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South Carroll County |
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Clarksburg
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District Profile
District Staff District Mission District Plan Technology Plan Title 1 Plan District Board Directory District Emails
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South Carroll County Special School District P. O. Box 219 145 Clarksburg Road Clarksburg,
TN 38324 TECHNOLOGY PLAN July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2008
Approval of the South Carroll County Special School District’s Technology Plan includes any additions and revisions required by the Tennessee Department of Education. Approved by Board of Education on May 19, 2005 _________________________________________ __________________ Signature of Superintendent Date _________________________________________ __________________ Signature of Board of Education Chairperson Date PROFILE Introduction: South Carroll is a small school district located in southeast Carroll County of rural West Tennessee. Clarksburg School, the only school in the district, is located in the city limits of Clarksburg. The school building also houses the board offices of South Carroll County Special School District. After completing a self-study, the school received accreditation for the first time from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in the fall 2002. The school consists of grades PreK – 12. According to the South Carroll Report Card the school served 410 students in the 2003-2004 school year. The demographics listed 94.3% as white, 4.0% as black, and 1.7% as Hispanic. The student population included 23.2% with disabilities, 38.6% as economically disadvantaged, and 4.4% as Title I. Presently, Clarksburg School has a instructional staff composed of 33 certified teachers which includes school director, supervisor of instruction, principal, assistant principal, school counselor, librarian, technology coordinator, twenty-one regular education teachers, two special education teachers, two vocational education teachers, and a Title I teacher. The school has a support staff of twenty-one including instructional assistants for the regular/special education curriculums, a secretary, two bookkeepers, custodians, maintenance, and five cafeteria personnel. According to the 2003-2004 Report Card, 64.1% of the teachers are highly qualified. The remaining teachers are currently obtaining their “highly qualified” status. One hundred percent of the paraprofessionals are highly qualified. 1. Technology All rooms and offices in the building are connected to a LAN by a 10 Mb Cat 5 switched network, a 100 Mb, or wireless access (2) points that are accessable in one-third of the building. Multiple applications are available through the use of a Novell NetWare 6.0 and a Windows 2003 server. Internet is accessible on all teacher and student stations. A subscription to netTrekker provides faculty and students with links to ‘sites’ that have been pre-screened. The Discovery Learning Channel provides a free subscription to Video Streaming. Email is provided to all teachers and support staff through a local web server. Symantec AntiVirus software is installed school-wide. Approximately 53% of computers are high capacity, 33% are medium capacity and 14% are low capacity. Both libraries are automated and use the Athena Automated Library System. The high school library contains seven computer stations for students. A half-time computer lab contains 22 student stations. All of the classrooms contain a teacher station and 1-10 student stations. Fifty percent of the classrooms are equipped for multimedia instruction with two mobile multimedia stations. A telephone system provides extensions at several locations within the building. In 2000, the school purchased a program called Lightspan and gained access to the Lightspan Network online. In Lightspan, students use Sony Playstations to work on reading and math skills. The Lightspan Network offers assessment, standards-based content, instructional tools/resources, and professional development. Each classroom in grades 1-5 is equipped with five Lightspan stations. The Lightspan lab is equipped with 15 stations and a computer for accessing the Internet. Grades 3-8 attend the Lightspan lab 45 minutes each week. In addition, students may access the Lightspan Network from home on their personal computers. Presently, the school is a member of the Carroll County Consortium that is participating in a pilot program endorsed and supported by the state. When finished, August of 2005, each school will be able to access (25 licenses) PLATO online (Grades 6-12) and Princeton Review online (Grades K-5) which also offers assessment, standards-based content, instructional tools/resources, and professional development. The other technological tools that are to be provided to the consortium have not been determined. Other programs used for CAI include Accelerated Math modules (Pre-Algebra, Algebra I and grades 1-5), PLATO and Skills Bank. Accelerated Reading is used at all grade levels. STAR Early Literacy is used in the PreK-2, STAR Literacy for grades 3-5 and STAR Math for Title I. The Accelerated Math (Grades 1-5) and STAR Literacy and Math are used to support student achievement through the Title I program. 2. Technology Planning Team A technology planning committee consisting of representatives from all school stakeholder groups was assigned the task of reviewing and revising the previous district technology plan written in school year 2003. Committee Members:
Teachers, parents, students, and community leaders were surveyed in January of 2005 concerning technology issues for the Five-Year Strategic Plan. At a stakeholders meeting on January 27, 2005, the technology strengths and areas of need were identified and discussed. The results were to become a part of the school’s Five-Year Strategic Plan, the technology plan, and the needs assessment. In addition, a StaR chart profile was completed that determines the current technology status and progress in the system. After analyzing and reviewing the data, the technology planning committee established technology goals, strategies, and developed a technology action plan for improvement. After the action plan was drafted and approved by the committee, it was presented to the South Carroll Board of Education for approval. 3. Needs Assessment Results Summary of StaR Chart Results
