Colonial School District School District Achieves Consistent, Enhanced Curriculum; Sees Test Scores Continue to Rise
Pennsylvania’s Colonial School District wanted an easily accessed collaboration solution—one that would also integrate, manage, and deliver instructional material. To achieve these goals, the district turned to Microsoft technologies. The results helped to increase curriculum consistency and quality, and turn students into active learners. There has been a continuous improvement in scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests over the past four years.
Business Needs
The 4,600-student Colonial School District (CSD) in suburban Philadelphia took a major step forward in its use of technology in 2006, when the state of Pennsylvania awarded it one of the first grants under the Classrooms for the Future program. Colonial used the grant to equip social studies and language arts classrooms with laptops and to upgrade the infrastructure for district supported printers, interactive whiteboards, projectors, digital document cameras, and building-wide wireless access. In phase one, more than 600 laptops were deployed for students.
With that infrastructure, the district was ready to tackle the challenges of online curricula and collaboration. Previously, teachers used binders for storing instructional material, making collaboration across classrooms difficult. Administrators and teachers wanted technology to be a foundation for digital curriculum development and delivery, more effective teacher-student interaction, and greater academic achievement.
The district looked at commercial software for instruction but found the packages expensive and insufficiently customizable, according to Andrew Boegly, CSD Chief Information Officer.
Solution
During a 2006 visit to the School of the Future in Philadelphia—a partnership of the Philadelphia School District and Microsoft—Colonial school district representatives discovered Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which was still in beta testing. The collaboration and content management software, together with its education-specific SharePoint Learning Kit add-on proved ideal, says Boegly.
We can use social media fully because we’re doing it in a controlled environment and we can target its use for each course. Without tools like this, twenty-first century learners cannot truly be active participants in their learning.
Andrew Boegly
Chief Information Officer, Colonial School District
The district had a School License Agreement with Microsoft that enabled Colonial to acquire Office SharePoint Server at no additional cost. Colonial paid for the design, development, and deployment of its installation, which was implemented by Planet Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in SharePoint Server for education.
The district’s installation, called the HUB, went live in early 2007. The HUB modifies and manages content and resources, gives students a forum for collaboration, and seamlessly integrates Colonial standards and curriculum within each course. Teachers using the HUB have a separate SharePoint site for each course they teach.
Teachers use the SharePoint Learning Kit to post assignments, calendars, and accompanying information. They can assign streaming video and receive completed assignments from students. Teachers can access their course sites based on Active Directory Domain Services accounts that the district creates for them. In their technology training, teachers learn how to use the HUB and other technologies to improve instruction and learning for the twenty-first century according to Steve Price, CSD Technology Staff Developer.
The district was so pleased with the success of the HUB, it migrated its public website to Office SharePoint Server 2007 as well. The website has a modern and consistent appearance throughout its pages, video content, and dynamic components—such as a calendar from which visitors can choose the groups of events they want to see. The website also is integrated with the learning management portion of the HUB.
Benefits
The school district uses the HUB to help boost curricula quality, turn students into active learners, and increase test scores.
Teachers Enhance Curricula, Gain Instructional Time
Teachers now share best practices and curricula across classrooms and even across schools; enjoy streamlined online interactions with students; and gain free time formerly spent on administrative tasks—which they can now apply to instruction.
“The system implements an automated provisioning process each night that updates course enrollment and creates sections as new courses are built in the student information system,” says Michael Cavallaro, CSD Network Supervisor. ”Teachers do not need to manage student enrollment in their sections anymore.”
The benefits show up in the classroom, according to Boegly. “Our teachers continue to work together on curricula development, integrating technology in new ways and ultimately contributing to a uniformly high level of instruction across classrooms,” he says. “The results are better curricula, more time to teach those curricula, and the active participation of students in their own learning.”
Student Engagement with Social Media Leads to Active Learning
Colonial is using the HUB to encourage students to be active participants in the process of education. Teachers add wikis, blogs, and discussion groups to their courses without concern that external users will breach classroom security. These components meet the district’s security needs by being fully contained within the HUB so only registered students, as identified by Active Directory Domain Services, can participate.
“Students don’t think of using social media as work—it’s their life, and they see it as fun,” says Boegly. “We can use social media fully because we’re doing it in a controlled environment and we can target its use for each course. Without tools like this, twenty-first century learners cannot truly be active participants in their learning.
“The HUB proved to be a vehicle for collaboration, inspired shared leadership, and going above and beyond. All these factors contributed to this significant increase,” he adds.
For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
