District Administration - June 2008 - (Page 45)

Superintendent Kenneth Eastwood Enlarged City School District of Middletown (N.Y.) Tenure: Four years Salary: $190,000 No. of schools: 8 No. of students: 7,100 Free and reduced-price lunch: 65 percent Graduation rate: 93 percent Web site: www.middletowncityschools.org “My focus in life is around how do you create the environments that produce the greatest change and improvements for kids?” —Kenneth Eastwood analyzing text, in K12 classes. Student dropout rates decreased and SAT scores increased during his tenure at Oswego. Eastwood left in 2004 in search of a new challenge. He took the job in the Middletown district, which has eight schools, lies 65 miles northwest of New York City, and is a high poverty (68 percent) and high minority district that is 33 percent black, 33 percent Hispanic and 33 percent white. Technology Prowess Soon after Eastwood started in Middletown, he conducted audits of all instructional programs, including technology, and found curricular and programmatic gaps. “We had to make changes to build www.DistrictAdministration.com the systems that would get us to a point where instructionally students were beneﬁting from their time in school,” he says. He shut down the science labs because research reveals that successful technology integration in general, including science, is best done in the classroom where teachers can integrate the instruction, versus taking students to a lab where another teacher instructs. He also upgraded the infrastructure with new wiring, more equipment, better technology and wireless capabilities. “There was some angst about it (among staﬀ and administrators) as we were going backward, but we were planning for the future,” he says. Most buildings are wireless to advance computer use and allow security person- nel monitors to use personal digital assistants so they can input or check information immediately on patrol. And the entire structure is built around Internet protocol systems in classrooms with all phones, announcements, clocks and emergency notiﬁcation systems connected and coordinated. The district also has 300 video surveillance cameras, which send digital pictures to the server. “Once it goes through the server, it’s easily visible through access to our Web site for emergency purposes,” Eastwood says. When the technology overhaul is completed, which should be during the 2008-2009 school year, Eastwood says the district should have one computer for every three or four students in K12 classrooms. And in high school, about a quarter of the classrooms will have one-to-one ratios. “Although we want them to work in groups, they need to do individual work in the classroom,” he says. Curriculum Integration On top of creating a better infrastructure, Eastwood added three years ago two new teaching positions to help coach and support teachers in infusing technology into the curriculum. The teachers in these positions are called technology integration specialists. A third specialist will come on board in September. “It’s about teachers teaching teachers,” he says. “Teachers can relate to teachers. They know the issues, they talk the lingo and they sympathize with the change June 2008 45 http://www.middletowncityschools.org http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2008

District Administration - June 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Inside the Law
Conversations
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Cutting Costs from the Inside Out
New Literacies: Entering the Future
Online Videoconferencing
Achievement Today
Transporting Special Needs Students
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem/Solution
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - June 2008