School Technology Commission Meeting – State Board Room, NCDPI Present: Dr. June Atkinson Dr. Bill Harrison Mr. Neill Kimrey Rep. Joe Tolson Dr. Reid Parrott Mr. John Killebrew Mr. Derek McCoy Mr. James Crowe The meeting was called to order at 9:45am on January 27, 2010 Dr. Harrison opened the meeting by welcoming those in attendance. He reported that as a result of the first meeting of the newly organized STC, it seems that there is a lot of work ahead for the commission and said that the primary take away from that meeting is the recognition that across North Carolina there are pockets of excellence in the use of technology in schools. Our task is to make sure the pockets of excellence are spread to all parts of the state. John Killebrew of MCNC, was welcomed as a new member to the commission. He is an appointment of UNC Chancellor Erskine Bowles. Dr. Harrison expressed excitement about the partnership with MCNC. Dr. Glenn Kleiman, Executive Director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, was recognized and thanked for his leadership in development of North Carolina’s $469,000,000 Race To The Top proposal submitted to the U.S, Department of Education. Dr. Harrison commented that the collaboration from DPI, The Friday Institute and all other K-­‐20 partners enabled a comprehensive proposal to be submitted by the deadline. Dr. Harrison expressed his appreciation to Dr. Kleimnan, his staff at the Friday Institute and NCSU on their incredible work. Hs said he would be shocked if any other state had the collaboration that we had. Dr. Harrison turned the meeting over to Rep. Joe Tolson, chair of the School Technology Commission: Representative Tolson asked the commission to review the proposed accomplishments for the meeting, then announced Dr. Glenn Kleiman of the Friday Institute, Dr. Kleiman provided a presentation on the contents of the Race to the Top application. Darleene Heath shared a presentation on the status of School Connectivity. NCREN K-­‐12 advocate from MCNC, partners in the DPI, FI, MCNC, NCREN and LEAs. Backbone connectivity – 115 LEAs connected to NCREN •
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93.53% are fiber connected 5.4% are licensed wireless 0.85% are unlicensed wireless 0.32% are copper access Client engineering Service – 35 network assessments in progress or complete 19 in support of IMPACT or GLF 1:1 computing initiatives •
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Focus moving from basic connectivity and core networking to wireless LANs, security and operations management Rapid Growing demand for shared services BTOP Federal stimulus allots 7.2 B to broadband access 28.2M request 11.7M matches uses not state funds from MCNC and Private Partner 37 rural counties – 24 fully or partially underserved Round 1 Results – we won ITS Collaboration – MCNC and ITS are collaborating and need to provide documentation to the state. We are working together to provide the services necessary for north Carolina. 5 areas of focus Network and network services Data center services Security Video NC ID/NC Trust/FM A goal was to show that the communities throughout the state were engaged. Collaborative Outcomes of connectivity – Network Services Operating Committee – all members of NCREN are eligible to be a part of this. (Collaborative services work group, Leadership from 4 different education sectors, Multiple task forces each with cross sector membership – Education and training – classroom capture and distribution workshops – Certified Educational Chief Technology Officers Program (CeCTO) -­‐ with DPI and the UNC school of government and MCNC for technology directors, coming in February discussion forms. What you see with this is partnerships throughout. Collaborative Services Work Group Digital media asset licensing – we are using a mediasite infrastructure Federated Identity Management – NC Trust – password and user name Rep. Tolson thanked Ms. Heath for sharing the information in her report. He stated that he was excited to hear about the funds that were just awarded and that the second phase of grants is underway. He asked if there were any problems that might occur that would hinder the expected outcome of the funding. Ms. Heath stated that she was not aware of any difficulties. Rep. Tolson asked if she would let us know how the legislature can help ensure the success of the Phase II Connectivity Project. o
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Dr. Atkinson followed up on a comment by Ms. Heath about the UNC School of Government’s new Certified Educational Chief Technology Officers program (CeCTO). She was glad to see that LEA superintendents are included in the training, since training is the key to being successful. Commission member McCoy stated that there are over 30 participants in the initial class. Rep. Tolson remarked, training is the key to being successful. Ms. Heath responded that the intent is to try to do about 30 every year. She also shared that there was an application process and that the state was lucky that funding from DPI is going to cover the cost. But that there was a lot of interest before they knew the funding was there. Ms. Heath responded that the intent is to try to do about 30 every year. She also shared that there was an application process and that the state was lucky that funding from DPI is going to cover the cost. However, there was a lot of interest before they knew the funding was available. Neil Kimrey, Director of Instructional Technology shared that as a former LEA technology director, the CeTCO is something for which he has seen a big need. By leveraging EETT and School Connectivity administrative funds, participant cost will be covered. Mr. Kimrey noted, outside of this training, directors normally meet 2 or 3 times a year as a big group and quarterly within smaller regional groups. Representative Tolson stated that he hoped that local legislators are being kept informed and aware of local issues. He suggested that they be invited to local, regional and state functions for sharing so that when they hear issues they can act based on the knowledge of how it will affect their constituents. Rep. Tolson recognized Phil Kaufman for a report on the NC Learning Technology Initiative (NCLTI). Mr. Kaufman stated there is not another state that has the connectivity as we do including the network speed and size of pipes. He also shared that the NCLTI is an impressive collaborative effort among all K-­‐
