141 Davis Street, Greenfield, MA 01301, 413.772.1300 (voice), 413.774.7940 (fax)

Technology Plan
2007-2010
Greenfield Public Schools

page 4

II. Strategies:

"The plan must have a professional development strategy to ensure that staff know how to use these new technologies to improve education…"
(USAC, http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/technology-planning)

II.A. Strategies: Context for Action

At GPS, technology is a key resource for teachers and a critical tool for students. This resource:

• Figures prominently at all levels of curriculum and instruction, helping with:

• Content delivery, e.g., Virtual High School at the high school

• Math instruction, e.g., Scott Foresman SuccessNet, Math Facts in a Flash math drills, Web-based MCAS reviews, graphing calculators

• Process writing

• Internet-based research

• Authentic science experiments

• Remediation for students not meeting grade level expectations

• ELL (English Language Learner) second language acquisition instruction

• Student Services support, both in terms of drafting student IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and differentiating instruction for students needing special accommodations.

• Facilitates prescriptive instruction by helping us manage, organize and analyze student performance data in keeping with the District mandate of data-driven instruction at every level. Technology tools monitor the implementation of curriculum, identify student strengths and weaknesses, and help teachers pinpoint areas that need additional instruction or review. For example, we use:

• TestWiz to analyze aggregate and sub-group MCAS scores

• Microsoft Excel to compare student performance on multiple assessments

• RISO to analyze student performance on math tests.

• Serves as a communication tool. The District Web site (http://www.gpsk12.org) helps us get the word out about local events and initiatives. We regularly post reminders, updates, and general information regarding school menus, MCAS schedules, professional development trainings, District policies, School Committee happenings, Staff contact information and newspaper articles celebrating student and District achievements. Our Web portal to the PowerSchool Student Information database provides parents and teachers with easy access to student information.

• Assists with the business of District administration. For example, we use District technology each day to keep personnel records, financial records, billing information, SPED records, our Student Information System, grades, school library holdings, food services information, Teacher Professional Development Points, Paraprofessional Training Points, and so much more.

II.B. Strategies: Action Plan

To ensure the successful integration of technology tools for teaching, learning, assessment, and data management, each school has a local technology team consisting of representatives from a variety of stakeholder groups, including teachers, administrators, parents/guardians, members of the wider community, PTO personnel, the library media teacher and members of the business community. In addition, the Technology Coordinator and school technology teachers meet 3-4 times each year to discuss local and District technology needs. The Technology Coordinator also meets weekly with the District Network Administrator, Network Technician and Student Information Services Coordinator to discuss technology issues and needs. Finally, the District Technology Coordinator has both the ear and support of the District Executive Leadership team at weekly E-Team (Executive-Team) meetings.

To underscore technology initiatives in District, we also have identified a Professional Development Action Plan in Goal 5 of our District Improvement Plan, complete with Key Actions, Performance Indicators, Person(s) Responsible and Timeline for completion. This Professional Development Plan aligns with our objective to: Offer professional development training for faculty and staff in technology use, and applications to support teaching, learning, assessment, technology integration, and parent communication. Please refer to: Section I.B. Goals: Action Plan (Technology Objective 2) above for more information.

We anticipate that by the end of the school year 2009-2010, at least 85% of all District staff will have participated in several forms of District-sponsored high-quality technology professional development training covering technology skills and the integration of technology in classroom instruction.

The District Technology Coordinator offers small group and one-one-one training throughout the District in various applications including TestWiz, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Inspiration, Smart Board tools, RISO assessment, Web Page Building, MathFacts in a Flash, Web-based email, the new online math curriculum for Elementary and Middle School teachers, and resource rich educational Web sites, such as Marco Polo Internet Content for the Classroom. In addition, the District SIS Coordinator offers training in PowerSchool, PowerGrade (District Grading System) and PowerSchool Teacher (tools for teachers), and PowerSchool Parent (Web access for parents who want up-to-date information concerning student grades, assignments, Daily Bulletins, daily attendance and more). These hands-on trainings are sustained, ongoing and delivered through workshops, informational presentations, coaching sessions, best practices modeling, one-on-one mentoring, and study groups. The District-wide technology professional development approach incorporates concepts of universal design and methods reinforced by findings obtained from scientifically-based research.

The professional development training that we implement in District (see Section II. Strategies above) is determined, in part, by perceived needs at each school and also by District needs identified by the District Director of Curriculum and Instruction. In addition the training we implement comes about from teacher responses to the Massachusetts Technology Self-Assessment Tool (http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/standards/sa_tool.html) Survey. To date, we have not surveyed teachers on a consistent basis. Plans are in the works to administer the TSAT survey to all teachers and staff at least once a year starting in Fall 2007.

