| State: California | Number of Students: 42,462 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 63.8% |
| Grade Level: PK-Adult | English Language Learners: 16.8% |
School Context
Confident Readers: Students will be competent and confident readers by the third grade.
College Collaboration: Students will have career and college readiness opportunities offered in collaboration withneighboring colleges and universities including University of California, Riverside and California Baptist University.
Close Knit Community: The district strives to deliver frequent and high-quality communication with parents andcommunity members. To support this goal, RUSD has developed its own data dashboard that provides teachers,parents, and students with information on test results, attendance data, assignments and grades.
State of Technology
Devices Galore: In most Riverside schools, there is a 1:1 computer tostudent ratio with district devices supplemented by BYOD devices. Thedistrict has more than 25,000 devices of varying types. In 2011-12, thedistrict purchased 4,500 Hewlett-Packard netbooks, 4,500 Androiddevices, 3,000 iPod touches and 500 iPads. In 2014-15, the districtadded over 5,000 Chromebooks to its inventory.
Virtual Learning, A Reality: Since 2007, the district has hosted its ownvirtual school, which delivers over 4,500 courses of full college-prepcurriculum. The district makes these courses available to students inrural areas. Much of the content used by the Riverside Virtual Schoolincludes open source resources, notably including materials from theCK-12 Foundation, Curriki, iTunes U and Khan Academy.
Sharing is Caring: The district is very committed to promoting OpenEducation Resource (OER) initiatives. Through funding from the FCC, ithas helped support and lead California’s Free Digital Textbook Initiative.District high schools and middle schools have full access to digitaltextbooks. The content is roughly 40% OER and 60% purchased, usuallyat a discounted rate.
Make It Blended: Different models of blended learning exist acrossthe district, including a station rotation model, flex classrooms and ala carte options. The district is piloting personalized learning modelsin five schools, thanks to the Gates Next Gen Systems Initiative grant.Education Elements has also been enlisted to help the district refine itsdesign criteria for all schools. The district has also partnered with GooruLearning to create its own featured library on the platform.
Tech Needs & Requirements
Technology tools must be cloud-based and run on multiple platforms and be delivered onmultiple devices. Digital textbooks are negotiated for 30-50% less than paper-bound competitors. Core content must be standards-aligned.Vendors must fill out a vendor registration form beforethey can bid on projects.
The district is interested in finding devices that are both durable and flexible enough for students to learn anytime,anywhere.Riverside is looking for software that can provide rich learning opportunities, but also give teachers, parents or studentsrobust feedback. They are looking for tools that provide data for multiple stakeholders, such that a student or parentcan understand it. Personalized learning is also a big focus for this district. They are looking for devices, software, or platforms that helpfurther their efforts to get students to move at their own pace, on their own path, but still have high-quality content,and teaching and learning opportunities for teachers.