Examples of Great Past Applications for CoSN’s Team Award

Examples of Winning TEAM Awards

Best Practices - Leadership

From Northside ISD, San Antonio TX

Like many other high performing School Districts in the United States, Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas, uses technology to improve, reform, and restructure the school environment to increase student achievement.

What differentiates NISD from these other school districts is their TEAM approach to technology selection, implementation, deployment and sustainability. There are no duplicative efforts in NISD. Nothing is undertaken without thoughtful consideration of the impact on all areas of education. Once a program is initiated, NISD’s Superintendent provides outspoken support for the program. This team approach, supported by district leadership, ultimately increases the effectiveness and efficiency of all NISD programs.

From Montgomery County School District, Clarksville, TN

Student assessments are now seen as a part of a continuous improvement cycle based on data and supported by data systems. Technology is seamlessly presented as part of the district instructional system, rather than as additional services which must be learned and operated independently.

On the financial side, this team utilizes results-based budgeting: they identified strategic needs, such as purchasing assessment and accountability software tools. They made difficult and deep financial cuts into other areas of their technology program, to ensure that they could fully fund the acquisition and implementation work required to deploy the system that they knew represented a core element of their larger strategic objectives. This group holds no “sacred cows” and instead focuses on valuing each dollar in terms of how it ultimately supports effective instruction and higher student learning.

Best Practices - Building Community

From North Kansas City Schools, KS

One of the district’s four goals is “Partner with parents and communities.” Technology has enabled the partnering process to be more efficient and more effective, not to mention widening the representation of its many stakeholders including students, parents, staff, alumni, retired staff, business partners, YouthFriends, senior citizens, civic leaders, etc. Information is power. All North Kansas City Schools stakeholders have expanded information power via communications with the district. Here are a few of the ways NKCS currently uses technology to communicate (often interactively) with its stakeholders to share the power of information:

Since 1998, all classrooms have been equipped with telephones.
Parents have 24-hour access to staff voice mail, providing interactive home-to-school communications, leading to improved student progress.
Secondary students are provided district e-mail accounts to enable 24-hour communication with teachers/staff, electronic submission of homework, and access to other types of information such as scholarships from counselors.
Parents have 24/7 access information online regarding their children’s grades, attendance and discipline through ParentConnectTM.
The district’s online BlackboardTM communication tool provides students and parents access to classroom assignments, electronic resources, and discussion boards, providing better collaboration and participation.
NKCS pioneered, and continues, the first online GED program in Missouri.
YouthFriends Web Buddies/Online homework helpers aid students daily.
School Messenger is used to send school-based messages to parents/students about key events/issues at school.
Online surveys for community input are conducted and provide reason for change.
An Online Web calendar (schools and district-wide) can be downloaded into Microsoft Outlook.
Name That School is an online form to suggest names for a soon-to-be-built fourth high school.
The community has an e-mail link to the superintendent on the front page of the district Web site.

From Kiel Area School District, WI

One form of communication with the community is the school web page(www.kiel.k12.wi.us) for which our district has received the Golden Web Award, presented by the International Association of Web Masters and Designers.

Each school in the district has its own page, including the district office, which lists staff information, school calendars, and building information. The site includes sports schedules, directions, contact information, an alumni site, and homework information.
Parents can access their lunch account balance on the website or receive automatic e-mail notification of their balance.
School board members log in to access the synopsis for the board meeting and all its supporting documentation prior to and during their paperless board meetings.
There is an extensive technology department page, which has links to a wealth of information (www.kiel.k12.wi.us/TechnologyDepartment/index-TechDept.htm).
The monthly “Technology Tuesday” e-newsletter includes information relating to classes in the area, helpful sites, and a tips and tricks section. Other school districts use the technology website, especially the Technology Tuesday section as a valuable technology resource.
WebGrader, a standards-based reporting device used at the elementary level, is the communication tool used to report to parents how the students are meeting standards. The Wisconsin School Public Relations Association has recognized our district with Awards of Excellence for both the district-wide school calendar and community newsletter “Inside the Kiel Schools”, both of which are valuable dissemination tools for the community.
ParentCONNECT, a module that integrates with our grading, scheduling, and attendance program, is a web-based communication tool that allows parents to keep track of their child’s academic progress online, review their schedule, grades, discipline issues, class assignments, attendance, and course history.
Parents can easily communicate with teachers via e-mail and receive automated notification of absences, missing assignments, or failing grades.
Our high school Spanish class has created a welcome brochure, written in Spanish, for Kiel and the surrounding area. Students discuss communication problems faced by Spanish-speakers who visit or move to Kiel, research facts about the city and other important information that are translated to Spanish and included in the brochure, take digital photos of area businesses and attractions, and finally, compile and distribute this Spanish computer-generated brochure.
Build Your Own Curriculum (BYOC) is a web-based curriculum program, which provides teachers a framework to organize their curriculum, instruction, and assessment. BYOC provides a view of courses and curriculum by state and/or local standards, through user-defined teaching objectives. The software allows teachers to query the site by standards and key concepts, to identify gaps or redundancies in the curriculum. It improves classroom instruction and enhances student learning. It allows for information sharing between teachers or neighboring school districts.
There is also a forum or discussion board, where teachers can communicate on educational topics. Parents can browse the site and get a clear picture of what their children are being taught and what they’re expected to learn.