20 stakeholders. NCLTI has provided validation and feasibility analysis for next steps 
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NC Education Cloud In the past the connectivity was not equitable 99% of schools in the state have sufficient connectivity 25 schools remaining and we will Finish those at the end of this year NCREN – has a connection to each and every LEA – important because now we can work on saving money – In a school district now, there is WAN that serves at the hub, filters, servers, firewalls are located here – we believe we need to move those out because those are not data centers. 3 year deployment phases – year 1 backbone – done – second year was services – eRate and network assessment and year 3 is the platform – now what can we do The platform Service Delivery High bandwidth connections allow flexibility More servers and some network appliances in the network Bonus – services are e-­‐Rate Eligible There’s and App for that – Cloud Objective – to transition from LEA hosted server infrastructure to cloud hosted infrastructure as a service – LEAs are generally unequipped to host and manage production server infrastructure, significant overlap in apps and content hosted on LEA services, commercial cloud offerings provide reliable, powerful infrastructure as a service, finally many existing and emerging k-­‐12 computing needs that are periodical Goals – increase IT reliability, and efficiency and decrease cost and increase the number of LEA staff supporting users and instruction. All of this will allow equitable resources for LEAs. The Work – Project planning followed by IT assessment, this will look a lot like the connectivity project; followed by deploy cloud pilots, then migrate – 3 years, this is sustainable. Once the transition is completed we will save money. Rep. Tolson commented; so in three years time we will have this up and running. Mr. McCoy stated this is awesome, then questioned “will the process for getting the services that will be lead by the district or will it be a collaborative?” Mr. Kaufman stated, “based on the past experience, it will require all of us working together to make the plan, what I anticipate is having it centralized will buy you pluses on the end.” Rep. Tolson asked, “How do we get that message out?” Mr. Kaufman replied, “I think for one, if the commission will endorse and recommend that we get started, the funding is there.” Rep. Tolson stated again, “this is why I think it is important for you to let your Senator and Representative know. Let me know what I need to do to help.” Student Representative James Crowe asked, “If we standardize the technology for the state to supply support; does that allow us working with LEAs on CIPA so everyone can use 21st century tools?” Mr. Kaufman replied, it is embedded in this process; it will have to be part of the planning. This is also included in the RTTP, we have plans to roll this out with information stated Supt. Atkinson. The CeCTO School will be used to develop it further. Rep. Tolson asked if we can see a plan on how we are moving forward; he is supportive of this plan. Please make sure it is presented well and everyone is aware. Rep. Tolson then thanked Mr. Kaufman for his presentation. Mr. Glenn Kleiman stated, “My job is building on the work Phil and Darleene are talking about” Goals: o
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What does this mean to the classroom teacher? NC learning technology Initiative It was the 1:1 but we changed so it would focus on future ready schools Engagement Equity Economic development We are talking about creating a new learning ecology in our schools, to succeed this has to be a technology initiative. Teaching and learning should not be limited to the classroom: o
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Elements of NCLTI o Leadership o Preparing teachers o Alignment to standards, curriculum o 21st skills o Digital content o Local instructional technology facilitators/coaches o Wireless, multimedia digital device o Broadband connectivity o
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Other technology resources Policies to support future ready reaching and learning Sustainable funding via public-­‐private partnerships This will build on other initiatives Lessons learned o Leadership teams that bring together instructional, technology and admin leaders are needed o 6 months planning o Ongoing content based PD o TF plays a significant role o Student safety and AUP o Classroom management strategies and tools need improvement o More effective approaches in technology infrastructure and support are needed o Student standardized test scores do not improve rapidly – overtime scores will improve Golden Leaf o Funded readiness initiative o Planning assistance to 14 NC districts Technology Advances o Cloud computing approaches o New digital devices for students and teachers o Ubiquitous internet access o Speech recognition technologies o Object recognition technologies o Location based tools o Social networking o Digital publishing o Multi user virtual environments Recommendations o Coordinate technology initiatives with new standards, assessments, teacher and administrator evaluation process, data systems and curriculum reforms o Plan large school initiative to update the education workforce o Provide planning and implementation support services o Move from textbooks and paper and pencil assessments to digital recourses and online assessments o Assess students “21st century Skills” o Expand NCVPS< NC LEARN, eLearning for Educators and other online programs o Move infrastructure and common applications to the cloud o Extend client engineering services to include application, storage