Beginning in spring 2007 and continuing annually thereafter in both the fall and the late spring, District teachers and administrators will also be asked to complete the NEW Technology Use Survey, available online through the Massachusetts DOE MassONE Web site. This brief survey is designed to assist schools and Districts in the collection of data for their technology plan implementation reports and for grant writing. It will also help assess levels of technology competency and identify areas needing additional training.

Best Practice Illustrations of Technology Integration in District Schools

When District schools were asked to give examples of successful technology integration, they responded as follows:

Federal

• Classroom Web pages
• Teachers followed up the Smart Board technology trainings by integrating the technology in their respective classrooms and using the boards with students
• Using digital cameras to celebrate learning

Four Corners

• Participation in Webcasts to support the curriculum
• Smarter Kids Foundation Grant for Smart Board integration
• Student PowerPoint projects
• iMovies
• PTO grants

Green River

• WMECO grant for Urban Geometry: What Shape is Your Town In? (Classroom Teacher: Donna Cycz)
• Michael Jordan Physical Fitness Dance Revolution: Can you feel the Beat? (Classroom Teacher: Donna Cycz) Students used pedometers and computer software to monitor and chart data on physical health

High School

• American Studies end-of-year projects use PowerPoint in the authentic assessment section of final projects.
• Science Fair entries use technology for presentations.
• Library received a $5,000 grant, which will be used in part during Black History month to help with PowerPoint presentations by the English department.
• The health class completed Project Ignition after receiving a grant. Students used technology to do their mock car crashes and video.
• In the GHS CAD class students draw up plans for a variety of projects, e.g., the scoreboard donated by the alumni association.
• Foreign language uses the computer labs to converse with penpals in other schools.
• GHS students go into the local community and use digital cameras and other equipment to gather information for news stories. They use school technology to present their stories. They also work with GCTV (the local community TV station) to do presentations.
• The Weather, Climate and Meteorology class uses technology for teaching and student work.
• The Journalism class uses the Internet and other installed software applications to produce the school newspaper.
• The GHS Student Yearbook is all online and is a class offered to our students.
• Greenfield High School’s Web Site is developed and maintained by students enrolled in the high school Web design class.
• CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), a new class offered by the GHS Science Department, is technology-based.

Middle School

• GMS TV Studio
• Students work with PowerPoint to learn basic animation techniques.
• Digital video projects
• Students access the PearsonNet math Web site for online tutorials, instruction, and practice.
• Teachers use the RISO bubble sheet technology to grade and assess student performance on math tests

Newton School

• Online research and planning using Scott Foresman ELA technology supports
• Increased data analysis by staff using TestWiz and Microsoft Excel

Poet Seat

• Staff brings in their personal digital cameras, and in the spring, staff and students put together a Poet Seat Yearbook.
• Monthly newsletter
• School Web site

III. Needs:

"The plan must include an assessment of the telecommunication services, hardware, software, and other services that will be needed to improve education…"
(USAC,http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/technology-planning)

III.A. Needs: Context for Action

Based on our District computer inventory (See Appendix C: District Computer Inventory by School) and the computer specifications enumerated by the Massachusetts DOE for years 2004 to 2007, GPS has a mix of Type A, B, and C computers. It's clear from problems experienced while trying to run particular programs in District that Type B and C computers are problematic.

Type B computers have between 126 to 256 MB RAM and either Pentium 3 (PC) or G3 (Macintosh) processors. Type C computers have less than 128 MB of RAM and Pentium 2 or Power PC 604e or lower processors. These computers are too RAM-poor and processor-challenged to meet the multimedia and streaming media needs of the bulk of our instructional content.

For example, both Type B and Type C computers will not run ESRI's ArcGIS in one of the high school computer labs. This processor-intensive and memory-demanding Geographic Information System application allows users to view and query maps created with other Arc products and perform map-based spatial analysis. Two of three computer labs at the Middle School lack adequate hardware to run Google Earth and PearsonNet's Web-based math instruction tutorials. They also have problems running Web-based Adobe Flash-enriched educational games.

The computers in one of our elementary school labs would benefit from additional RAM (20 workstations @ $100 per system to increase installed RAM from 256MB to 640MB) and a new server (estimated @ $4500). Adding more RAM would allow students to run more than one application at a time (e.g., both a Web-browser and a word processor). Finally, the PC servers at each of our elementary schools and Poet Seat would benefit from hard drive replacements to improve system performance. Each server requires two mirrored drives, estimated at $200 per drive for a total cost of $2400 for all six facilities.