Areas of Strength 1. The stakeholders agreed that 100% of the students have access to a variety of resources to help them succeed in their learning including technology and media centers. 2. In the area of finding and using information, the stakeholders agreed that most of the elementary, middle school, and high school students were confident of their ability to identify, gather, evaluate and apply information using technology. 3. Students agreed that they could find a computer at school to use when one was needed. 4. When surveyed, 85% of the teachers and 60% of the students indicated they have access to the Internet at home. 5. When planning and building the latest school additions in 2002, the administration planned a classroom to be used for implementing distance learning in the future. Areas of Need 1. A computer lab with twenty-nine student workstations including five wireless laptops. 2. Address the needs in all areas of the StaR chart. 3. Address student Internet safety issues including cyberbullying. 4. All teachers should use technology resources as a part of the instructional process. 5. Multimedia workstations for every teacher and every classroom equipped with a minimum of three student workstations. 6. Continue to include technology training for the teachers and staff in in-service and staff development programs. 7. Provide wireless capabilities to all classrooms. 4. Technology Vision Community Members 1. Who are aware of the technology needs of the school and how the district is working to provide those needs. 2. Who feel welcomed and encouraged to participate in activities that provide information concerning the improvement and development of the use of technology as a learning tool. Staff Members 1. Who are confident and competent in using technology as learning and teaching tools. 2. Who realize the importance of technology as a learning tool and are willing to participate in organized improvement and development activities that will improve student learning. Students 1. Competent in the use of technology as well as being able to adjust to future technological changes. 2. Who recognize that technology is a tool of the future that they will be using to improve their life and that of the community. 5. Collaboration Among Educators The technology plan will be shared with all of the educational staff and their role in its implementation will be identified. In May of each school year, the educational staff will be given the opportunity to help evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. Each year the librarians, technology coordinator, supervisor of instruction, guidance counselor and principals will meet with the director of schools to discuss specific technology issues related to the school technology needs. 6. Collaboration with Parents and Community Partners Parents and community representatives serve on all district leadership teams as well as the technology plan team. Input from these representatives is considered for developing and implementing the technology plan. A school newsletter, mailed quarterly, informs parents and the community of technology programs being implemented in the school including the school’s web site and the Lightspan Network web site. Parents are encouraged to view classroom technology by visiting the computer and Lightspan labs during Open House, Parent Orientation Nights, and Parent-Teacher Conferences. These activities are announced in the quarterly newsletter mailed to parents and on a lighted marquee sign outside the building. Brochures are available in the lobby of the building for student and parents at all times describing vocational courses, the credit recovery program, the report card data, and the PreK program. 7. Collaboration with Adult Literacy Service Providers The Carroll County Board of Education provides adult literacy classes and testing at the Carroll County Vocational Center located in Huntingdon, Tennessee, the county seat of Carroll County. The vocational center serves students in all five of the special school districts in Carroll County including South Carroll. Since the vocational center is less than ten miles form South Carroll, certain services are consolidated rather than duplicated. At the request of the vocational school’s administrator, South Carroll provides students, parents and community members with information concerning the programs through announcements at various school activities and bulletins located in the lobby of the building. South Carroll’s administrators address any request of the vocational center immediately. The South Carroll’s school counselor also keeps informed concerning the programs available for adults throughout the area. 8. Curricula and Teaching That Integrate Technology Various school representatives attend workshops that provide information on integrating technology in the classroom. When they return to the school, information is shared with the educational staff during faculty meetings and during planned in-service. In addition, the educational staff will have the opportunity to complete at least one day of technology training for in-service credit during the year. Training, as needed, is continuously provided for the following programs: Accelerated Reader, PLATO, Skills Bank, Lightspan, Accelerated Math, Classworks, Microsoft Office, etc. Our staff will be researching and reviewing relevant research on integrating technology into the classroom to improve student achievement and also to improve teacher quality. 9. Increasing Accessibility Goal 4 – Strategy 1 of the districts action plan addresses increased accessibility for students and staff. 10. Interoperability All hardware and software systems will be compatible with one another from the standpoint of operating systems and network compatibility. 11. Equity Since all grades at South Carroll are housed in one building, inequities generally do not exist. South Carroll has strived, however, to insure equity at different levels of instruction--elementary, middle school, and high school. At the present time, each classroom is connected to the LAN and has a teacher computer station. In addition, libraries are automated, all grades have access to Accelerated Reader, and all grades share the computer lab and have access to multimedia equipment. 12. Evaluation Measures The success of the district’s technology goals will be measured by the following: 1. Student test score success rates. 2. Increase in the number of computers with internet access. 3. Increase in student use of computers measured by average number of hours per student per week. 4. Increase in number of teachers and administrators trained in the use of technology. 5. The degree of technology classroom use by both teachers and students through the year as shown in column five of each action plan strategy on pages 7-10. 13. Leadership The implementation of the technology plan is the major responsibility of the technology coordinator. The following staff members provide additional support.
14. Review of Policies and Procedures The committee for this plan has reviewed the following policies and procedures.
15. Action Plan The following action plan (pages 7-10) includes goals and strategies that will be used to improve the academic achievement, and technology literacy, of all students and to improve the capacity of all teachers to integrate technology effectively into curriculum and instruction. Technology Action Plan Goal 1: To implement technology in all classrooms and
library media centers that is current and will improve student proficiency in
language arts, math, science, social studies, and vocational. Technology Action Plan Goal 2: To prepare 90% of the students to be technology literate as measured by the Tennessee Instructional Technology Standards. Click here to see Goal 2 Action Plan Table Technology Action Plan Goal 3: To ensure that the instructional staff has multiple opportunities to sustain new skills learned to further the effective daily use of technology in instruction as opportunities become available. Click here to see Goal 3 Action Plan Table Technology Action Plan Goal 4: To provide the hardware and software requirements for implementing and maintaining Goals 1, 2 and 3. Click here to see Goal 4 Action Plan Table Download a copy of technology plan.
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145 Clarksburg Road Clarksburg TN 38324-0219 |
