How to lead a district-wide technology transformation on a limited budget

Key points:

Irvington Public Schools is an urban district with the hometown feel of a place where everyone knows everyone. Our student body is predominantly black, but we are quite diverse and have many cultures represented among our students. Approximately 20 percent of our students speak English as a second language.

I have been with the district for 20 years, although I did not become superintendent until April 2020. When I entered the office, I had a technology-focused vision for the future of our district, but the pandemic was beginning to force progress on that direction anyway, albeit without the careful consideration and planning we would have preferred. I gave our technology department marching orders to have every student and every teacher have a Chromebook and be trained on Google Suite within two weeks. It was immensely stressful for them, but they did it and we haven't looked back.

This is how we take our district into the future without exceeding our budget.

Starting a technological evolution

When I first became an administrator in the 2013-14 school year, I started a coding initiative. I believed the technology would be powerful for our students and I wanted everyone to have access to it, but only one student in the entire school signed up for the program.

Ten years later, thousands of students in our district are learning to code in elementary school using hands-on, engaging tools like Ozobots, Lego Pickaxeand VR Labs, and that's where their technological journeys begin.

We also have Chromebooks for each student and 3D printers and interactive whiteboards in our classrooms. We even purchased virtual reality headsets that allow our students to visit places they would otherwise never see, a powerful way to bring interdisciplinary learning to life for students. One thing I appreciate about headphones is that they really highlight the belief that technology doesn't have to exist in its own independent class, or even be the main point of any activity in which it is used. Sometimes it's just a way to get students excited, to immerse them in a different perspective or experience than they might otherwise have access to.

Our Chief technology Officer, John Amberg, does a great job staying on the cutting edge of technology and finding ways to share it with our students. Not only did he help launch our first STEAM academy, but he was also instrumental in organizing our first ai community summit and now we are preparing to open an ai academy.

Finding financing (and partners) for a technological renewal

To fund these exciting initiatives, we have been able to leverage state and federal funds, specifically ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds, and have secured several grants. We can (and will!) always expect more funding. Regardless, our goal is to ensure that our academics are exposed to what's happening in the world, whether it's new ai tools or Elon Musk's new project. To that end, we have a department called Government Programs that seeks and applies for grants, and we allocate a certain amount of each school's funds to technology.

We spend time and resources conducting research before making decisions, which has proven to be a good investment. Part of that research is watching what other districts are doing and reaching out to their leaders when I see something I admire. I'm part of several different superintendent groups, but I belong to a core group where we share everything we do so we don't have to reinvent the wheel. It can be difficult to build those relationships with neighboring districts because everyone wants to stand out and be the best district in the area, but nearby superintendents can be incredible partners. We have our STEAM academy right now because I had two phenomenal partners who allowed me to visit their districts to see how their technology and systems worked.

During any major technology adoption, it is important to partner with a provider that has a human touch and can be consistently trusted. They may be tech gurus, but if they don't understand your entry points and where you want to go from that point, or you can't communicate with them when things aren't going well, it doesn't matter how good your technical knowledge is. understanding is. We partner with Blue to provide a variety of technology including Ozobots, virtual reality headsets, 3D printers, interactive flat panels, Chromebooks and more. Everything works together to create a comfortable, easy-to-use experience for educators and students alike.

Use professional development to gain teacher buy-in

The transition was difficult for some educators because none of us want to look like we don't know what we're doing in front of a classroom of young scholars. Some teachers also felt that we were telling them how to teach. I stressed that the change was not about the technology, but about our students. We need to meet them at their entry points, and technology is a powerful entry point for today's youth. Another thing that has helped is reminding all of our teachers what a powerful and wonderful teaching moment it is when a teacher has the opportunity to show their students that everyone needs help sometimes and that everyone, even students, can be empowered. teach from time to time. at the time. That is a valuable lesson for our academics.

We provide our teachers with a lot of professional development on how to use all of these new tools to make their teaching more efficient, convenient, and engaging. I use the analogy of a dark room. No one has to tackle this alone. I'll take you by the hand and go in with you and make sure you have support there in the form of technology advisors, technicians, and other people who can give you one-on-one help. You may not be able to see everything around you and you may feel scared and vulnerable, but you have support to stay safe and find a light switch. Through this work, we have made new technology non-hazardous, which has been successful. We had teachers about to retire after 30 or 40 years in the classrooms who took a second breath in the midst of all these transformations.

It has also made a difference in the lives of our students. One of our students recently earned a perfect score on our state math assessment. We asked him how he did it and he told us that he was using the Chromebook and one of the programs we provided. I'm ready, to practice at home every night. She wouldn't have had that ability without our technology initiatives, but those tools and her own hard work allowed her to excel in an area she doesn't even consider the best.

As managers, we cannot be afraid of falling off a cliff. All that does is limit our scholars to what we already know and understand. We ask our students to be vulnerable and take risks every day. We can model that behavior by taking risks and learning to use new tools ourselves and trusting the partners and team members we have to hold our hand in the dark.