Introduction
The U.S. Department of Education’s Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program was part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and, like other elements of NCLB, the EETT program targeted “high-need school districts.” The three goals for the program were: (a) to improve student academic achievement through the use of educational technology, (b) to ensure that every student is technologically literate by the eighth grade, and (c) to encourage the effective integration of technology in teacher training and curriculum development to establish research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented as best practices.
The four essential objectives for the program were:
Focus on technology access
Technology-related teacher professional development
Technology integration
Student technology literacy
The EETT program sought to ensure that every student would be technologically literate by the time he or she finishes the eighth grade, regardless of the student’s race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location or disability, and to encourage the effective integration of technology resources and systems with teacher training and curriculum development to establish research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented as best practices.
Background
Participation in the EETT program was open to all public and charter schools as a way to support the goals above. The grant was developed in two parts, first the school had to have a board approved technology plan and then a grant proposal was needed to apply for specific funds to be used during the grant period (two years).
We formed a working team comprised of various stakeholders from the school and began the process of drafting our tech plan and grant proposal. It was decided that the grant proposal would be focused on the students of the Lincoln Montessori program. The grant requirements specified the at the participating student group needed to be 4-8th graders. The grant period was 2 years and the proposal was written to focus on the same student group moving from year one to year two of the grant.
Montessori was chosen to help focus the grant dollars and to ensure a consistent and reliable student group for implementation. The general population of the school would have been a difficult group to use to implement the program since being homeschooled presents challenges with focused instruction and other variables. We needed to eliminate as many independent variables as possible. A teacher-led classroom with a reliable student population and consistent tools proved to be the best opportunity for the grant implementation.
The development and writing of the technology plan was accomplished in cooperation with the grant. The regional California Technology Assistance Program (CTAP) staff at Sacramento County Office of Education supported the process and ultimately approved our grant. While drafting our plan and proposal the CTAP staff offered regular and consistent feedback to ensure we were successful. Staff attended several training and information sessions offered by the CTAP office, in cooperation with the state office of education, to learn important details about the program and grant implementation. The grant award amount was based on the school's previous year's enrollment of fourth through eighth graders. The two year program included implementation goals including academic goals (math and ELA) and professional developement goals for the teachers. Also the grant specific that appropriate and relevant technology be purchased and used. With the help of the CTAP staff our proposal was accepted and funded.
Project LIFT
Learning Infused and Fueled by Technology, or Project LIFT, became the theme and name for our EETT grant implementation. The research demonstrated that students who used technology to collaborate, communicate, problem solve and make decisions showed improvement un math and ELA scores based on summative and standardized tests. As a team we decided to implement innovative techniques using Apple based technology (laptops, software, and networking) to build a program implementation around. Apple technicians designed and installed a 10 laptop portable lab with an Apple network server set up on site to support the learning and teaching initiatives.
I supported the program and coordinated with LMCC principal and staff for planning, writing and implementing grant program. I helped to set up all the professional development and technology needs for the project and the day-to-day instruction by teachers. I collaborated to coordinate the pre and post assessments as well as the schedule for regular assessing of the student group included in the grant program. I coordinated all the technology implementation and supported the program teachers with regular help and cover site.
As a team we developed a professional development calendar where we all shared opportunities to collaborate with each other and share best practices while also review data and student achievement to make program modifications along the way. We planned and attended the Computer Using Educators (CUE) annual conference and used the experience and information learned from the conference session to design more professional development and implementation ideas for staff.
Over 2 years 75% of the students in the participant group demonstrated a higher average of academic growth than their grade-level peers in both math and ELA. The program assessments measure a large growth in student use of and knowledge in technology. While the teacher use and integration of technology increased by 150%. Teachers reported that students were more engaged, spent more time on task and collaborated more that before the grant period (through observation and feedback).
Other items important to note is that the Enhancing Education Through Technology program was competitive grant and not all districts and schools who applied were accepted. Also the Project was recognized by Horizon staff as school strength in 2011 WASC self-study due to the program's success and best practices learned to implement school-wide.
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