Aim Straight At The Curriculum

A technology goal schools can agree on: Teach crucial skills

By Liz Whitaker

Liz Whitaker is coordinator for instructional technology in the Tucson (Ariz.) Unified School District.

To get 104 schools using technology to support district goals, you've got to point, then click, right at the curriculum. That's the heart of a school system, and it's where real change can be accomplished. But you can't just snap your fingers and expect to switch instructional delivery overnight. In the Tucson (Ariz.) Unified School District, all technology projects are integrated directly into instruction. It has taken five years to get here.

Five years ago, the citizens of Tucson approved a bond that granted $38 million for instructional technology. Before rushing to decide what hardware and software to buy, we took a long look at our curriculum. The superintendent worked with the community to transform the district curriculum by adding a fourth R: readiness for the world of work.

Beyond the basic skills, the list of the desired characteristics of our graduates now includes communications, technology, and critical-thinking skills. We also added another goal: Our graduates will be able to communicate in both English and Spanish, which are the languages most characteristic of our area.

Our core curriculum reflects these goals. Whether the subject is language arts, mathematics, science, or social studies, the emphasis is on active, hands-on participation in learning. Technology is used as a tool in effectively correlating these objectives with instructional strategies in the classroom.

It is this successful correlation between curriculum and technology that the district has been working on for the past five years. We've learned a lot. The Tucson Unified School District has about 60,000 K-12 students, who come from various backgrounds. About 50 percent of our students are classified "minority." The 104 school sites include 14 magnet schools and a variety of special education and alternative education programs. And they all use technology to support the overarching school district goal of preparing students for the 21st century.

Nine lessons

The district's long-term plans for instructional technology derive from the district management and assessment plan, called ACTion 2000. The following are some guidelines culled from our experience:

1. Pull together a team of diverse people to develop a district plan. Give them clear, concise directions. A team of 40 people representing teachers, school executives, central support personnel, parents, and community members developed our overall plan. Members reviewed pertinent district documents, then a draft of the plan was reviewed by personnel at every site. After that, we held a communitywide teleconference inviting feedback. The final plan was approved by the school board.
   

2. Break down the plan, setting realistic time frames for each accomplishment. Allow budget and projects to build on each other. The Instructional Technology Bond Project was divided into 20 subprojects, each of which has specified funds and indicates general types of technology purchases for a specific level or school setting. These projects were put into a six-year time frame. This process assumed that a) it is impossible to do everything all at once; b) no one solution will solve all the needs; and c) technology will change over time, so you need to build in some flexibility.
   

3. Make teachers a part of the entire process. To plan and implement each subproject, we build a task team of school-site representatives and some members of the original master team. Working together, the task teams study relevant curriculum documents and look for software to support the curriculum.
   

4. Don't buy anything just because it looks good. Research carefully--and remember the district's goals. One of our largest subprojects was the Elementary Learning Lab. This purchase came after careful evaluation of four pilot labs: Two used integrated learning systems; one was a managed-skills lab (that is, a lab that used individually managed pieces of software); and the fourth was a tool-based lab, which included word-processing, database, and spreadsheet programs, as well as HyperCard and paint-and-draw software. Our research showed that students using the tool-based lab made larger gains in mathematics on state assessments than other students did. In addition, teacher evaluation of the software indicated a strong preference for the more interactive, student-directed tool software. Finally, observations of students in these labs indicated that students spent more time on task using that kind of software.
   

   In the case of our high school business applications and programming lab, we first surveyed the equipment and software being used in the Tucson business community. The result: We decided to outfit each high school with a lab of 32 IBM 55SX computers networked using Novell software. Student software includes Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and a variety of other software used in business and industry.
   

5. Make software purchases complement other district course materials. Give software selection the same weight you give textbook adoption. The Elementary Learning Lab was purchased initially with language arts software. Initial software included a broad spectrum of word processing, reading, writing, and publishing tools. Software for the other subject areas is being added as materials are adopted so that the software complements the other adopted materials. The same teams that recommend the classroom materials for the subject areas also recommend the software for the lab.
   

   Consistent with our goal of having students become proficient in English and Spanish, school board policy requires the purchase of student software in both languages.
   

6. Keep learning as you buy software. This will help in making subsequent purchases. Put some money aside for new purchases. The purchases for high school science were driven by the desire to enable students to "act like scientists." The resulting purchases allow students in earth science to use the computer to process images of objects in outer space, and students in biological sciences to process microscopic images of cells. We then added ClarisWorks tool software in both English and Spanish, and a statistical analysis software package so students could enter, analyze, and display results of their lab studies.
   

7. Use local resources, especially if they're willing to do more than just tell you what to do. The University of Arizona, in partnership with the school district, received a grant to train all high school science teachers in the use of image processing, where students use computer enhancements, such as color shading, to bring out indistinct images in their science classes. This teacher-training program enabled teachers to gain skills using this technology and helped them formulate their instructional strategies. The partnership played a large part in bringing image-processing software into the science labs.
   

8. Don't stint on training--it should be ongoing, available, and easy. Increase the number of people who can train others. All training emphasizes using technology with materials referenced to the core curriculum. Nearly all of the 2,500 classroom teachers in our district participated in six hours of training when they received their classroom workstation, and five more hours when a lab was installed in their building. Five technology trainers, supported by Chapter 2 funds, developed sample activities and demonstrated them for teachers. These five district-level trainers work with school-site trainers, who in turn help teachers at their schools. (These site people are paid extra to attend meetings and training sessions.) The district trainers also work with the local community college to offer optional training courses that teachers can take for credit.
   

9. If it's broken, fix it. And be quick about it. The Tucson Unified School District now has over 10,000 microcomputers and peripherals. As the district becomes increasingly dependent on technology to support learning, it is imperative that the technology continue to be operational. Hardware is purchased with extended warranties. Centrally, there are six electronics technicians devoted to computer and audio/video technology repair. As additional hardware and software has been added to the school sites, school-based technical support has been added. This support person does frontline troubleshooting, manages networks, and maintains software and hardware inventories.
   

For additional information, contact Liz Whitaker, Tucson Unified School District, Coordinator, Instructional Technology, P.O. Box 40400, 1010 E. 10th St., Tucson, Ariz. 85717; telephone (602) 792- 6129; fax (602) 882-2479; E-mail: lwhitak@tucsonud.k12.az.us.