Technology & Learning - December 2007 - (Page 4)

LEADER of the f the h Top Winner Leader: Larry Buchanan Superintendent for Special Projects Grant Joint Union High School District Sacramento, CA District Snapshot: Year One-to-One the Thin-Client Way n the Grant Joint Union High School District in Sacramento, the accomplishments of Superintendent Larry Buchanan have transformed the lives of students and the community in a profound way. With language challenges, poverty and crime, the district was, in a colleague’s words, “a failing enterprise,” and on the short end I of the digital divide. Then Buchanan arrived, rolled up his sleeves, and set to work. With innovation and a goal to find a learning model that would be successful with traditionally disenfranchised youth, Buchanan looked to technology as a large part of the solution. To fulfill his vision, the superintendent’s first step was securing $40 million in E-rate funds. Next, he created the centerpiece of his districtwide technology model via thinclient technology. Buchanan’s rationale was affordability, simplified IT management, and support and the flexibility needed for true personalization. With the Martin Luther King, Jr. Technology Academy as the pioneering venue, Buchanan has set up regular streaming of supplementary exercises, curriculum content, and student assessments from the district IT departGJUHSD serves 13,000 7th–12th ment’s central servers. graders from families speaking 35 Students work from distinct languages. One-third of customized desk configstudents are English Language Learners, over 90 percent qualify for urations, or Web-served free or reduced lunch and the comthin-client devices. munity is a high-poverty and a Currently, 1,024 thin high-crime area. With over 84 square clients have been made miles, it is also one of the fastestavailable for the 532 growing districts in the nation. students at the academy. According to Buchanan, the effort is designed to “deliver instruction conceptually appropriate for digital native students, while allowing teachers greater flexibility to teach what they need to for the 21st century.” Freeing teachers from management and clerical tasks has resulted in a more effective and productive use of everyone’s time. For Buchanan, education does not end in the classroom, but reaches out to embrace the community. Most families in the Grant district lacked computers and Internet access at come, but Buchanan is changing that. He is expanding the model by delivering instruction to students and their families 24 hours a day via educational television programming. Data analysis remains another key component to Buchanan’s program. The district has instituted student personal response devices, which allow for automated realtime feedback to be collected and correlated during instruction. Results show that learners are exhibiting “heightened motivation and classroom attention, greater personal expectations, and more frequent and higher quality output and performance.” The district has also integrated a range of software applications to facilitate instruction and organization (see Toolbox, page 10). Dr. Larry Buchanan has lifted not only the student population but also an entire community from darkness into the light of the global digital century. Learn More: www.grant.k12.ca.us Last Byte: “Freed from their personal limitations, students are able to contribute to a society, to become part of its workforce, and to influence its political and economic future.” 4 | www.techlearning.com http://www.grant.k12.ca.us http:// http://www.techlearning.com

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Technology & Learning - December 2007 Contents Leaders of the Year 2007 Awards of Exellence Portraits of Learning

Technology & Learning - December 2007

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