Can public schools match Mooresville model for digital learning success?
Mooresville Graded School District, near Charlotte, North Carolina, has get a national leader over the final decade in using digital learning tools to better educatee achievement. Use of classroom technology, such every bit providing every pupil in grades kindergarten through 12 with admission to a laptop or tablet for home and school utilize, has been credited with helping to elevate graduation rates and shut the accomplishment gap for poor students, all while keeping the commune's per pupil spending around $7,000 per yr.
The leader of the commune'due south digital learning efforts, Mark Edwards, has served as superintendent of the six,000-student schoolhouse district since 2007. Edwards recently announced that he will be leaving his post to serve as senior vice president of digital learning at Discovery Instruction, based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The Hechinger Report spoke with Edwards nigh Mooresville's successes and how they could be replicated in other public schools.
Looking back on your time every bit superintendent, what practise you lot think made Mooresville's digital learning programs so successful?
I really recall the cardinal to our success has been building a actually potent civilisation within the school system. It is associated with our motto, "every child, every 24-hour interval." A lot of people say that'southward a cliché. Simply actually, it actually became the cornerstone of our work and aligned with our digital conversion. We've had thousands of people visit here, and when I await back over the decade, we have never had ane company who commented, "Wow, these are really absurd laptops." Almost every visitor who comes through talks about the civilization, whether information technology's the student date, the efficacy of teachers or the synergy of teamwork.
What does it accept to institute that civilization and brand sure teachers and administrators are on board?
For ane, information technology takes a lot of hard work. A lot of times, there's this sense that building a potent culture is something associative to the foundation. But I recall it's main. That ways yous take to work on edifice teams. That means having respect for each other, having the instincts and agreement around collaboration, creating a dynamic where people have a voracious ambition for learning and a real delivery to every child.
Is this something other public schools can do? What might exist belongings them back?
Information technology's hard work, and I call up effective leaders, a superintendent or other leaders, understand that the culture of an organization matters. I practice think it'due south replicable. I can proper noun several districts that we've worked with who, in their districts and their states, replicated it and have done a phenomenal task.
Building a focus on student achievement while using digital resources and creating weather condition for teachers and schools to thrive are the primal frames that are essential to building this out.
What are the best ways for schools to mensurate the success of a digital learning program?
From the very first, we tied information technology to measurable indicators: student achievement. We look at the North Carolina assessments. We had some significant areas of deficiency, where there were a high number of students who were not successful. So we really focused on that. Nosotros focused on graduation rates. We had some abysmal graduation rates. We congenital that upwardly to the point where we accept gone over xc per centum and stayed over 90 pct for seven consecutive years.
We looked at scholarships, because that's an external indicator — if a university believes they can invest in a student. But it's also an indicator of whether or not the student had the resource to apply for the scholarship. Nosotros have had a 350 percent increase in scholarships over the last nine years.
Finding the resources to get digital learning programs off the ground required the district to make tough decisions, such as eliminating teaching jobs and increasing class sizes. How did yous make that work?
The community said. "We believe that this effort to bring equity for all students would be of vital importance." We did have to make tough decisions, but for the last five consecutive years, we've ranked top three in the state in achievement, and yet nosotros rank, currently, 101st in funding out of 115 districts. The whole time I've been here, nosotros've been at the bottom of the state in funding, but we've been able to see some really phenomenal improvements and indicators of success for students.
To tell you lot the truth, our class sizes accept been high and remain high, and funding in Due north Carolina has remained low, and so information technology is a abiding challenge.
Do you recall there are limitations to classroom applied science?
Two years ago, we initiated Gateway Projects at grades three, vi, eight and 12. There's a term enquiry newspaper, students work with a mentor and ultimately build a multimedia presentation and practice a stand-and-deliver. We accept developed and integrated elements of this into our regular instructional process, where students are constantly giving presentations and having dialogues and debates. I retrieve it'south important to realize that, as important and vital as a digital resource is, we cannot forget or diminish the importance of human dialogue and understanding how to collaborate.
I remember information technology's incumbent on teachers, principals, superintendents and boards to realize that the digital resources are important, just the human dynamic is notwithstanding the driver. The key to our success here has not been a computer. It has been great teachers working with students who wanted to learn in a community that believed in both.
Is there annihilation you think you'll be able to achieve in your new role at Discovery Education that yous weren't able to accomplish every bit superintendent?
The CEO of Discovery Educational activity, Bill Goodwyn, has ever said that if we affect, in a positive way, pedagogy and learning, the business will take care of itself. It's not the idea that we're going to go pressure sales. If nosotros assist teachers, and help students, skillful things are going to happen. I heard him say that several years ago, and he still says information technology.
I'thousand a supporter of public pedagogy. I truly believe it'south the cornerstone of democracy and information technology'south of vital importance of the United States of America that we back up public schools, teachers, principals, superintendents. And I promise that in a pocket-size way, I'll be able to button that influence out further than I have here.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, contained news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more most Blended Learning.
Source: https://hechingerreport.org/can-public-schools-replicate-the-mooresville-model-for-digital-learning-success-former-superintendent-mark-edwards-says-they-can/
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