We don’t often hear about school districts truly reinventing themselves, but that’s exactly what happened at the Quakertown Community School District (QCSD) in Pennsylvania four years ago as the district embarked on a makeover that would lead to a one-to-one initiative, a cyberschool and more.
With schools across the U.S. scrambling to respond to dramatically increased bandwidth demands required by one-to-one and BYO programs – as well as the soon-to-be implemented online assessments for the Common Core State Standards – many are looking to the federal E-rate program for assistance.
Joplin Schools was already planning to overhaul its curriculum when the unthinkable happened: On May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado devastated the town, damaging or destroying half of the district’s 20 buildings, causing more than $100 million worth of damage, and leaving more than 4,000 students without a school to attend.
On April 9, the non-profit Achieve – working in conjunction with the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science – released the final Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new set of voluntary, rigorous, and internationally benchmarked standards for K-12 science education.
During the opening session of their annual conference, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released the results of its first annual CoSN K-12 IT Leadership Survey. The survey, sponsored by Education Networks of America (ENA) and conducted in partnership with MCH Strategic Data, polled district technology leaders nationwide to capture technology trends, challenges and priorities surrounding K-12 technology leadership.