As Delaware school districts prepared applications for the Race to the Top District level competition, administrators hoped for the opportunity to build on the foundation of school reform made possible with earlier rounds of federal grants.
Two applications were submitted by Delaware schools before the Nov. 7 deadline (extended to accommodate those affected by Hurricane Sandy). One was submitted by the entirety of the Seaford School District; the other was made by a consortium of four state districts focusing on 6th to 12th grade education.
The consortium includes Brandywine, Colonial, Indian River and New Castle County Vocational Technical school districts. With the number of students the group represents, the districts were able to apply for more than $29 million to further their plan that calls not only for professional development, but also for technological infrastructure.
One major priority of the grant is to focus on “personalized learning,” said Lori Duerr, Manager of School Improvement for Colonial School District.
The districts will establish a communication system for teachers, students and parents to work together on students’ particular strengths and weaknesses. It will be in the model of the statewide “dashboard” data system now being used by teachers and administrators, but which is currently unavailable to students and parents.
Schools will set up “Personalized Learning Teams” for students, and, in addition to being available to students in person, data and support will also be available electronically. Logging into a website, parents will be able to track student development and students will be able to see how they are moving toward graduation.
“It will have a safe communication system, discussion board, email and other communication between the learning team,” Duerr said. “It’s a kind of a mentoring, so the students know they’re not alone.”
Another use of new technology will be to establish online supportive material for lessons. With a strong emphasis on new common core standards, the districts plan to integrate technology “students can access anytime, anywhere so they can be learning,” Duerr said.
“We often hear from our parents that they don’t always understand what students are learning in school,” she added. The online materials would help parents get up to speed as well so they can help their children at home.
These commitments to technology will be pricey on the front end, but Colonial administrators said the maintenance of the databases and networks will be absorbed into the districts’ budgets without a problem.
“Part of this is that if we were going to do ‘anyplace, anytime learning,’ we are trying to go to a one-to-one initiative, one computer to one student,” said Dorothy Linn, superintendent of Colonial School district. “Certainly not even with 30 million could we put a computer in every student’s hand, but research has indicated that if we change policies and practices with ‘Bring Your Own Device’ and allow students to bring their devices into school, with a lot of professional development and taking a lot of very careful steps, we can get to that one-to-one initiative.”
Pushing to have online devices in every student’s hand will also require that districts not just have wireless internet available, but also have strong enough access points that the volume of use doesn’t slow connections.
The consortium grant will also contribute toward moving professional development in the direction of full common core standard integration, including project-based learning and performance-based assessments.
Seaford School District also hopes to integrate project-based learning into every grade, should they be awarded a Race to the Top grant.
The district will expand the model established at Seaford High School through Delaware New Tech, the first public school program to deeply integrate project-based learning in cross-curriculum classes. Shawn Joseph, superintendent of the district, said administrators have seen such success at the high school it was natural to take the program through elementary and middle school as well.
“We’re very intentional in building upon the work that is already taking place, not changing course from the work,” Joseph said. “For us, in our district, we’ve seen great success with our deeper learning model at the high school, with the New Tech. It just made sense for us to expand — if it’s good for some kids, it should be good for all.”
Seaford will also work toward bringing the International Baccalaureate Program to district schools. Joseph said the program is like advanced placement courses, focusing on in-depth learning, critical thinking and cross-curricular work.
Teachers will receive a great amount of the grant, he said, through training, personal development and an additional peer review and evaluation system.
First the training will prepare staff to institute the International Baccalaureate Program, but the district will also establish National Board Certification standards as their own, setting a goal of having 100 of the district’s 280 teachers certified in four years. The certification will cost $2,500 for each teacher.
“You can’t have world-class schools without a commitment to world-class development and building people’s capacity, at least that’s our theory of action,” Joseph said. “We’re functioning as a district and on a theory of action that says if we build the capacity of our human capital, specifically our teachers and principals, then we expect student achievement to increase.
“And the good news is when you put money in the right professional development, it’s long-lasting; so even when the money dries up, you’ve had the years of development to get you to the next level.”
The district will also set aside some of the grant funds to expand its parental and community outreach program.
Joseph said Seaford applied for the full $10 million available, given the size of the district.
But both applicants know their grants are not guaranteed. About 900 school districts across the country submitted letters of intent for the 20-25 grants the U.S. Department of Education will make available.
“As a school district and as a board of education, we’re talking about a likelihood that we won’t get Race to the Top funds. So we’re talking about what’s our next step for next year?” Joseph said. “It’ll take longer because we need the funds. What we are doing right now is building a strategic plan actually based upon the work we did in developing the Race to the Top application to say this is the vision of where we’re moving as a district.”
“I know for Colonial we have had in the last year through our Race to the Top strategic planning with technology to go in this direction,” Linn said. “We will continue to go in this direction, but it would take a lot longer and it would be a lot slower because of financial resources. But it would be within a strategic plan to stretch it out to eventually get to the end of our plan.
“I’d like to speak for Colonial only on that point, but I know that all four districts are committed to this. As far as Colonial and going beyond, we are committed to working in that direction; it’s just it would go a heck of a lot faster if we got the grant.”
Other districts, including Cape Henlopen Schools and Red Clay Consolidated School District, submitted a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Education, but decided not to apply for the grant.
Delaware is currently in the second year implementing plans it developed with the original four-year $119 million Race to the Top grant it won in 2010. The goal is to kick start school reform in the state and graduate students who are “career- and college-ready.” The state most recently was awarded $49.9 million in Race to the Top funds to work on early childhood education.