Students in The 350 Club made huge strides in their education, so much so that the program was expanded to grades 1-3. Scores continue to increase each year with an astounding 848 API and 59 percent proficient in ELA and 74 percent proficient in math for the CST in 2009. Van Buren was recognized in the state’s top 100 High Performing Elementary Schools that serve significant numbers of English learners and economically disadvantaged students in 2008-2009; in 2010 it was recognized as a California State Distinguished School.
Data cleanliness is an additional benefit. DSUSD’s student information system is the core of the SIF environment and all other applications receive data from it. Student data travels between these applications; therefore teachers never need to enter student names for assessments, report cards, or any other type of reports. In addition, business intelligence solutions provide many types of real, live access to information for teachers and administrators, allowing them to make decisions with real data and not based on obsolete reports. The next steps in implementation are aimed at providing individualized support to students and teachers.
The following is an example of how the system currently functions in an average middle school classroom: A student comes to class with assignments from the day before and quietly enters the answer into the responder located at his/her desk, while the teacher waits for everyone to finish and reviews the results with the class. The teacher can then modify the instruction according to the needs of the students. The teacher clicks publish and the homework is placed on the online Gradebook, where parents can see the results via the internet. This is a typical activity in DSUSD’s classrooms today for all type of student assessments. The additional pieces that DSUSD will add in this scenario are related to differentiated instruction. After the student enters the answers for the daily assessment/homework if they miss a concept, immediately the teacher sees options for students to master the unlearned concept. The assessment results will be connected with a curriculum matrix that provides online resources that are aligned to the standards and content from the textbooks, as well as different pieces of online and open source content from the web. Because the system is web-based, students can access the same information from anywhere in the school.
There are many advantages to enhancing the SIF environment by adding the curriculum matrix of DSUSD’s program. Students will receive the individualized support they need for advancement or remediation of specific content and skills. Students do not need to search the library or study a complete chapter in the remediation software to find the specific skill they need to practice. The curriculum matrix located in the SIF environment will integrate very specific content for students to increase student achievement.
Dr. George Araya obtained his Doctoral degree in Administration and Leadership from Loma Linda University in 1991. In September that year he was hired as a Math teacher in Palm Desert High School, in Desert Sands Unified School District. After two years in the classroom he was hired as Director of Educational Technology. The district created that position in 1993. Since 1993 to date Dr. Araya has been responsible for the implementation of the Metropolitan Area Network and all the technologies that are in place today in the district.
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