and computer support o Coordinate across complimentary state and federal technology funding programs o Establish closed loop process for recommendation, vetting, governance of state technology programs Rep. Tolson asked if anyone had questions. Mr. Crowestated; what students are doing – we need to change the philosophy – if we are changing the education philosophy – has this been an effective use of money – look at education specific products. Mr. Kleiman replied this is happening and it is becoming an important part of student’s lives, we have to go with the change. In terms of changing the school culture, the technology initiative has one common piece – we have to trust students. This is a leadership part of the program. Mr. John Killebrew stated standardized test don’t work, he asked, “do you know what some of these new assessments might be?” Rep. Tolson commented he would like to see some kind of plan coming forward to the legislature – can we take the textbook money and buy the new technology, I hope someone is looking at that. I hope someone is talking to our university system to address how new teachers need to be trained. I would like to see a plan coming forward on these initiatives. This same presentation needs to be made to the Ed Legislative committee. Angela Quick stated we are working very hard to transform our assessments to authentic. It is beautiful to think about this cloud, it would be great to use for formative, summative assessments. We will work on the plan for new teachers with IHE’s. This is critical in the redesign for our school systems. Rep. Tolson said we are seeing some exciting things happen, we need to move forward with all of these initiatives . We need to make it where students and teachers can communicate at all levels. We need to involve, teachers, superintendents, Technology directors and administration, we need a plan that the legislature can look at. Mr. Kleiman thanked Rep. Tolson for his support. Superintendent Atkinson remarked your point about informing the legislature; we have an electronic newsletter, we need to focus on the pockets of excellence, and the connectivity with the data, so representatives know what is happening in our state. Rep. Tolson said we need to be able to gather data and base our training and other initiatives on that data. We need to know what it is that helps that process. Be vocal! Keep legislature informed. Rep. Tolson then introduced Thomasville High School (IMPACT IV School) and Mr. Mike Ingram, Technology Director of Thomasville City Schools. Mr. Ingram thanked MCNC and their work and the connectivity project – Thomasville has already planned to buy cloud computing – less money to purchase rather than run through erate. The need is there and the initiative will help. His district responsibilities include Technology Director, Reading First Program and Title One, 4 schools in the district 84% of students participate in federal free and reduced lunch program Very Diverse School Population 100% of classrooms are 21st century learning environments – surround sound, interactive whiteboard – teacher laptops IMPACT Model •
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Grade 3-­‐8 reading proficiency increased by 14.8% Grades 3-­‐8 Math Proficiency by 16.8% represented the fifth most improved district in the state Blended funding to achieve district goals o
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Title 1 Reading first School improvement o Microsoft settlement o EETT o Rural schools o Exceptional children o Public/private/non profit partnerships If everyone is on the same page – we can achieve the goal Thomasville City School of the future Portal: We have developed through a partnership with CSI and Thomasville Education committee and Microsoft – this will allow every student and teacher from where ever they are in the world – everything is one place with an internet connection – k-­‐12 for all students – they can do what they need from that portal. IMPACT Model has allowed us to take it to the next level. Deboy Beamon, principal of Thomasville High School spoke about: EVAAS – education value added assessment system  Students with less than a 30% probability of making a level 3 in an EOC Class are scheduled in a year long course.  The three classes that this is applicable for are algebra II, biology and English I  Individualized instruction  Collaboration – we meet 4 times a year with our teachers and we do terrific Tuesdays for teacher training – examples – Google docs, WebPages, nuts and bolts and focused learning strategies.  I think the GPA calculator – a lot of what I find is that the students are settling. I encourage all of my students to have at least a 2.0 to go to college 
Use Google docs to take notes in history class  One of my biggest pushes was for seniors to take the SAT – increase the potential juniors that can take the PSAT –  In summary the 109 kids have signed up for SAT Prep with NCVPS and I have 90 kids that are signed up for iSchool – we have two labs and four blocks a day that is used for NCVPS and one for iSchool Mr. Crowe said one of his concerns is the year long class, are students getting the study skills; are parents being brought in? Mr. Beamon stated he knows education is important – a lot of my parents think that if my kid finishes high school they are ok. But I am informing parents that it is not okay, they need to move on – tomorrow night, we have a workshop for financial aid – those same kids are coming to our financial aid. My kids don’t understand how it works, they procrastinate, and I have to stay on them. Parents are very supportive. We have a part time counselor who does this; she is proactive in getting with those kids. Spencer: Mobile Technology in Education Project K-­‐nect – focuses on three core areas 
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Home internet access 21st century skills Math and science skills deficit Project focuses on secondary at risk students, lack of at home internet access, limited access to devices, free and reduced lunch, below average match proficiency. 
