Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Title II, Part D - Awards 2007-2008

Pierre School District

Research is clear. The single most important factor in helping students become proficient is their teacher. Schools across the country struggle with a common challenge – how to ensure their teachers have the skills needed to prepare students with 21st century skills and improve their academic performance. To meet that challenge, districts are responsible for and held accountable to provide professional development that is continuous and developmental. Teachers are much more successful incorporating new techniques into their classrooms when lessons are modeled, hands-on application is provided and coaching is on-going.

Goals, objectives and activities outlined in the district technology plan provide evidence of a commitment to improve student achievement and integrate technology. Steps have been taken to upgrade the infrastructure throughout the district, working toward successfully achieving those goals. For example, beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, every high school teacher has ‘traded’ their desktop computer for a laptop. In addition, at least half of these teachers have SMART Boards (interactive whiteboards) and LCD projectors in their classrooms.

Although the infrastructure is in place, the high school staff have a substantial need for assistance and training in utilizing the technology to its fullest potential. Teachers are encouraged to integrate the technology into their daily instruction. However minimal training has been provided and even that has primarily been hardware/software specific rather than content-area, integration focused.

This project is intended to provide content area integration training for high school math, science and reading teachers one day a month for the nine months of the 2007-2008 school year utilizing existing teacher laptops and SMART Board technology. Two content area/technology specialists from our partner, Technology and Innovation in Education (TIE), will deliver on-site instruction for the teachers. Between sessions, teachers will be expected to develop model lessons, implement them and provide feedback when the group next meets. It is expected that the content-area focused integration professional development will improve student achievement.

Evaluation of the project will include both formative and summative data. Pre and post perception surveys will be completed by staff and students. Spring 2007 to Spring 2008 Dakota State Test of Education Progress (STEP) will be compared. The Achievement Series test will provide both formative (testing of individual standards throughout the school year) and summative (pre and post testing utilizing Forms A and B of content area strands) data. Pre and post project perception surveys and interviews will be conducted of students and teachers.