School Evaluation, EdTech 501

ABC Cyber Charter School is a charter school in Pennsylvania, servicing (as of 2010), 4,484 students*, 45% female, 55% male, with 195 teachers. The student-teacher ratio is 23:1. Race demographics: 1% American Indian 1% Asian 5% Hispanic 19% Black 69% White 5% Unknown

Income: 46% eligible for Free Lunch, 17% eligible for reduced lunch

District Revenue District Expenditure

$42,045,500 $42,626,000

District Revenue/student $9,377 District Expenditure/student $9,506 * Current school year data includes approximately 11,000 total students, 700 staff (teachers, guidance counselors, advisors, etc.) ABC Cyber Charter School functions as its own school district, although is subject to some local district laws. Below is a ranking of the school using the Maturity Model Benchmarks, from the Technology Use Plan Primer by Peter H. R. Sibley and Chip Kimball. Comments are included to serve as a basis for each ranking. Please see the end of this document for a summary of the four benchmark stages. MATURITY BENCHMARKS EVALUATION ADMINISTRATIVE Policy

Behavioral: Intelligent Appropriate technology use policy is formalized and fully supported at all levels of the organization. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Comprehensive policy exists and has been approved by the organization's governing body.

Comments: All school policy, including policies for appropriate technological use is formalized by the appropriate departments. Comprehensive policy by staff and students is approved by the school's board of directors, the use of student hardware and online software programs is regulated by the school's parent company that provides the curriculum, and teachers implement acceptable use policies within individual classrooms.

Planning Behavioral: Intelligent School-wide comprehensive planning with formal evaluation and connection to other planning within the school and district. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Comprehensive technology plan with formal evaluation and connection to planning in the school and district. Comments: The school uses a hybrid comprehensive technology plan, comprised of directives from the parent company, as well as recommendations from its own technology department. Budget Behavioral: Intelligent Comprehensive long-term budgeting for the institution; multiple budgets including upgrades, etc. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Specific budget is provided in addition to line items in other budgets for long-term budget needs. Comments: Long-term budgeting decisions are made using projections from the enrollment specialists of the parent company. Budgetary items such as staff hardware, upgrades, etc. are approved by the board of directors with input from the technology support staff. Technology is a major expenditure, as the expenses of having a brick and mortar school do not apply (i.e. school building maintenance, insurance, etc.). Administrative Information Behavioral: Intelligent The daily use of electronic systems is required for support activities; paper systems are replaced. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Administrative systems are available to all administrators and staff. Comments: All administrative tasks (documentation, etc.) are electronic. The school utilizes a secure email-style system for secure and permanent communications, and all documentation is stored in an internal server. Any paper copies of documentation are scanned and converted to digital format.

CURRICULAR Electronic Information Behavioral: Intelligent Students and staff are heavily dependent upon information resources and use them daily. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Resources are comprehensive providing depth and diversity. All students have regular access. Comments: The bulk of the school curriculum is online, depending on grade level. Part of elementary school projects are completed in traditional workbooks, and some offline lab materials are required, but most of the resources are available online, and have considerable depth and diversity. All students are required to access information daily as part of attendance requirements. Assessment Behavioral: Intelligent Technology is an essential part of the assessment process for students, teachers, and parents. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Fully integrated reporting and assessment tools are available for student and staff use. Comments: Most assessments are implemented as part of the online curriculum, via online quizzes and tests. Teachers also may implement private polling in live sessions for assessments, use scanners to evaluate handwritten material or art projects, and use web filtering software to check for plagiarism for writing assignments. Curricular Integration Behavioral: Intelligent Technology and related resources are available for all curricular areas. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Technology and related resources are available for all curricular areas. Comments: Technology is fully integrated into the curriculum as appropriate, including a virtual classroom setting, java based web educational games for elementary students, virtual labs for high school science courses, and much more. Teacher Use Behavioral: Intelligent Teacher's work not possible without technology. Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Most teachers have access to appropriate technology in their work area. Comments: As a cyber school, technology use is necessary to complete all teaching objectives. However, a limitation of being a cyber school can be seen in areas such as lab sciences, where teachers are unable to use hands-on new technology, and must rely on virtual simulations.

