a regular basis.
     Technology is also key to a new project that is just getting organized for our kindergarten and pre-kindergarten children. Teachers of those children are currently putting together custom-designed and produced DVD's of the learning activities and games used in the classroom. Each parent will receive a copy of the class DVD so they can reinforce the classroom learning in their home even if their own literacy or even English language skills are limited. This tool will be a great resource for parents. It is also one more way, among the many more that are surely on the horizon, for us to send a strong message that the school and the parent must work together to create the optimum teaching and learning environment.

11. Collaboration with Adult Literacy Service Providers
    Adult literacy services in our area are provided by Elk City Public Schools and are not hosted in our district facilities. As a district we do collaborate with the area library system on a variety of projects, but at this time the use of Clinton Public Schools' technology resources is not a factor in those activities.
    Technology plays a role in the district's successful ELL for Moms program in which more than 20 young mothers and members of the Latino community come to the school twice a week to use Auto-skill International's Academy of Reading with the Spanish Tutor to learn English. In so doing this group of parents become familiar and comfortable with the school setting and some of the best advocates the district has.
12. Accountability measures
    The process of accountability in today's educational arena is an obvious necessity. The district will rely on the following accountability measures to assess the effectiveness of the district technology plan and its impact on instructional programming and the integration of technology into that overall process:
  • OSTP Criterion Referenced Tests. These assessments of reading and math achievement in grades 3-8 and at the high school level will provide data on all disaggregated groups and their performance on a yearly basis. By analyzing data on a grade level and on a student-by-student basis the district will be able to adjust instructional technology strategies as needed.
  • Survey of student success with the ISTE Technology Literacy Standards which are to be attained prior to the completion of the eighth grade. A rubric will be designed and implemented at the sixth grade level and continued throughout middle school to capture the district's ability to provide opportunities for all students to demonstrate the performances required (see attached document).
  • Teacher Technology Survey. This document provides information on teachers' proficiency levels with a variety of networking, software and publishing tasks. The district will expect to see growth in all areas as accessibility is enhanced and professional development remains focused on technology (see attached document).
  • Essential Conditions for Effective Technology Integration Self-Assessment for Educators. Taken from the HP Technology for Teaching Project and based on the ISTE Essential Conditions, this tool will provide the administrative leadership with the teaching staff's perceptions of the district's technology program. Such information will provide direction as the district moves along the continuum of technology integration (see attached document).
  • PowerSchool Student Data Management System. This web-based information data base allows teachers, administrators and parents to assess a student's progress in real time for optimum learning.


13. Supporting resources
    The district will continue to seek out the supporting resources, such as services, software, other electronically delivered learning materials, and print resources that will ensure successful and effective uses of technology. The bulk of ongoing and anticipated acquisitions have been discussed in earlier sections of this plan. Others of interest include the ISTE professional development and curriculum development resources and Follett Software Company's Destiny Library Manager.
    Through E-rate and many other sources, the Clinton school district will provide the resources to educate the children of this community and create, as our vision statement says, a learning place.

Attachments:
Site Specific Timelines
OSDE Updated Computer Standards
ISTE 8th Grade Technology Literacy Performance Standards
Clinton Public Schools Teacher Technology Survey
Board Policy on Student Internet Acceptable Use and Employee Computer Use
 

The individuals listed below were involved in regular meetings and work sessions to prepare the district technology plan. They are also committed to continuing the Technology Committee's work to see that the plan is enacted, updated, and sustained as a component in the ongoing success of  Clinton Public Schools in reaching it goals as A Learning Place.

  • Linda Thomas, Assistant Superintendent
  • James Corbridge, District Technology Director
  • Evelyn Wilson, District Technology Curriculum/Software Specialist
  • Carl Vincent, District Technology Specialist
  • Debbie Carlisle, Clinton High School Technology Mentor
  • Denise Harper, Clinton High School Technology Instructor, PowerSchool Tech Mentor and Web Master
  • Marie Pool, Clinton High School Technology Mentor and Technology To Teach Grant Project Director
  • Patti Lindsey, Clinton Middle School PowerSchool Tech Mentor
  • Candy Mueller, Clinton Middle School Technology Mentor
  • Sue Ayn Moore, Clinton Middle School Web Master
  • Monte Schimmer, Clinton Middle School Tech-Ed Instructor
  • Jason Bengs, Washington Elementary Technology Mentor, Technology To Teach Grant         Project Director and Web Master
  • Wendi Lewis, Washington Elementary PowerSchool Tech Mentor
  • Kay Cabaniss, Southwest Elementary Technology Mentor and Web Master
  • Donna Lewallen, Southwest Elementary PowerSchool Tech Mentor
  • Karen Chapman, Nance Elementary Technology Mentor and Web Master
  • Flo Gathright, Nance Elementary PowerSchool Tech Mentor