| State: California | Number of Students: 260 |
| School Type: Charter School | Free and Reduced Lunch: 15.4% |
| Grade Level: 9-10 | English Language Learners: 2.7% |
School Context
This new school of about 550 students strives to make students innovation-ready by helping them develop skills that are critical to success in the 21st Century. They focus on collaboration, creativity, self- management, and communication. Students at this school develop these skills by building deep content knowledge and learning important problem-solving skills. The two principles that guide their educational model are extreme personalization and putting knowledge in action.
State of Technology
This school is looking to improve the assessment, collection, and archiving of student work. They are looking to improve their current method and use a tool that will be easier to maintain and can be used throughout a student's tenure at the high school.
Currently, students are using Google slides to record their feedback for projects. They are keeping those artifacts in multiple places. They tried having students build websites from sites like Weebly, but the students were too distracted by the design of the website and the work was not easily assessed by teachers. They hope to find something that both has an easy user interface but is catered toward collecting content and showcasing it in a professional and academic way.
Tech Needs & Requirements
The school would like to have a digital portfolio tool for students collect, document, reflect, and showcase their design thinking process for all projects.They would like the tool to be able to group students by class and assign projects or assignments, but this is not a non-negotiable. Students can have the same username/password for four years or be integrated with Buzz, SIS, Scheduler, or Google. Students should be able to upload content (documents, images, video, etc.) into the portfolio. Students should be able to create and write content within the tool. Writing reflections will be a large aspect of this tool. Students should be able to complete self-assessment within the tool Students should be able to give peer evaluations on artifacts in the portfolios. Students should be able to share their portfolios with a variety of audiences (parents, employers, college admissions, etc.).Teachers would like to be able assess student work within the tool. Teachers would like to be able to comment on student work. Teachers would like to be able to upload rubrics for evaluation, if possible. Teachers should be able to see all student portfolio regardless of which students are assigned a group.Extras that would be really nice to have are: templates for students to customize the look and feel of their portfolio; upcoming deadlines for portfolio tasks, if the tool allows for assignments; links embeddable into a website and/or LinkedIn so students can easily share their work.
Students should have a lot of control within the tool. They should be able to comment on their own work and that of other students.
Teachers will assess, comment, and view student work. They would also like to be able to assign work within the tool if possible and set deadlines.
Students must be able to upload content (documents, images, video, etc.) into the portfolio. Students must be able to create and write content within the tool, as writing reflections will be a large aspect of this tool. Students must be able to complete self-assessment within the tool. Students must be able to give peer evaluations on artifacts in the portfolios. Students must be able to share/publish their portfolios with a variety of audiences (parents, employers, college admissions etc.). Teachers must be able to assess student work within the tool. The school provides Chromebooks. The tool should provide student progress data. The tool must Integrate with Buzz and ideally, Google.