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Classroom Technology Opinion

Twenty-Five Districts Worth Visiting

By Tom Vander Ark — November 13, 2014 8 min read
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Leading a public school district is difficult and complicated work but done well, there is no other job where you can change how a community thinks about
itself, its children, and its future. Following are 25 districts that are changing the trajectory by working on blended, personalized and competency-based
learning. Most are making career preparation--including communications, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration--a priority. They are big and
small, urban and rural, east and west--representative of the American education challenge.

Suburban

1. Mooresville, north of Charlotte, North Carolina, is a well known 1:1 district with an interesting
configuration: three K-3 schools, two 4-6 schools, and a 7-8 middle and a high school. Superintendent Mark Edward says, “It’s not about the machine, it’s about heart,” but his students
sure make great use of their MacBooks. The innovation in Mooresville is the system-wide expectations, culture, curriculum, tools, and support. The district
adopted gateway multimedia projects in 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th
grade. It’s worth attending their summer conference. See Mark Edward’s book, Every Child, Every Day. Other metro Charlotte districts of note
include


  • Rock HIll Schools
    , just across the state line in South Carolina, they are serious about engaging, “All students in meaningful and profound learning.” The district’s
    tech-enhanced instructional initiative is called iRock Anytime Anywhere. ( See feature)

2. Reynoldsburg Schools, east of Columbus, Ohio, has 4 innovative high school academies including eSTEM (featured here) which has a K-8 STEM feeder pattern.Hannah Ashton Middle School in Reynoldsburg (profiled here) is a blended model powerd by Education Elements and Edmodo. Despite a recent strike, Reynoldsburg is
still worth a visit. (For more metro highlights, see Smart Cities: Columbus.)

3. Kettle Moraine School District, west of Milwaukee is a small district working on blended, personalized and
competency-based learning. The district has authorized four charter schools including three themed flex high schools (see feature). (For more metro highlights, see Smart Cities: Milwaukee.)

4. Sanborn Regional School District in New Hampshire is a leader in competency-based learning. The high school features
flexible learning time to personalize instruction and provide students with support for intervention, extension, and enrichment ( see feature).

5. Mentor Schools, east of Cleveland, is becoming a regional blended learning development site with Education Elements (@EdElements). Mentor anchors the

Ohio Blended Learning Network

which won a state Straight A grant and is supported by The Learning Accelerator.

6. Middletown City School District (NW of NYC) is a RTTD grant winner where teachers and students focus
on goal setting. See an OpEd from
superintendent Dr. Kenneth W. Eastwood where he details partnerships with Education Elements, iReady, Dreambox, Achieve3000, Lexia and MyOn.

7. Milpitas School District, north of San Jose, is making progress on blended learning using a lab rotational model and playing with ideas of mixed age grouping and other new models.

8. Utica Community Schools, in Michigan, serves about 30,000 students, has award winning high schools, anAdvancePath flex academy, a decent tech plan, a data partnership with BrightBytes, and is a member of Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools.

9. Lebanon School District is a high challenge suburb of Harrisburg.NGLC winning Lebanon High School, a member of thePennsylvania Hybrid Learning Initiative, implementing a station-rotation model school-wide (see profile).

10. District 49, Colorado Springs, has an interesting portfolio of schools in 4 feeder patterns. The iConnect Zone
includes Falcon Virtual Academy -- an online school with a lot of drop in and scheduled supports and
activities with a cool 21,000 square foot facility that looks like a “Google meets Starbucks” environment. It isprofiled here,featured here, and captured in video here. POWER Zone staff are
dedicated to facilitating a mission focused on Purposeful risk, Ownership of learning, Whole child-student concept, Engaging inquiry and Respectful
relationships (POWER). The Sand Creek zone is an IB feeder pattern.

11. Cajon Valley is one of several San Diego County districts with unified executive leadership around next gen learning. They boosted math proficiency
with district wide use of ST Math. (See Smart Cities: San Diego.)

