| State: Pennsylvania | Number of Students: 1,873 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 18.2% |
| Grade Level: K-12 | English Language Learners: 0.4% |
School Context
Achievement First: All four Quaker Valley schools are designated National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, but thedistrict is still hungry to improve.
21st Century Skills: QVSD aims to give students access to state of the art technology in order to succeed in the globalcommunity.
High Quality Instruction: The district believes that strong leadership and support for teachers enables strong instruction.
Supporting Students: The district aims to create a thriving community of learners and thinkers in a safe and illustriouslearning environment.
State of Technology
Laptop Livin’: Every high school student is issued a Dell laptop as afreshman for use at school and home for their four years at QVHS. Middleschool students are assigned Chromebooks for use while at school.Elementary students have access to Apple MacBook Air laptops. Computercarts equipped with laptops are available to elementary teachers sothat each child has access to a laptop during a class period if needed tosupport the lesson or curriculum unit.
A Bright IDEA: In 2014 grants from the Benedum and Grable Foundationsallowed QVSD to renovate an outdated computer lab at OsborneElementary and create an I.D.E.A. (Innovation, Design, Engineering andArts) Exchange Lab. The lab uses Apple MacBook Air laptops with thelatest industry-standard applications for desktop publishing, drawing,painting, photo editing, podcasting, digital movie creation, programmingand robotics. The curriculum focuses on computational thinking, thedesign process and coding skills in grades K-2. Curriculum in grades 3-5include more
Kindergarten Coding: At Quaker Valley School District, coding standardsstart in kindergarten. Kindergarten students learn the basics of hardware,word processing, browsers and digital design. The standards are uniquefor each grade and build on these foundational computing skills. By fifthgrade, students’ skills include navigating and sorting databases as well ascollaborative skills like creating content through wikis.
Robotics 101: Starting in 2015, Quaker Valley High School is now offering a pilotrobotics class, where students work in two-person teams to build models fromthe VEX Cortex curriculum, and program them using the ROBOTC language.
Initiatives
Quaker Valley Middle School received $116M from the Grable Foundation to reimagine its library. The school plans to createa TIME (technology, innovation, media and entertainment) center, complete with a green screen for video recording forprojects, a booth to record podcasts, a 3D printer and a “maker space.