The Oakland Unified
School District’s Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG), Urban Dreams,
has completed its third year of implementation.
Urban Dreams targets the academic and career needs of urban secondary
students in Oakland’s ethnically and linguistically diverse community while
concurrently building the district’s capacity to sustain project outcomes
through a more skilled, technologically proficient teaching force and an engaged
parent-community partnership.
Integral to successful
reform efforts, Urban Dreams provides:
1.
pedagogical and learning approaches to teaching and learning;
2.
an ongoing professional development program with recognized historians
and literary scholars as instructors and peer support models (i.e., professional
dialogue circles and peer coaching) for more reflective practice and
implementation of new skills and information; and
3.
technology resources and support to engage educators, parents and
community members as active participants in the instruction of public school
students.
Urban Dreams strives
to provide equitable access to technology that enables students, parents, and
community members to acquire or upgrade the skills necessary to succeed in
today’s world. The program is
designed to support the work of social studies and English teachers, grades
9-12, by providing access to professional development opportunities and
appropriate technology tools. The
professional development program focuses on the teaching and learning of human
and civil rights with a goal of developing students who are engaged and capable
readers and writers. Technology
tools are provided each Urban Dreams’ teacher including computers, printers,
video systems, software, and high speed Internet access.
Driving Urban
Dreams’ implementation and evaluation efforts are the following four major
goals that coincide with the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA)
indicators and project objectives:
Goal 1:
Student Achievement
Curriculum
embedded technologies native and transparent to teaching styles and content
delivery will result in significant gains in language arts and social studies
achievement for Oakland Unified School District high school students.
GPRA
Indicator 3.3
-- Classroom impact: The percentage of projects that demonstrate positive
impacts on curriculum and student achievement will increase.
GPRA
Indicator 3.1
-- Classroom use: Students will increasingly use educational technology for
learning in core academic subjects.
Objective
1.1 Language Arts and Social Studies: By June of 2002, Oakland high school
graduates who have participated in the technology integration program for three
years will demonstrate statistically significant (p<.05) pre and posttest
gains in district, state and national performance standards in social studies
and language arts as prescribed by NESIC and the California Frameworks
Committees, and/or as measured in district and state assessments, including but
not limited to the state-prescribed standardized assessment (Stanford
Achievement Test 9 and California Achievement Test 6).
Objective
1.2 Technology Systems: By June 2002, Oakland high school
graduates who have participated in the technology innovation program for three
years will demonstrate literacy and proficiency in the use of technological
systems, operations, communications, research resources, problem-solving and
decision-making tools as measured by pre- and post- program Likert-style
questionnaires, projects produced, and a limited number of interviews and
demonstrations.
Goal 2:
Professional Development
Curriculum is infused
with innovative teaching practices that develop historical thinking skills,
expository writing skills, project based learning techniques, and technology
skills in the context of content.
GPRA Indicator 2.1
-- Staff training and support: Increasing percentages of teachers will indicate
that they feel very well prepared to integrate educational technology into
classroom instruction.
GPRA Indicator 2.3
-- Professional development models: An increasing percentage of TICG projects
will develop models of professional development that result in improved
instructional practice.
Objective 2.1
Curriculum Development: By June 2001 and annually thereafter, Oakland teachers who have
participated in the technology integration professional development program for
at least two years will produce interdisciplinary, multicultural curricula
reflecting the themes of human and civil rights.
Objective 2.2 Staff
Development II: By June 2002, 100% of social studies, language arts teachers and other
staff members, as appropriate, working in project high schools will have
completed year I staff education activities delineated in the technology
integration professional development program.
Objective 2.3 Staff
Development I: By June 2001 and annually thereafter, each cohort of Oakland teachers
who have participated in the technology integration professional development
program for at least two years will demonstrate augmented content knowledge in
the disciplines of social sciences and literature, technology uses in the
classroom, and constructivist pedagogy as assessed through pre-, post- and
ongoing professional development surveys, and through participant-developed
curriculum units, thematic lessons and demonstration lessons.
Goal
3: Parent and Community Involvement
Home-school
connections will be strengthened through the use of technology, as parents are
empowered to become leaders within their community and are provided the
educational and technology support skills necessary to help their children
succeed in school.
Objective 3 .1 Parent
Involvement: By June 2001, 75% of program participants' parents and/or guardians will
participate in at least one parent activity appropriate to their parenting
situation.
Objective
3.2 Community Engagement: By June 2002, members from
collaborating institutes for higher education (IHEs) and identified community
partners in business and/or social service agencies will participate in at least
one school-community activity appropriate to improvement of instructional
service delivery to students.
Goal
4: Technology Access
Classroom access to
hardware, software and other technology tools to support district, state and
national standards will increase.
GPRA
Indicator 1.1
-- Computer access in high-poverty schools: The student-to-computer ratio in
high-poverty schools will be comparable to that in other schools.
Objective
4.1 Equal Access to Technological Instructional Tools: By June
2004, every high school student in Oakland Unified School District will have
consistent access to computer technology as instructional and learning tools in
their social studies and language arts classes and classrooms.
© Copyright 2002 Center for Evaluation and
Research, LL