III.B. Needs: Action Plan

Reality "bytes" in unexpected ways when districts confront the real cost of technology. There is more to successful integration than just the price of computer hardware, software and networking equipment. The computers must also run the applications that support classroom curriculum.

Technology budgets should include costs for annual licensing fees, maintenance agreements, and teacher/staff training. Plus there are expenses associated with installation and setup, Internet content filtering, anti-virus signature updates, and replacement parts.

Our goal is to replace our Type C and B computers and grow our technology resources as soon as funds permit! The technology committees at several of our schools have indicated interest in adding new computers, wireless access points, Smart Boards, scanners, digital cameras, and LCD projectors to their technology inventory. But it's not easy purchasing new equipment when shrinking budgets limit what we can spend.

To plan realistically for educational technology integration, we will begin using a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) business model. This model factors in direct costs (such as purchase price, management, support, and training), hidden costs (such as those incurred by usage, installation and setup, licensing, personnel, and professional development training), and indirect costs (such as the time our District Technology Coordinator and network technicians spend dealing with as the frustrations users experience when they must work with slow, under-powered, RAM-challenged computers).

We are also seeking funds to replace aging hardware through an Annual Capital Budget for Technology. We have proposed two options for this Capital Budget:

Plan A: Calculates hardware costs on a 25% total replacement each year (even though warranties on our systems expire after 3 years).

Plan B. Calculates hardware costs on a 33% total replacement each year (since warranties on our computer systems expire after 3 years).

IV. Resources (Budget):

"The plan must provide a sufficient budget to acquire and support the non-discounted elements of the plan: the hardware, software, professional development and other services that will be needed to implement the strategy."
(USAC,http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/technology-planning).

IV.A. Resources (Budget): Context for Action

GPS has a an operational budget for its Technology Plan with line items for staffing, hardware, software, professional development, maintenance and support, and contracted services. The District will continue to support these line items every year. In 2006-07, the Town funded a level services Technology budget, leaving us little room for growth. We anticipate a similar budget for 2007-08, but if funds permit we would like to purchase one laptop, LCD projector and Smart Board interactive whiteboard for each school in the district.

IV.A.I. District Technology Budget*

*This chart represents a non-labor cost accounting. Total annual District Technology expenditures also include the cost of a full time District Technology Coordinator, a full time Network Administrator and a full time Network technician.

IV.A.II. Technology Coordinator's Budget

GPS leverages the use of federal, state, and private resources wherever possible. In addition to obtaining some support from grant funding, it makes every effort to secure E-RATE discounted services. Moreover, it takes advantage of Massachusetts Comm-PASS (Commonwealth Procurement Access and Solicitation Site), the Web-based state procurement system for bids involving goods and services valued over $50,000 (http://www.comm-pass.com/).

The GPS budget for technology line items has increased over the years with the hiring of a District Technology Coordinator in July 2005 to "develop and maintain a program of computer education that uses to the best advantage the computer capabilities of the district toward achieving educational excellence" and the reinstatement of Technology teachers in the elementary and middle schools who are responsible for implementing an instructional technology curriculum aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.

Additionally, we point with pride to the numerous successes we've had integrating technology solutions for teaching, learning, data management and information sharing. These include:

1. Improving District network stability and data integrity. We replaced several firewall appliances, added new switches and servers, improved backup facilities, and brought our student information management system in-house for added security.

2. Providing students, teachers, and administrators with hardware and software solutions to support academic programs and initiatives, e.g., a RISO management system to support both the formative and summative assessment needed to differentiate instruction and increase student achievement.

3. Adding RAM in several older workstations to improve performance and enable users to work more efficiently.

4. Installing a lab of 25 new computers at the Middle School, plus adding 5 computers to Newton computer lab and 12 handheld graphic calculators to the High School;

5. Adopting instructional programs with strong Web-based resources to supplement and extend classroom instruction in our elementary and middle schools.

6. Promoting faculty and staff tech professional development to support teaching, learning, assessment, and technology integration. Trainings, which took the form of presentations, hand-on workshops, small group instruction and Webinars, focused on SMART Boards, Excel, email, MathFacts in a Flash, TestWiz, Inspiration, RISO, Web page design, and data-driven assessment.

7. Maintaining up-to-date District (http://www.gpsk12.org) and school Web sites with information for students, teachers, staff, administrators and parents.