Goals support peer to peer, increase mathematic achievement for 9th and 10th grade, and enable safe closed social, education communications. Teacher and student Professional Development was done. Video sharing student feedback on the pluses of using the phone in class Student participation Year one was Algebra I – because of the success of this year 2 has added Geometry, Algebra II. These were created by teachers. Those students have taken a math course every semester. We are now in year three – those at risk students are now taking pre-­‐calculus and calculus class. This cohort of students consistently performed higher than others. We have submitted to the department of defense, we have applied for a 2 million dollar grant. Challenges – having the instructional technology facilitators, access to the technology and 21st century classroom. In year one with our new initiative – fall all Algebra I teachers received Professional development at those 3 schools and 3 of the schools will continue to move forward – and then in year 2 for all schools and year 3 for geometry and algebra II. Empowering all educators, tiered technology planning – every teacher has a laptop Focusing on technology as a 21st Century education tool Exploring new initiative for technology based staff and student learning. Representative thanked Thomasville for their presentation, he made a recommendation for Dr. Spencer to see what programs are not effective and submit to the commission. Rep. Tolson noted again how impressed he was on how the teachers stepped forward. Troutman Middle School then presented on using Pierson: Supt. Atkinson stated we looked at data on how writing was being presented. Staff believed that we needed to go to another system. Rep. Tolson said to be innovative and creative in your school. 74% was passing, we researched and found Pierson: One of the keys to this program is a formative learning tools.  2008/2009 we placed 80 students in the pilot – write to learn achieved 95% even Special Education and the non pilot group 70-­‐72%  District elected to purchase a 3 year contract for all middle schools  Craven – Special Ed Teacher – explained prior to starting on the write to learn program, we spend about a week working with them on how to develop the writing piece -­‐ this year we worked with social students for writing across the curriculum. As the student logs on they see what is expected from them 
on the essay. As the student is writing they get real time feedback. This includes us (teachers) walking around the room. There are 6 areas that the program looks at. We can tell if the student is repeating themselves. The students are learning how to be concise in their writing. We as teachers can look at the reports – shared a Special Education example. Words cannot express what you see on these kids face. Justice: Write to learn is excellent for grading the writing. Feedback is great – this is truly formative throughout the process. They are scored from the time they start until they finish. I have seen a big growth with EC kids. Comparing the work with the past, there is no comparison. This is a perfect model of 21st century education. Write to Learn o
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Best practices from Marzano suggest the more immediate feedback the better Best practice also informs us as educators that formative assessment has a greater impact on skill acquisition. Eliminates hours of redundancy while increasing the literacy skills of our students. Moodle can be eliminated and WTL adopted as an all encompassing source for the NC writing thus eliminating the duplication of effort. Video on Kids Rep. Tolson asked how long have you had the program and is it cost effective. James stated this is their second year with the program. Pierson: working with Angela Quick – Cost is $30 a student unless it is state wide. Supt. Atkinson said we are looking at the state level cost. Angela Quick noted we are looking on how we can expand the moodle; we are entertaining thoughts of using an artificial intelligence on scoring the writing the test. Pierson is working with expansion with Elkin City – Angela will provide the information on how we could spread through the state. Supt. Atkinson said, Yes, I support this program. We can also look at our RTTP, but we need to gather additional information. Rep. Tolson asked what kind of results do you have? James replied 95% proficient, but not enough computer time. Supt. Atkinson said she will work with Pierson to get information. Rep. Tolson stated if you have programs that are working let’s get the data to see how it is working. Make sure your representatives and senators are invited in. Rep. Tolson asked Neill bring your research/information with you next time. Thank you so much for the presentations, we need to talk about them and share with everyone around the state. Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you and we stand adjourned at 12:10pm.