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The San Ramon Valley school board got a taste last week of the work teachers are doing to incorporate modern technology into their instructional repertoire.
“It’s not just learning how to use technology, but it’s the very specific task of figuring out how do we use this technology to deepen student learning, give them opportunities to collaborate, to work together and to publish their work for a larger audience,” teacher Nick Zefeldt told the board Tuesday night in Danville.
Zefeldt is one of three teachers on special assignment for instructional technology in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD), providing support to their colleagues district-wide on integrating technology into lesson plans.
The new team of teachers was brought together in part because of the increased emphasis on technology in California’s new Common Core State Standards, according to Toni Taylor, assistant superintendent for educational services.
“Running through all of the Common Core standards is a thread of students being able to acquire a set of technology skills that are really unprecedented,” she said to open the nearly 35-minute board presentation.
The trio — which also includes teachers Kristen Berg and Rae Anne Crandall — have worked with SRVUSD teachers across the technological spectrum, according to Zefeldt.
“There are some teachers in our district that can have their students program algorithms that can solve algebraic equations,” he said. “And simultaneously, there are really really great, hard-working teachers in our district that are just beginning their technology journeys.”
The instructional-technology team has led various professional development efforts such as one-on-one sessions, trainings before and after school, small group work, being available at school sites and meeting with principals to develop campus-specific technology visions, according to Crandall.
“One of our challenges is that we are so diverse and our teachers all have different needs,” Berg said. “Another challenge is just making sure that all the teachers that want to use the technology have access to it.”
Perhaps the primary focus of the team, according to Zefeldt, is to help all teachers feel safe and supported to integrate technology into their classrooms and to experiment with different technological strategies.
“I think it would be dangerous to expect everybody to kind of be at the same level at the same time,” Zefeldt said. “What we try to promote, what we try to foster, is everybody taking steps forward on their journey, from where they are in the moment. And I think that’s how we set ourselves up for success and keep teachers feel a passion about growing.”
The trio also highlighted several specific examples of new technology in the classroom, from elementary school teachers using a whiteboard app for instruction to another posting lessons and information on her YouTube channel.
“I love the thought that we are becoming a district where we walk into a classroom and ‘power on’ instead of ‘powering off,'” board president Denise Jennison said. “And I love that we’re taking teachers from where they are and helping them grow from that point, so that more and more of our teachers are going to feel comfortable telling kids, ‘Power up, we’re going to start working.'”
In other business
* The school board received an update on the new statewide “Smarter Balanced Assessment System” and the timeline for the tests arriving in local classrooms later this school year.
The new assessments will focus on critical thinking, analytical writing and problem solving as well as provide students, parents and teachers more accurate information on where students stand on the path to success in college and career readiness, according to Mao Vang, SRVUSD director of assessment, research and evaluation.
The tests will feature new achievement levels, terminology and scoring systems compared to previous state assessments, Vang told the board members during her approximately 45-minute presentation.
For English language arts and mathematics, students will have a computer adaptive test (CAT) and performance task.
The CATs will be an online assessment incorporating a computer program that adjusts the difficulty of the questions during the exam based on students’ responses, whether correct or incorrect, Vang said.
The performance task is “designed to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply their knowledge and higher-order thinking skills to explore and analyze a complex, real-world scenario,” she explained.
Students will have to take the new English and math assessments in third- through eighth-grades and 11th grade. There will also continue to be traditional written state tests for science in fifth, eighth and 10th grades for the time being, according to Vang.
The SRVUSD testing window this year, for the new computer assessments and performance tasks, will be March 10 to May 22 for elementary and middle schools, and April 21 to May 22 for high schools, Vang said. Specific dates will vary among school sites, and the plan is to complete 11th-grade testing days before AP exams begins, she added.
Results are expected to be reported within about four weeks, according to Vang.
Reaching out to parents about the new tests and scoring system will be key, according to Greg Marvel, school board vice president.
“The expectations that this new set of tests are going to provide — the expectation level, if you will — is much higher than what was expected in the past,” Marvel said Tuesday. “How are we developing a plan to make sure that the parent understands the results of what’s going to be coming up, because it’s radically different.”
Vang said district staff is working to implement a communication plan that involves outreach to parents, staff, principals and stakeholder groups as well as hosting community meetings.
* The board approved initial bargaining proposals for negotiations with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1021 for a successor contract to the existing bargaining agreement, which expires June 30.
Representatives of the union — which represents just over 200 maintenance, operations, transportation and other service workers in the district — asked that the whole contract remain open for negotiation this year.
School district negotiators wanted to focus bargaining talks on specific terms, including holiday overtime, health and welfare benefits, salaries and allowances, bus drivers and district guidelines for discipline.
Board members unanimously approved each side’s proposal.
* The board accepted the financial and performance audits for Measure D school facilities bond funds for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
* March will be Women’s History Month and Arts Education Month in the district after the board endorsed resolutions in favor of each recognition effort.
* Board members hired Zandra Texeira as interim special education program supervisor. Texeira previously served as a resource specialist at Dougherty Valley High School and also worked at Gale Ranch Middle School.
* The board voted to support three candidates to serve as regional representatives on this year’s California School Boards Association Delegate Assembly: Christine Deane (Contra Costa County Office of Education), Jean Follmer (Lafayette School District) and Madeline Kronenberg (West Contra Costa Unified School District).
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