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At James Shields Elementary School in Chicago, you'll find students
gathered around computer workstations, completing class projects
or trying out a new software program. Test scores are rising,
and school officials say technology deserves a good deal of the
credit.
Meanwhile, Chicago's Christian Fenger Academy High School is
using computer simulations to teach students how to solve modern
environmental problems, such as overpopulation. The school has
been doing this for four years -- adding a base of technological
skills and academic knowledge that students and teachers build
on each year.
And at Bogan High School, school officials are enticing parents
to get involved in the technology act. Bogan offers evening computer
classes to parents, teaching them tips for buying a good home
computer as well as how to use word processing software.
Changes at three Chicago schools do not amount to a revolution
in educational technology for a district that educates 430,000
students. But things are changing here -- albeit slowly. Just
five years ago, bad public schools were a perennial Chicago news
story along with corrupt aldermen and hapless baseball teams.
Now, test scores are up four years in a row, and the district
that former Education Secretary William Bennett dubbed "the worst
in the nation" appears to be turning the tide. A significant part
of the reform effort involved a rethinking of the way computers
are used to teach children.
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Richard
White (left) heads Chicago's Learning Technologies department,
which reports directly to Chief Education Officer Cozette
Buckney (right, with Mike Edwards and Patrick Decker). |
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'There was nothing'
Before 1996, Chicago had no districtwide standards or training
programs for educational computer use. "There was nothing -- not
for the classroom," recalls Chief Education Officer Cozette Buckney,
a former principal of a vocational high school in the city. "There
was no systemic approach ... no standards."
In 1996, the city schools appointed a former high school science
teacher, Richard White, to take charge of a new department called
Learning Technologies. His department reports directly to the
district's Education Department and is independent of Information
Technologies.
White elaborates on the importance of that independence: "It
would be difficult to maintain a department like mine under [Information
Technologies], which would be dominated by people who are into
the boxes and wires and less into students."
Since his appointment, White has developed teacher training
programs and equipment standards. He has hired 26 Technology Resource
Network employees, or TRNs, to help teachers and principals acquire
and use technology. And he has set up partnerships with local
universities, focusing especially on how technology can be used
to enhance curriculum.
Even so, problems and frustrations persist. School principals
and academic consultants complain that the pace of change is too
slow. One of the biggest headaches, for example, was that the
target date of a districtwide Internet hook-up has been delayed
nearly a year.
"We've proceeded kind of slowly over the past three or four
years," says Virginia Vaske, principal of the Murray Language
Academy, a foreign language magnet elementary school. Vaske chalks
up the slow pace of change to a shortage of discretionary funds
and aging school buildings that must be rewired. The schools are
also hindered by the reluctance of some teachers to use technology,
Vaske says: "Right now, there's a gap between what Learning Technologies
has to offer and the readiness of the teachers."
Another cause of delay, White says, is the slow process of qualifying
for the E-Rate, the federal program that provides telecommunications
discounts for schools and libraries. And then there's the sheer
scale of change in Chicago: "With 600 schools," he says, "there's
no such thing as a small project."
Part of a larger reform
Chicago school reform came in two stages. A decade ago, the
Illinois legislature voted to transfer power from the troubled
board of education to local school councils, which are made up
of parents and teachers and are responsible for hiring and firing
principals. In 1995, the legislature granted broader powers to
Mayor Richard M. Daley, who fired the existing school board and
appointed a reform board himself. He also hired Paul Vallas as
chief executive officer.
Since then, the most noticeable sign of change for Chicago's
public school students has been the renovation of the district's
buildings, which had been the embodiment of urban decay. By 1998,
the district had completed nearly $1.14 billion of new construction
and renovation projects, including the construction of eight new
schools -- and $600 million has been allocated for other renovation
projects.
This ongoing commitment to improving school buildings helps
make technology innovation much more possible. Before an electrical
upgrade was done to the Murray Language Academy building, Vaske
jokes, "I was sure the walls would melt when I plugged in the
coffee pot."
As the building projects went ahead, the district also started
looking for educators who could spearhead technology reform efforts.
