Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is a district in central North Carolina that serves approximately 50,000 students in 81 schools. A year ago, several leadership changes occurred that have had large impacts on the educational community in the wake. Chief among the changes was the appointment of Dr. Beverly Emory as the new Superintendent and, in terms of technology, Kevin Sherrill as Executive Director of Technology. Prior to the transitions, there was little cohesion in terms a singular aspiration for the district and each individual school focused on the immeasurable goal of “21st century students.” In July 2014, Dr. Emory revealed three measurable learning targets that all Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School employees could work towards:
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A challenge within the department, in general, is being able to definitively measure technology’s impact on instruction beyond the perceived qualitative responses of “it’s more fun and engaging” or “it increases productivity.” As such, the instructional technology department seeks to be able to establish and assert its necessity through data though there is no set model in place to do …show more content…
Emory’s directives. By crafting a simple and adaptable commitment such as “this group will align with the district’s literacy initiatives and personnel in order to reach literacy rates of 90% at or above grade level for all third graders by 2020,” the team increases its focus onto first learning from the literacy experts and then using those best practices to create educational experiences that facilitate literacy skills. The department must transition from merely presenting reading games and other technology resources if there is no definitive connection to the district’s approaches or means for the teacher to extrapolate data that can inform future instruction. The general literacy focus is far reaching in that studies routinely suggest a connection between literacy skills and academic success across the curriculum. Even the much-maligned Common Core standards identify literacy skills as the responsibility of all teachers, not just the language arts
A challenge within the department, in general, is being able to definitively measure technology’s impact on instruction beyond the perceived qualitative responses of “it’s more fun and engaging” or “it increases productivity.” As such, the instructional technology department seeks to be able to establish and assert its necessity through data though there is no set model in place to do …show more content…
Emory’s directives. By crafting a simple and adaptable commitment such as “this group will align with the district’s literacy initiatives and personnel in order to reach literacy rates of 90% at or above grade level for all third graders by 2020,” the team increases its focus onto first learning from the literacy experts and then using those best practices to create educational experiences that facilitate literacy skills. The department must transition from merely presenting reading games and other technology resources if there is no definitive connection to the district’s approaches or means for the teacher to extrapolate data that can inform future instruction. The general literacy focus is far reaching in that studies routinely suggest a connection between literacy skills and academic success across the curriculum. Even the much-maligned Common Core standards identify literacy skills as the responsibility of all teachers, not just the language arts