• Academy for Early Learning at North Parish (http://www.gpsk12.org/earlylearning/academy4earlylearning.html)
• Federal Street (http://pages.mhlearningnetwork.com/kmarchbanks/)
• Four Corners (http://pages.mhlearningnetwork.com/deballard/)
• Green River (http://pages.mhlearningnetwork.com/greenriver/index.html)
• Greenfield Middle School (http://pages.mhlearningnetwork.com/gmsweb/index.html)
• Greenfield High School (http://www.greenfieldhighschool.org/ghs/)
• Newton School (http://www.newtonschool.homestead.com/)
• Poet Seat (http://pages.mhlearningnetwork.com/eblumgarten/index.html)

8. Growing a District culture wrapped around using technology for formative assessment to improve student achievement. We have been busy cleansing District data sets for uploading to the State Data Warehouse slated to go live in early 2007.

9. Closely monitoring emerging technologies (such as podcasting, blogs, wikis and even social networking) to take timely advantage of new opportunities and resources for the benefit of students, teachers and staff.

10. Facilitating video-conferencing at the high school and television cable delivery systems at both the high school and middle school;

11. Taking advantage of both free and Open Source software to supplement our existing application inventory and provide teachers and students with more tools to use for teaching and learning (See Appendix D: Software Inventories). In addition to the District-wide installation of several applications free for download (including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, Aladdin Expander, and Apple QuickTime) we have also installed:

• Gimp, a freely distributed Open Source image manipulation program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring;
• Google Earth a free geography software package from Google, combining Google Search tools with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings
• Moodle, a Web-based Open Source classroom management system for online/distance learning; and
• Picasa, Google's free software to locate and manage computer photos, modify and add special effects to digital photos, and share photos with others via email, Web, and print
• TestWiz from dataMetrics, licensed by the Massachusetts DOE and freely available to all public and charter schools in Massachusetts for MCAS test data analysis.

IV.B. Resources (Budget): Action Plan

Regrettably, limited District funding for technology makes it difficult for us to meet the constantly increasing demands of technology-enriched teaching and learning. As a result, we are seeking approval for a capital Budget for Technology to supplement annual line item expenditures. If this capital budget is approved, we will have more resources available to replace aging equipment, install memory upgrades and support technology-related line items in the budget. Furthermore, by establishing a plan for a regular and consistent technology replacement cycle of four years or less based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model, we hope to begin replacing outmoded equipment on a steady basis.

Materials and Services Procured through the E-RATE Discount Program

With the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted an Order in May 1997 creating the E-RATE program to ensure that eligible schools and libraries have affordable access to Telecommunication Services (local and long-distance calls), Internet Access, and Internal Connections (networking infra-structure and equipment). Under the program, schools receive discounts ranging from 20% to 90%. Based on calculations that take into account rural/urban status, total number of students at the school, and the total number of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program, the discount rate for Greenfield Public Schools is roughly 75%. That means that GPS is required to pay only $0.25 for every dollar invoiced for Internet and telephone service.

Compliance with Chapter 30B of the MA General Laws

In general, Chapter 30B (http://www.mass.gov/ig/igch30b.htm) applies to contracts for supplies and services, surplus supply disposition, and the acquisition and disposition of real property. For supplies and services, with certain exceptions, Chapter 30B provides for:

• Use of good business practices for contracts under $5,000.
• Solicitation of three quotes for contracts in the amount of less than $25,000.
• Competitive sealed bids or proposals for contracts in the amount of $25,000 or more.

Chapter 30B prescribes procedures for the disposition of surplus supplies with a value of $5,000 or more, and for the acquisition and disposition of an interest in real property with a value of $25,000 or more. Greenfield Public Schools is aware of Chapter 30B procedures and also of the role OSD (Operational Services Division) plays in overseeing the purchase of IT (Information Technology) Equipment, Supplies and Services for Hardware and Network Integration Services, Software and Telecommunications equipment (http://www.mass.gov/portal/index.jsp?pageID=agccandagid=osdandagca=aboutandagcc=ao_whatwedo). We have also complied with the requirement to acquire an FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Registration Number (FRN) required for any person or entity conducting business with the FCC or applying for E-RATE discounts. We understand that this number will be used as our unique identifier in all transactions with the FCC.

CIPA Compliance

CIPA, the Children's Internet Protection Act was signed into law on December 21, 2000.

"Under CIPA, no school or library may receive [E-RATE] discounts unless it certifies that it is enforcing a policy of Internet safety that includes the use of filtering or blocking technology. This Internet Safety Policy must protect against access, through computers with Internet access, to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or (in the case of use by minors) harmful to minors. The school or library must also certify that it is enforcing the operation of such filtering or blocking technology during any use of such computers by minors. The law is effective for Funding Year 2001 (07/01/2001 to 06/30/2002) and for all future years"
(http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/CIPA.asp).