One of the people identified was Richard White, who had taught
science for 20 years at Austin High School, which is in one of
the city's toughest neighborhoods.
White had become interested in computer technology because of
its strong connection to scientific research. When the Learning
Technology department was founded in 1996, White recalls "it was
just me and a secretary." Now, the department has 60 employees
and a budget of $11.9 million.
Despite the department's efforts, technology integration in
the district is far from perfect. Each school has its own discretionary
budget, which the central office does not control. As a consequence,
White says, he has no idea what each school spends on technology.
And without that information, it's difficult to measure the impact
of technology spending on schools.
Furthermore, White says, the school system has not attempted
to study the effects of technology on student achievement. He
contends that "common sense would tell you it helps." And that
common sense is backed by research elsewhere: A 1998 study by
the Educational Testing Service, for example, showed that technology
can help raise student achievement if it is used for learning
simulations and applications. But the study also found that if
computers are used mainly for drill and practice, technology can
actually lower achievement.
Outside of implementing an Internet acceptable use policy and
mandating a technology course for high school freshmen, the central
office doesn't tell schools how they should use computers. (The
technology course, White says, is primarily for students who have
not had much exposure to computers. It teachers them how to use
software for word processing, spreadsheet design, and e-mail.
He hopes the city's infusion of technology into schools eventually
makes this course unnecessary.)
What Learning Technologies does supply is a support system that
provides professional training, technical support, and guidance
on the use and purchase of technology, says Buckney. She hopes
the department helps principals move past the idea of school computers
as add-ons -- something stuck in a lab down the hall that's nice
to have but far from a necessity.
"[Technology] needs to be integrated into each of the subjects,"
she says. "This is not a course you take by itself." A student
might be able to learn a software package in two to three weeks,
she adds, "but it has to be for a purpose. I want to see technology
used to raise student achievement ...To say that a student can
go through our system and know how to use PowerPoint is wonderful,
but if they can't spell the words ... it's a problem."
Buckney continues: "Unfortunately, if you don't have a principal
or teacher who really understands how to utilize technology, then
you're either making very poor decisions, you're spending a lot
of money on things that aren't necessary, or you're not using
it at all."
The support system
Learning Technologies is divided into four units -- the Technology
Resource Network, video technologies, online services, and the
Illinois State Board of Education Area VII Hub. This last unit,
which receives both state and local funds, helps schools with
staff development, grant writing, and technology planning.
The division with the most direct, day-to-day impact is the
Technology Resource Network. TRN employees help schools write
their technology plans, which qualify them for grants and discounts.
And they advise and approve requests for new computer purchases,
train teachers, and fix small mechanical problems.
A major responsibility for the TRNs is helping principals decide
what technology to choose, Buckney says. Classroom computers,
for example, must be capable of being hooked up to a districtwide
computer network. Plus, Learning Technologies must sign off on
every purchase.
"Some computers are better than other computers. But how would
a principal know?" says Buckney. "A vendor could say, 'Here's
a really good price.' It may be a good deal; it may not be a good
deal."
Initially, White says, school officials estimated a need for
a technology person in every school. But the district couldn't
afford so large a staff, so it divided the system into six regions
and assigned each TRN to 23 schools. Of course, spreading 26 TRNs
across 600 schools is definitely a stretch. That's why Learning
Technologies has formed partnerships with area universities, hiring
65 college students for technical help.
One such partnership is the Chicago Public Schools/University
of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP), which involves 29 schools
and works directly with principals and teachers. Don York, a University
of Chicago professor of astronomy and codirector of CUIP, says
the program's goal is to provide four pillars of support -- infrastructure,
teacher training, system support, and the development of curricular
resources. CUIP has received a $150,000 grant from Buckney's office,
as well as state and university funds adding up to $700,000 a
year for a five-year project. York donates his time to the project.
"We don't give [teachers] a curriculum, but we support them
by giving them tools of technology to help them deliver their
curriculum," York says. "We believe computer technology makes
teaching more efficient, is more exciting for kids, and gets teachers
out of the lecture mode and into project-oriented teaching."