12. Fulton County, north of Atlanta, gets high marks for identifying and supporting teacher tech leaders--the Vanguard Team. The charter district has pushed down budget and planning
responsibility to the school level rather than attempting a district wide move. (Seerecent innovation update, a feature on teaching hiring.)

13. West Warwick Public Schools has a competency based model designed around an innovative usage of
their SIS system with strong Chromebook implementation starting in kindergarten. (See Smart Cities: Providence)

14. Dysart School District in rapidly growing northwest Phoenix is a technology leader and (like many AZ districts
listed below) takes career preparation seriously. They have a good model for scaling professional learning around performance assessment.

High performing suburban districts with a strong commitment to college and career readiness include:

Rural

15. Howard Winneshiek School District is one of many Iowa districts promoting analysis, evaluation, and
creation with a great 1:1 plan. They are working hard on creating relevant
career pathways and making global connections.

16. Danville Schools (south of Lexington) demonstrates that Good Schools Start With Good Goals. Carmen Coleman (now at working with
Gene Wilhoit, National Center for Innovation in Education) led community
conversations that resulted in a Deeper Learning agenda. NGLC winningBate Middle School was profiled inDeeper Learning for Every Student Every Day. (Read Carmen’s detailed feedback to the Bate staff.)

17. Toppenish Schools, in eastern Washington, is a Project Lead the Way STEM-focused rural district (e.g., all freshmen students are required to take introduction to
biomedical classes in engineering). AVID and advisories help the district far out perform neighboring districts in grad rate and college going.

18. Lindsay Unified School District in California’s central valley, is a leader in competency-based (they call
it performance-based) education -- “Students work at their performance level and advance through the curriculum when they have demonstrated proficiency of
the required knowledge or skills.” Watch Transforming Education.

19. Piedmont City Schools, between Birmingham and Atlanta, is 1:1 K-12 ( watch video)

and a member of Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools. NGLC
winning Piedmont Middle School was featured in 100 Schools Worth Visiting.

Also recommended by colleagues for their commitment to professional learning:


  • Teton County Schools
    , Wyoming, narrowed the achievement gap for Hispanic students with a deep investment in embedded professional development.

  • Woodburn School District
    , between Portland and Salem, serves a high ELL population in five small high schools with strong graduation rates.

  • Pike County Schools, GA
    is promoting Authentic Intellectual Work.

Urban

20. Houston ISD was recognized as the best urban district in the US last year by theBroad Foundation as a result of a full court press on talent development. SmartEdTech procurement kicked off thePower Up initiative. For more metro highlights, see Smart Cities: Houston.

21. Miami Dade Schools won the 2012 Broad Prize. Reviewers noted the use of data to drive minority achievement
gains and a unique problem-solving strategy to help challenged schools improve their student performance. iPrep Math is a blended learning middle school math program.
There are 8 iPrep Academy flex model high schools and 340 choice programs in over 100 schools.
For metro highlights, see Smart Cities: Miami.

22. Denver Public Schools may have the most aggressive improvement and innovation of any city with an elected board.
Elected with the support of strong advocacy organizations, the board has
created partnerships with quality school networks including DSST, Strive Preparatory Schools, and Generation Schools Network
.

23. Horry County Schools, on the South Carolina coast, serves 42,000 students
with a solid

strategic plan

with a vision for

Personalized Digital Learning

. Some innovative secondary schools feature blended, STEM, and early college strategies. (See Lessons from Horry County.)

24. Clark County School District (Las Vegas) serves over 300,000 students. With per pupil expenditures of $8K, Clark
spends a lot less than the five larger districts in the country. Despite the challenges, they’ve made a big commitment to blended learning and have a well
developed network of magnet schools. (For more, see Smart Cities: Las Vegas.)

25. New York City has lots of schools and networks worth visiting despite less interest in an innovation agenda. (See Smart Cities: New York)

Colleagues recommended:

We obviously missed hundreds of districts doing some great work. We’d welcome your suggestions.

This post is part of the Smart List series published in partnership with
Getting Smart Services provider of advocacy, advisory, consulting and public relations services to turn ideas into impact.

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The opinions expressed in Vander Ark on Innovation are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.