Student Use Behavioral: Intelligent Students use technology frequently and comprehensively, and cannot meet outcomes without it. Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Most students have consistent and regular access to appropriate technologies. Comments: As a cyber school, technology use is mandatory to complete all learning objectives. However, the same limitations in not being able to use hands-on new technology applies.

SUPPORT Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral: Islands Many of the groups are aware of the planning and implementation procedure, but few are engaged in the process. Resource/infrastructure: Emergent Few groups are represented in the planning and implementation process. Comments: Few groups are represented in the planning and implementation process because of the school structure, which involves a parent company which makes most decisions. There is little opportunity to provide feedback or to become engaged in the process. For technologies that are not supported by the parent company, a technology focus group was recently created, however the scope of the focus group's recommendations does not extend into all school departments. Administrative Support Behavioral: Islands Peripheral involvement by the administration in planning, practice, and implementation. Resource/infrastructure: Islands Little formal administration, time and support allocated to the planning and implementation process. Comments: The majority of planning, practice and implementation is done by the parent company, and there is little involvement of most of the school administration. However, for the utilization of technology that is not a directive of the parent company, there is somewhat more formal support allocated to these processes. Training Behavioral: Intelligent All staff members participate in technology training activities and seek additional training. Resource/infrastructure: Integrated On-going teacher training provided by site and district resources. Comments: All staff are required to complete online training (including live synchronous instruction, recordings, and interactive instruction). The level of instruction varies by position and length of employment. Staff also is required to participate in approximately 6 professional

development sessions per school year, from 1-3 days each, during which mandatory ongoing training is required. Technical/Infrastructure Support Behavioral: Intelligent All staff utilize formal and informal support to find help efficiently. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Full-time personnel to address all technical support needs. Comments: Technical support is offered via phone from the parent company for certain technologies, and for in-house concerns a dedicated technical support director is available via a ticketing system. The school is also in the process of developing regional technology support at the recommendation of a specialized technology focus group made up of staff. CONNECTIVITY Local Area Networking (LAN) Behavioral: Emergent (N/A) Staff and students use available network sporadically, usually only for print sharing and limited data. Resource/infrastructure: Emergent (N/A) No networking installed, or limited, slow speed networking for print sharing. Comments: The school uses the internet as its primary means of data sharing and communication. Internal servers for email and databases such as SharePoint are accessed via the internet. District Area Networking (WAN) Behavioral: Emergent (N/A) Little or no use of area services exists. Resource/infrastructure: Emergent (N/A) - Little or no district-area networking infrastructure, with little or no applications or available data. Comments: The school uses the internet as its primary means of data sharing and communication. The school is a statewide school and in many ways functions as its own school district, although is subject to local education district laws. Internet Access Behavioral: Intelligent All staff and students use the internet extensively for video, voice, and sophisticated data needs. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Direct internet access to all locations. Comments: The school requires that all students and staff have internet access, as it is necessary for the school to function. Each student's family is compensated at $35 per month for internet access, and staff are either compensated or have a school issued aircard or smart phone with hotspot and/or tethering capability. In certain situations (homelessness, lack of availability of cable/DSL ISP), students are issued an aircard. Internet access is used for online instruction, educational games, staff meetings (audio and occasional voice conferencing), etc.

