8
Carolina to find out more about the program in
Moorseville where, unexpectedly, Drossos also
walked in the door. Call it Devine intervention.
“I remember thinking there was so much coming
at us so quickly with respect to education reform, and
I needed to find a way to make it all manageable for
my students, teachers and administrators: 21
st
century learning, engaged learning, Common Core
State Standards, PARCC assessments, teacher
evaluation (Danielson model), principal evaluation,
student growth, evidence-based, transparency,
parent involvement, and on and on….. I had this
vision in my head of a one-stop shop, single sign on
(SSO) platform that would provide a solution for all
the requirements coming at us.”
Robertson said she didn’t have the expertise,
contacts or financial resources to develop such a
platform, but Pearson did, and a three-year
partnership was formed. The platform would
eventually seamlessly integrate:
Interactive digital course content for all subjects
(textbooks, assignments, resources) with teacher
and student portals;
Assessments, analytics and diagnostics;
Course content and assessments aligned to
CCSS and/or other standards;
Digital assignments and tests to flow seamlessly
into electronic grade book;
All of the above to integrate seamlessly with the
student management system;
Digital analysis of student growth and trend data;
Reports and analyses generated at the click of a
button;
Parent portal for monitoring student progress;
and
Interactive digital teacher and principal evaluation
systems
with
embedded
professional
development and the ability to collect and store
artifacts.
The over-arching goal of the program is to
equip students with the 21
st
century technology skills
to ensure college and career readiness and to
prepare them to compete for the top jobs in a global,
technology-based society. As side benefits,
Robertson also hoped to see student performance
and attendance increase and the number of
disciplinary incidents and time “off-task” decrease.
Enlisting the help of a community steering
committee and following a custom-designed 1:1
Learning Framework
from
Pearson,
numerous
decisions
had to be made prior to
implementation
with
respect to:
Personalized
Learning Environment
–
finding
digital
solutions
for
curriculum,
assessments,
resources,
interventions, etc.
Supporting Change
of
Practice
(an
essential element for success)
– Pearson
provided professional development for the
teachers on creating tech rich lessons, creating
rubrics for project-based learning, managing a
1:1 classroom, online formative assessments,
item analysis, curriculum support, etc.
Planning and Project Management – Pearson
dedicated a project management team that
supplied research, plan development and on-site
management of the entire scope of the
conversion project.
Hardware and Network Infrastructure
(an
essential element for success)
– designing and
installing a business class wireless infrastructure
that can handle hundreds of devices downloading
and streaming video at the same time, filtering
and monitoring solutions
“Because we wanted our conversion to focus on
content creation rather than content consumption, we
(Continued from page 7)
(Continued on page 9)
1:1 Program ——————————————————
“
The analysis is priceless. Having
that data at their fingertips enables
teachers to literally change their
instruction on a dime and focus on
students or concepts that need more attention.
”
-- Recently retired Mendon Superintendent Diane
Robertson talking about the immediate feedback and analysis
the 1:1 program offers teachers