Best Practices - Innovation

From St. Joseph’s Academy Tech Team, LA

SJA uses the Student/Teacher Emergenetics Profile (STEP) to individualize instruction. STEP measures four thinking attributes and three behavioral attributes through a system of online surveys to help students understand themselves and others. STEP teaches students ways to improve academic performance, foster better relationships, build self-esteem, make better decisions, understand factors which motivate learning and understand how their behavior affects others.

In the beginning of each school year, teachers receive emailed spreadsheets that detail every student’s profile results.
Teachers develop lesson plan templates and assessments to meet their students’ needs and group students according to complementary “brain trusts.”
Profile results are also used in dealing with teacher-student and teacher-teacher issues as well as in parent conferences.
Class spectrums can be used to enable a teacher to develop plans that will appeal to the different learning styles in the classroom.

This summer, three representatives from SJA spent nine days in Cordoba, Mexico, setting up computers and bringing technology to impoverished students and teachers in four public schools. The team installed 50 computers, which were refurbished by student workers from the SJA Help Desk. The team also set up webcams in the school that had internet access, and SJA has installed webcams on campus to enable students studying Spanish to become internet “pals” with the Cordoban children.

St. Joseph’s maintains a warranty shop which is staffed primarily by students. They are trained in computer architecture class and once certified, they become paid, part-time technicians. The vendors (HP, IBM and Dell) pay St. Joseph’s a stipend for every warranty repair performed. This expertise is used to help disadvantaged schools both here in Baton Rouge and in Mexico

Best Practices - Impact

From Montgomery County School District, Clarksville, TN

This District has made major strides in increasing student achievement over the last several years. The gains correlate closely with the initial formation of this high performing team, including the Superintendent, the Chief Academic Officer (CAO), the Director of Education Services and the Curriculum Coordinator.

The Executive Summary (view PDF) provides an understandable summary of how students are learning that can be shared with all stakeholders.

Best Practices - Partnerships

From Kiel Area School District, WI

Kiel eSchool has developed partnerships with Appleton eSchool and Florida Virtual School to purchase courses, develop online curriculum and share seats in our online courses. Our online course management system not only provides a platform for our online courses but also provides a management system for traditional teachers to put some of their course content online.

Community resources utilized in our technology plan include the following:

Community members and an Assistant Professor from Lakeland College serve on the Kiel eSchool Governing Board.
Kiel Public Library has computers available for adults and provides training opportunities in the areas of computer applications, Internet use, and e-mail. The public librarian has a long-term goal to use the senior center for those classes.
Cardinal Stritch University provides courses for teachers to improve technology skills and integrate technology into the curriculum. Our regional educational service agency provides staff development technology training opportunities.
The Eastern Wisconsin Instructional Technology Consortium sponsors the Best Practices in Technology Fair for educators and the general public. The consortium sponsors the Summer Instructional Technology Academy for teachers throughout Northeastern Wisconsin. Business leaders and community members participate in mock interviews for our senior portfolio graduation requirement. Wisconsin Public Television did an e-portfolio segment interviewing our former technology coordinator and now eSchool Director regarding the portfolio process for students and teachers in our district.
Kiel eSchool provides consulting services for numerous districts that are interested in developing a similar online program or school. Collaboration with other districts has been one of the keys to our success of the Kiel eSchool. A booth and presentation at the Wisconsin School Board Convention made districts throughout the state aware of our successful online program and demonstrated ways they could replicate our program through partnerships.
Kiel eSchool staff continue to disseminate information about their online school via their website (www.kiel.k12.wi.us/kieleschool.htm) presentations, brochures, and Internet demos.
Our collaboration has been recognized by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) as one of the keys to a successful online program. As a result, we were encouraged to submit a national research grant proposal with the University of Florida. Out of 33 proposals, our proposal was one of eight that were funded to study the outcomes in online learning and how they compare to the traditional classroom. The results of this study were presented at a symposium in Chicago in June. The results of all studies were published nation-wide in fall 2005. Download the PDF results.