The partnership provides schools with high-speed lines for Internet
access. It also adapts computers donated by businesses to school
uses. "The goal is to have five computers per classroom," York
says. Only about three of the 29 schools are at that level now,
he says.
CUIP is currently training 1,100 teachers in basic computer
skills, such as using a mouse. The project also trains teachers
in more sophisticated skills, such as how to build a learning
module from Internet sources. Such a module might offer a guided
Internet-based unit on gravity or the human skeletal system or
any topic the teacher's planning calls for.
To ensure a seamless transition once the five-year project is
finished, CUIP is also training small sets of technologically
skilled teachers in system management. Ideally, this will mean
they'll be able to set up and run their own training programs.
System support for teachers is particularly important, because
teachers won't use technology if it is difficult or confusing
to operate, says Frank Nardine, manager of Information System
Technologies at Governors' State University in Chicago, which
has also established a technology partnership with the school
district. Nardine says the district doesn't have enough technology
support. "They know they don't. ...They have the TRNs, but they're
just beginning to recognize what's needed."
'Tech thoroughbreds'
In addition to the training available from TRNs and partner
universities, teachers can also take official Chicago Public Schools'
courses to acquire endorsements in technology. Such endorsements
could help them raise their annual salaries.
With the district requiring that high school freshmen take a
one-year technology course, there has been an increased need for
computer-literate teachers. To help build capacity, Nardine says,
the system is learning to recognize what he calls "technology
thoroughbreds" -- teachers who show a knack for technology and
a willingness to help their colleagues.
Also important, he says, is that the district recognizes the
need for training during school hours as well as on Saturdays
and during the summer. Teachers may now be released from classroom
duty for five days so they can receive training in their schools
while also keeping tabs on the substitute teachers running their
classrooms. At Bogan High School, teachers were also allowed to
take laptop computers home to improve their skills. (The laptops
were purchased with the school's discretionary funds, according
to principal Linda Pierzchalski.)
Having access to a computer at home can also help parents help
their kids. Learning Technologies has created an intranet web
page that allows parents to access educational material. Says
White: "If your daughter asks: 'What's the formula for the quadratic
equation?' -- you can look it up." To help families who don't
have access to a home computer, the district used a federal Neighborhood
Learning Technology grant, as well as support from community organizations,
to develop two neighborhood computer centers that are used by
both parents and students. White wants to expand the program next
year to four more sites.
Chicago's road ahead
The challenge now is ensuring that teachers use the technology
in ways that help children learn better than if there was no technology.
Yet evaluating how well teachers are using technology is not something
Chicago is doing well -- if at all.
Buckney concedes she can't control whether teachers are using
computers to enrich learning or simply to allow students to pass
the time. "I don't know that there's any way to monitor what teachers
are doing in the classroom when they get in there and close the
door," says Buckney. "You have to rely on teachers being professional."
The best way to monitor teachers' use of computers -- as well
as general classroom teaching skills -- is through student test
scores, says Buckney. But Chicago has yet to conduct any formal
study to see if there is a link between intelligent use of computers
and higher test scores, according to White.
Even so, Chicago school officials believe they are heading in
the right direction. Five years ago, a visitor to the district
would have been hard pressed to find any kids using computers
as learning tools. Today, it's relatively easy to find schools
that are serving as technological beacons.
And beginning this school year, a five-year, $8 million Technology
Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education
will provide computer workstations and teacher training for 86
elementary and high schools in Chicago's economically depressed
West Side, where 95 percent of the students come from low-income
households and lack access to computers. In addition, 29 private-sector
partners will contribute $5.5 million annually in matching funds
and in-kind services, such as hardware, software, training, mentoring,
and curriculum development.
Traditional instruction in core subject areas will continue,
but computer-based projects will reinforce classroom learning
by challenging students to solve real-life problems. "Students
will acquire essential computer skills and learn exactly how their
studies apply to real-life situations," says Buckney. "In addition,
this program prepares students who live in Chicago's lowest employment
areas for high-tech job opportunities."
Adds Board President Gery Chico: "This program helps bridge
the gap for our students who most need it."
Mary Wisniewski is a freelance writer in Chicago.
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