| State: Missouri | Number of Students: 6,474 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 84.4% |
| Grade Level: PK-12 | English Language Learners: 90.9% |
School Context
Accreditation & Data: As of March 2015, Ritenour received a passing score from the state of Missouri and would like tokeep it that way. Specifically, the district has made its largest gains in attendance and graduation rates.
Student Growth: The plan is to focus on data and intervention strategies and to leverage educational technology.Specifically, the district is keeping watch on its sub-populations (i.e. IEPs) and the core disciplines of math and Englishlanguage arts (a.k.a. “Communication Arts”). The district aims to support their motto, “Every student, every day,” by ensuringthat teachers look at data on every student, every day so that they can implement interventions responsively.
Raising the Bar: Ritenour is focused on improving teacher instruction and recruitment across the district. The currentapproach involves instructional coaching on best practices and many trainings, workshops and conferences. In addition,the district is continuing its 2-year mentoring program for new teachers and revising its recruiting, interviewing and hiringprocesses.
Parents as Partners: Ritenour is invested in supporting its parental community through online and offline resources.Parents can log into the Edline website to see how their children are doing and to see what’s going on in the district. Inaddition, district resources are provided in multiple languages and adult education classes are offered regularly (e.g., Englishlanguage, career-skills).
State of Technology
Standards-based: In June 2014, Ritenour adopted the National EducationTechnology Standards for Students (NETS-S). These will serve as the baseline forall instructional technology initiatives and trainings in the district. In addition,LoTi (Levels of Technology Integration) is used as the measuring stick forteachers adopting educational technology in classrooms. The district’s goal wasto have a majority of the teachers using technology resources to push studentsin their higher order thinking (LoTi level 3 or higher) by 2013-2014.
Tech Teams: Teacher committees have been formed to help the district figureout how to help teachers design and implement technology-rich curriculum intheir classrooms. In addition, student committees have been formed to help thedistrict integrate social networking into classrooms and schools.
SIS Success: Starting in June 2015, the district successfully migrated to theTyler SIS system and data warehouse for the start of the 2015-16 school year.The state of Missouri has adopted Tyler SIS, so this switch will allow Ritenour tostreamline state reporting.
Project Lead the Way: Ritenour has partnered with Project Lead the Way, a nationalorganization dedicated to providing STEM-based programming for K-12 students. AtRitenour, more than 250 middle school students and 300 high school students areinvolved in the program. As an afterschool program, Project Lead the Way provideshands-on and problem-based exposure to engineering concepts. Partners fromlocal industries supplement the program through mentorship and job-shadowopportunities. Each year, students and teachers host an engineering week, wherestudents showcase their projects for engineering companies, colleges and universities.The program has been so successful that the district is planning on expanding to theelementary level.
Piloting New Horizons: This year, the district has piloted 1:1 student to deviceratios in several high school classes with the hopes of going 1:1 in grades 9-12during the 2016-17 school year. Concurrently, the district is working to expand andstrengthen the WiFi to accommodate a higher concentration of student devices.
Full STEAM Ahead: An art teacher at Buder Elementary school received $67,993from the Innovative Technology Education Fund in the fall of 2013 to develop anintegrated STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) curriculum at theschool. As the program is being phased in, students are using iPads, MacBooks, LegoRobotics and Story Starters to complete integrated projects and demonstrate theircreativity and critical thinking skills.
Tech Needs & Requirements
Cloud-based applications are preferred. Ability to operate on multiple operating systems ispreferred. Management software for Wifi network management. Improve WAN Wifi. Provision tools for assessments. Replace legacy tools with cloud-based tools. More chromebooks for middle schools.