Communication Systems Behavioral: Intelligent Email is an integral part of the school learning and support communications. Resource/infrastructure: Intelligent Email is available to all staff and students. Comments: The school utilizes a proprietary, secure system similar to email to communicate with students, parents, teachers, and administrators. This system is in place to comply with privacy laws, prevent spam and other malware, and to automatically ensure that parents are included in all communications with students. In addition, teachers and staff utilize 2 IM programs (one for internal use, the other for communication with students), and also students and families are required to have a working email address on file for an additional means of communication. Email is used for internal staff communication. INNOVATION New Technologies Behavioral: Integrated Systematic adaptation of new technologies throughout the school. Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Systematic adoption of new technologies throughout the school. Comments: The adoption of new technology is somewhat dictated by the parent company; if the parent company chooses to incorporate a new technology for all of its schools, then all staff are required to learn the new technology. On a school level, there is little incorporation of new technology outside of web based resources, or in-house data management improvements. Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral: Integrated Technology is fairly comprehensive, but lacks more advanced techniques. Resource/infrastructure: Integrated Available technology is used, including voice, etc., but equipment has not reached full potential. Comments: The primary means of instruction and communication is through Blackboard Collaborate, a comprehensive system which allows for audio and video conferencing, file sharing, polling, web sharing, desktop and application sharing, PowerPoint slide shows, text communication, and more. However, currently the school does not widely implement advanced features such as video conferencing except under specific circumstances, such as for special education needs, and the school is limited by the provisions of the third party software companies. However, teachers will, on an individual basis, direct students to use technology that the teacher may have privately incorporated into his or her own curriculum. Final Summary:

Overall, I was pleased to be able to determine that my school often reaches the Intelligent Stage benchmark. Part of this is due to the fact that the school itself is online, however having seen the curriculum and how it is implemented, I believe that the school does many things very well. However, because the school is online also exposes some weaknesses, perhaps most notably in the area of lab sciences, where working hands on with emerging technologies would benefit the student, however the online school model is simply unable to address those types of needs. I was intrigued to note that the school scored lower in the Support Filter grouping. As much of the school is tied to the parent company, there are certain limitations as a result; it would be worthwhile to determine if greater autonomy, or shared involvement, in the planning and implementation phases of new technology would be beneficial to the school as a whole. However, these concerns are small when considering that online charter schools are still a relatively new concept, and I am looking forward to seeing how this educational model continues to evolve.

SUMMARY OF THE MATURITY MODEL BENCHMARK STAGES The Maturity Model relates to four benchmark stages: 1) The Emergent Stage 2) The Islands Stage 3) The Integrated Stage 4) The Intelligent Stage

Stages of Technology Use The Emergent Systems Stage is characterized by: Lack of formal support when using computing technology for instruction No formal plans, policies or procedures exist to ensure the efficient and appropriate acquisition or use of technology throughout the Institution Computers are used sporadically throughout the Institution Institution wide coordination to ensure grade level and program level access is absent Formal support for teacher training is minimal

The Islands of Technology Stage is characterized by: Regular use of computers at one or more grade levels and program levels at each school within the Institution on a regularly scheduled basis Formal plans, policies and procedures exist to facilitate the optimal use of technology in both instructional and administrative areas throughout the Institution Institution sponsored and school sponsored training is available Technology has budgetary visibility at the Institutional level and school/program level

The instructional delivery system is somewhat dependent on technology

The Integrated Systems Stage is characterized by: Regular planned access for students to technology as a means of instruction and a focus of instruction Teachers' systems also support administrative functions, such as grading, attendance and electronic mail Technology has a high budgetary visibility at the Institutional and school/program level Comprehensive plans, policies and procedures for instructional and administrative use of technology are reviewed and revised regularly The Institution is an advocate of technology training for all personnel The instructional delivery system is very dependent on technology

The Intelligent Systems Stage is characterized by: Student access to technology as an indispensable component of instruction Every curriculum is augmented by intelligent learning systems Administrative functions are automated, integrated and paper less Student, teachers and stake holders have access to appropriate systems from home Technology is one of the three highest expenditures of Institution funds Technology planning is an integral part of Institution planning The systematic adoption of new technologies is ongoing Technology advocates at each organizational unit assist in the introduction of the new technologies Instructional and administrative personnel are knowledgeable in the use of technology