Greenfield Public Schools has a CIPA-compliant Acceptable Use Policy regarding Internet Use. It subscribes to the WatchGuard WebBlocker: URL Filtering (http://www.watchguard.com/products/webblock.asp) service to manage Web surfing and block access to inappropriate sites. WatchGuard maintains and regularly updates its URL filtering database, automatically passing those updates through to firewall devices in place at every District school and the Central Administration building. GPS will continue to renew its WatchGuard WebBlocker: URL Filtering subscription each year to comply with CIPA regulations.

Funding for Non-Discounted Portions of Internet and Telecommunication Services

Thanks to the E-RATE discount program Greenfield Public Schools has received thousands of dollars in rebates and discounts over the last few years (with the exception of 2004-05 and 2005-06). We will continue to apply for E-RATE reimbursements and discounts for Telecommunication Services (local and long-distance telephone costs), Internet Access, Web hosting, and Internal Connections (networking infra-structure and related equipment) where applicable.

Our District Operational Budget, however, includes line items to pay for the non-discounted portion of our Internet and Telecommunications service. In addition, both District and School Operational Budgets will continue to include line items for technology staffing, hardware, software, professional development, maintenance, support and contracted services, while leveraging the use of federal, state, and private resources listed items to meet technology budget needs whenever possible.

V. Evaluation:

"The plan must include an evaluation process that enables the school or library to monitor progress toward the specified goals and make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities and they arise."
(USAC,http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/technology-planning).

V.A. Evaluation: Context for Action

Our District Technology Plan is a dynamic and flexible document that changes to meet the needs of students, teachers, staff and administrators. The District evaluates the effectiveness of its technology program on a regular basis to monitor progress toward attainment of educational goals and modify initiatives as needed. For example, we provide participants at each of our technology professional development trainings with an evaluation form to determine the relevance, usefulness and effectiveness of training for classroom instruction (See Appendix E. Sample Professional Development Evaluation Forms). The evaluation forms provide feedback for follow-up trainings.

The GPS Technology Coordinator and Director of Curriculum and Instruction meet regularly to review the progress the District has made in using technology to support teaching and learning and to plan next steps. We discuss what's working, determine what needs more attention, and consider new directions in response to changes in curriculum requirements, emerging technology, policy mandates (local, state, and national level), and financial circumstances.

In addition, the District Technology Coordinator consults principals, classroom teachers and staff to determine building-level hardware, software and professional development needs. These consultations are ongoing. They take place throughout the year at Executive Team meetings, school staff meetings, meetings with District Technology teachers, and school level technology committee meetings. When meeting with District Technology teachers, discussions revolve around the technology skills being taught at each grade level, the curriculum in place to meet state technology integration benchmark standards, and the assessments being implemented to determine if students are mastering technology skills being taught. Performance measures include student proficiency, completed technology rubrics for projects, performance on tests, quality of projects, and informal observations of student behavior.

Finally, in regular consultation with District network personnel, the Technology Coordinator keeps an updated inventory of school hardware and software, ensures that all maintenance and support contracts with technology vendors are renewed and/or updated and stays alert to changing infrastructure needs.

V.B. Evaluation: Action Plan

Section I.B. Technology Goals: Action Plan (above) specifies five broad District level technology objectives for 2007-2010. Each objective has associated Key Actions, Performance Indicators and Timelines for expected completion. Meeting the specified timelines for completion will be one way to monitor progress toward meeting the specified goals. If necessary, we are prepared to make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities.

The District Technology Coordinator will continue to gather technology-related information from a variety of local stakeholders including administrators, principals, technology teachers, classroom teachers, staff and school technology committees in order to monitor, evaluate, revise and improve District technology curriculum. The emphasis continues to be on integrating classroom technology in support of differentiated instruction to raise student achievement.

By June 30, 2010, we expect teachers will use technology everyday in at least one or more of the following areas:

• Lesson planning
• Administrative tasks
• Communications
• Collaboration
• Teaching students

We also expect that 85% of District teachers will require their students to use technology weekly for tasks such as:

• Writing
• Research
• Data interpretation
• Communications
• Collaboration

To ensure the success of these two outcomes, we are making every effort to have at least 85% of our District teachers:

• Participate in high-quality technology professional development covering technology skills and the integration of technology into instruction
• Attain the Proficiency level based on the competencies listed in the Massachusetts Technology Self-Assessment Tool

To monitor and assess this action plan, we will require teachers to complete both the Technology Self-Assessment Tool Survey (http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/standards/sa_tool.html) and the Technology Use Survey at least once a year. Survey responses will be reviewed and technology professional development training will be provided to those teachers who need help with skill development.

Page last updated: November 9, 2009

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