State: Missouri | Number of Students: 5,806 |
School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 88.0% |
Grade Level: PK-12 | English Language Learners: 92.0% |
School Context
Student Achievement: The district’s goal is for all of its students to become proficient learners, responsible citizens andcollege-and-career ready. The district uses data teams, which collaboratively collect data and apply it to interventions.Pattonville is also planning to expand its use of proficiency-based learning and Response-to-Intervention (RTI) at its schools.
Careers: The district has designed and implemented career and technical education curriculum for middle and high schoolstudents.
School Improvement Teams: Pattonville has improvement teams at each school that consist of community members,parents, students, faculty and staff. The teams use research and evidence to create school improvement plans that arealigned to the district-wide improvement plan. The teams monitor progress throughout the year and the district reviewsthese plans annually.
Extra-Curriculars: The district continues to increase the number of programs that are offered to elementary and middleschool students before and after school. Pattonville believes that increasing the extracurricular activities will help studentsbetter connect to school, increase student achievement and open doors of opportunity for students in the future in highschool and beyond.
State of Technology
iLearn: In 2011, the district began to plant the seeds for its iLearn program, adigital learning initiative, which has become the foundation for its technologyimprovements. iLearn has four different components: a professionaldevelopment strategy for teachers, a robust learning management system,devices and a centralized technology support system. The goal of iLearn is touse technology in a way that allows students to learn anytime in any place.
Let’s Get Digital: In 2012, as part of the iLearn program, the district beganconducting professional development with its teachers to help them digitizetheir curriculum in two ways. First, teachers used a tool called Build Your OwnCurriculum where they uploaded, published and shared all their curriculum.Curriculum was transformed into virtual courses on Moodle so that studentscould access all their coursework online. As of last school year, more than31,000 online learning modules had been uploaded, and students loggedmore than 100 million hits to this content. This work helped earn the district aPinnacle Award from the Association of School Business Officials International.
Mac Pack: High school students are issued a Macbook Air that they areallowed to bring home to support learning anytime, anywhere. Last year, thedistrict rolled out 1:1 Macbook Airs in 8th grade. This year, laptops have beenprovided to 7th and 8th graders as well.
Student Support: The district has centralized its technology support at the highschool rather than sending out technology specialists to different classrooms. In doingthis, it has also offered students the ability to work in the technology support office,help with repairs or assistance, learn troubleshooting and customer service skills andgive them course credit for their work.
Pioneering Biomedical Programs: Through Project Lead the Way (PLTW), anational nonprofit providing STEM education programs in K-12 schools, PattonvilleHigh School has offered a biomedical science program for two years. The programcurrently includes two classes: Principles of Biomedical Science and Human BodySystems. The program will expand next year to include a class titled MedicalInterventions.
Pioneering Biomedical Programs: Pattonville High School was chosen as oneof 37 schools nationwide to pilot a new computer science course that will supportthe expansion of offerings for students interested in computer science both locallyand nationwide. Pattonville is piloting Computer Science Applications (CSA), the thirdcourse in the Project Lead the Way computer science program. PLTW is developinga four-year course sequence in computer science. As a foundational course inthe program, CSA teaches students how to integrate technologies across multipleplatforms and networks, including the Internet. Pattonville offers two courses in thePLTW computer science program: Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Tech Needs & Requirements
Technology tools must work on a Mac Operating System. Cloud-based products are not preferred. Needs are to expand 1:1 laptop initiative and learning software that centers around a teacher’s workflow, ties in student data, collects that data and ties it into the othersystems.
Initiatives
Encourage: Support teachers in uploading their courses on Moodle and focusing instruction around digital resources.
Evaluate: Begin evaluating iLearn initiatives, collect data and analyze it to determine its effectiveness and impact on thedistrict’s goals.