| State: California | Number of Students: 4,058 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 88.6% |
| Grade Level: PK-8 | English Language Learners: 64.6% |
School Context
Student Progress: Ravenswood City School District believes in the importance of continually assessing and monitoringstudent work in order to guide, tailor and improve instruction.
Collaborative Community: The district aims to foster collaborative relationships amongst students, staff, families andcommunity members.
Strong Relationships: Ravenswood is focused on building positive relationships centered around respect andinclusiveness amongst all members of the school community.
Safe and Positive School Environment: The district places a heavy emphasis on school and classroom culture, aiming tocreate learning environments that promote inquiry and exploration.
State of Technology
Infrastructure and Resources: Every school in RCSD has a computer labwith about 30 desktop PCs that students can access during the day orafter school. Most K-2 classrooms in RCSD have three to four computers,though many of them are over four years old. At the end of winter 2016,Chromebook carts were purchased by RCSD and the district now has a 1:1ratio of students-to-computers in grades three through eight with about70% Chromebooks and 30% Windows 7 laptops. The district is interested inexpanding to bring more devices into K-2 classrooms. Classroom computersat RCSD are typically used for curricular software, homework, research orproject-based learning for students.
Ravenswood Makerspace Collaborative: The district’s Director of Curriculumand Instruction, Robert Pronovost, launched a Makerspace initiative at LosRobles Dual Language Academy in January 2014, which was funded by theRavenswood Education Foundation. During the 2014-2015 school year thedistrict partnered with Facebook to grow the Ravenswood MakerspaceCollaborative (RMC) to seven makerspaces across the district.Early on, Facebook donated devices, furniture and equipment such as 3Dprinters and sewing machines. In 2015, Ravenswood received $100,000from Facebook and other donors through the Ravenswood EducationFoundation. Additionally, in December 2015 Google provided $400,000 tothe district with $300,000 to be used for staff and $100,000 for materials.As of spring 2016, there are makerspaces in six schools (Brentwood, RonaldMcNair Middle School, Cesar Chavez Elementary School and Belle HavenSchool), with the last makerspace set to open its doors in fall 2016. All ofthese spaces provide STEM opportunities including coding, engineering androbotics, and design thinking. As of the 2015-2016 school year, these spacesare open for classes to visit during the day and for individuals to visit duringlunch hours. The team is working towards integrating maker activities intothe classroom, as well as offering after school opportunities.
Partnership With Stanford: With the growth of the Ravenswood MakerspaceCollaborative, the district partnered with the Stanford University GraduateSchool of Education to track the impact of the project. Stanford’s FabLearn,a research collaborative focused on 21st century learning, will be studyingstudent growth over time at the middle school level and aims to followstudents through high school to explore the impact of the makerspaces andSTEM opportunities on academic achievement. Stanford is also workingwith RCSD to research professional development. The partnership is madepossible with funding from Google.
Techy Team: In 2013-14 the district assembled a group of 13 teacherson the cutting edge of technology integration. This group providesrecommendations to the district about which software to adopt, andthen the team members become a resource for teachers in their schools.Currently the Techy Team has 20 members and in 2015 the team transitionedfrom being run by Pronovost, Director of Curriculum and Instruction tobeing teacher-run. Some administrators like Pronovost participate, but theteachers now lead the team.
Tech Needs & Requirements
Prefer integration with Active Directory or Clever toeliminate CSV entry of data. Data must be exportable into Illuminate. Tool must be cloud-based or work on a Chromebook. The district needs a data and assessment tool that is more teacher friendly as far as seeing data and taking actionable steps to improveinstruction and devices for K-2.
Initiatives
One-to-One Initiative: Ravenswood has moved to a 1:1 device to student ratio in grades 3-8 and is looking to expand toK-2.
Expansion of Makerspaces: In fall 2016, Ravenswood will add a makerspace to their seventh school and has plans toexpand usage to after school hours.