Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Title II, Part D - Awards 2007-2008

Sisseton School District 54-2

The mission of the Sisseton School District is to involve educators, parents, community members, and students to insure that students: acquire the knowledge, attitude and skills necessary to become responsible citizens, develop the desire to become life-long learns; acquire essential skills needed for employment in a technologically changing world; perpetuate and improve the democratic process; develop cultural literacy to utilize reading, writing, and speaking skills to enlarge their understanding of the nation and the world.

A key factor to bringing about student improvement is an extensive professional development plan. There is ongoing curriculum mapping in the math, language arts / reading, and science curriculums. Through this grant we would like to address additional training in the use of technology in the classroom.
The O. K. Thollehaug Middle School is in Level I School Improvement for math and on alert status in reading. West Side Elementary School is on alert status for math, reading, and attendance. Veblen and New Effington Elementary Schools are Distinguished Schools, and Sisseton High School has made AYP.

Our district has invested in several SBR (scientific based research) computer software programs; the Orchard software by Siboney, Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Math and Reading, Pearson Learning’s NovaNet and AutoSkills Academy of Math and Reading. Hardware investments have been made including interactive boards, tablet PCs and science probes. At this time not all of the professional staff are using the equipment and software. In addition our school is looking at a one-to-one initiative for the high school, but before we invest in a complete wireless infrastructure we would like our professional staff and administration comfortable infusing technology into the curriculum.

Starting this spring we will offer workshops for all professional staff every month. Trainers from the software vendors will come to Sisseton and work with staff to infuse the software into the curriculum. Dakota State University will work with the instructors using tablet PC’s and Connecting Point (Ultra) will do a train – the trainer program and year long curriculum development using Interactive Boards in the classroom. Some staff have been trained using the online Achievement Series and they will train the rest of the staff. These internal trainers will be used throughout the school year for additional staff development.

The professional development plan will be measured by an increase in student performance on formative and summative assessments in math, reading, and science; technology department surveys for staff and students; and by a formal pre-evaluation and post-evaluation process for teachers’ professional development. Ongoing dialogue by the PLC’s (Professional Learning Communities) in all school buildings and minutes of those meetings will strengthen the use of meaningful data to support the teaching/learning process, revise curriculum, and address the skill needs of students.