The sign welcoming travelers to Iredell County, N.C., labels it as 鈥淐rossroads of the Future,鈥� but that might not be assertive enough for the people living there.
The county, home to Iredell-Statesville school district, prides itself on innovation and direct action in responding to the needs of children. The system sees itself as a model for the future, not just a pit stop.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no such thing as a school system standing still,鈥� said Superintendent Brady Johnson. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not innovating, you鈥檙e gonna go backwards, and kids will regress. That鈥檚 unacceptable to us.鈥�
Innovation often benefits from strong finances, but Iredell-Statesville doesn鈥檛 have that luxury. The district has in a state that ranks 47th in per-pupil funding rates in the country.
To make up for a lack of resources, the district has vigorously pursued grant funding from the Obama Administration. In December 2012, the district to pursue a personalized-learning initiative鈥攃omplete with a 1-to-1 program鈥攖hrough the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Race to the Top district program.
Across the country, schools and districts have waded into personalized learning and 1-to-1 programs with varying success. Iredell-Statesville set out to be a showcase not just for personalized learning but for how to bring together the members of a school community to implement policy changes effectively.
Slow and Steady
When the district announced it won $20 million in federal grant money, teachers wanted to know what kind of vision the money would help fulfill.
鈥淚 think they expected on Day 1 that they were going to get laptops and we were going to say 鈥楪o!鈥�,鈥� said Traci Fox, the blended-learning coordinator for the grant. Instead, the district created a new outline to explain what personalized learning would entail, and what would lie ahead for both educators and the community.
District personnel like to make it clear that the costliest and most conspicuous component of their personalized-learning plan鈥攖he 1-to-1 program鈥攊s not in fact the central component.
鈥淭his was not a technology project,鈥� said Patrick Abele, executive director for the grant initiative, known officially as Project IMPACT.
Not all of the Race to the Top-winning districts employ a specific director. But Iredell-Statesville hired Abele because the district was wary of making the kinds of mistakes that have plagued student-computer rollouts in other districts. Last fall, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District had to due to an array of management and logistical issues. The Miami-Dade district .
Iredell-Statesville also hired consultants from the firm Education Elements to flesh out what kind of personalized-learning plan would work best for its schools.
Part of Abele鈥檚 value to the district was his own experience with poor technology implementation; in 1997, when he was teaching in another North Carolina district, he was approached to help implement a grant-funded 1-to-1 effort.
鈥淢y professional development was, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 the start button, here鈥檚 where you turn it on,鈥欌�� he said. In his current position, he wants to establish deeper practices.
That same if-you-want-something-done-right mentality drove several teachers in Iredell-Statesville to apply for new blended-learning coordinator positions created as part of the district鈥檚 plan.
鈥淲hen I was teaching, I was always thinking, 鈥業 wish there was someone that can help me find these resources and go through them and make sure they鈥檙e good, because I don鈥檛 have time for that,鈥欌�� said Erin Walle, now a blended-learning coordinator at North Iredell Middle School.
Those coordinators, along with instructional coaches, form the backbone of the IMPACT initiative, charged with tailoring professional development for teachers the way teachers tailor instruction for their students. That means some teachers will focus on learning group management, for example, while others may be given extra training in using the district鈥檚 data system.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 jump the gun and make this about devices,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淲e made it about blended learning, and then purposefully tailoring professional development to get our teachers ready for that. That鈥檚 turned out to be a very, very wise decision.鈥�
That鈥檚 not empty bluster: North Carolina鈥檚 other RTT district, the Guilford school district, after a quick and rocky rollout in September 2013; Iredell hadn鈥檛 even received schoolboard approval to purchase its computers .
As for that decision, the district convened a focus group of teachers and students to make a final purchasing recommendation, since they鈥檇 be the ones actually using the devices every day. Each member had ample time with each device. When the process was completed, they reached a consensus on using the MacBook Air.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 say, 鈥極h here, by the way, is the device we picked for you,鈥欌�� said Melanie Taylor, associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction. 鈥淚 think they have felt like it was something that we were working through with them, and not something that was being done to them.鈥�
Professionally Personal
Meanwhile, in the year leading up to laptop distribution, the district poured on the professional development, training teachers how to integrate personalized learning into their instruction, with the expectation that the devices, once purchased, would fit snugly into the lesson plans teachers would already be using. Teachers received their computers a month and a half before students, along with a thorough grounding in digital ethics and Apple training.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you could just transition to blended learning with some technology, without all the rest of this being in place,鈥� Abele said. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think it would be successful.鈥�
Iredell-Statesville鈥檚 personalized learning plan uses a classroom-station model, under which different groups of students in a classroom work on different projects. (The technique involves the term 鈥渟tations,鈥� but students aren鈥檛 physically rotating.) While students eventually learn the same content, teachers can spend more time with students working on more complex tasks.
At North Iredell Middle School during a visit this spring, for example, social studies teacher Kathy Shoemaker wound her way through sets of students working on projects about the Middle Ages. One group had their laptops out, making timelines. Another group was offline, discussing the feudal system. Down the hall in Mark Wellman鈥檚 social studies class, some students read biographies of Abraham Lincoln on their computers, while others watched a video about him.
The jump from mere whole-class instruction to personalized learning is a by-product of the station model, educators in Iredell-Statesville say, because it encourages students to interact more often with the teacher.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l have the small group with you and you鈥檒l explain it and you鈥檒l go through everything and then the child that would never say, 鈥榃ell I don鈥檛 get it,鈥� will say 鈥楥an you help me?鈥� because they鈥檙e only talking to you in front of six other kids, not all 24,鈥� Walle said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to see different sides to the kids.鈥�
A Learning Curve
Even so, the transition has required some teachers to adopt a new mindset on their work in the classroom.
"[Personalized learning] wasn鈥檛 as hard as I thought it would be, but it was definitely a learning curve for me and for the kids, because you鈥檙e putting that responsibility into their hands more than you ever really have before and giving up that classroom control,鈥� said Joanna Jester, a 6th grade math teacher at East Iredell Middle School. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that 鈥業鈥檓 the boss and I鈥檓 the teacher and I鈥檓 gonna stand up in front of the room鈥� anymore. It鈥檚 more, 鈥業鈥檓 here to help you when you need it.鈥欌��
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 been an adjustment but I think it鈥檚 been an adjustment that has been pretty streamlined and it鈥檚 worked,鈥� Jester added. 鈥淚 can see a difference.鈥�
Teresa Renegar, a language arts teacher at North Iredell Middle, echoed those thoughts.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just opened up so many different avenues to teach differently, and to reach the different learning styles,鈥� she said.
Every school has a shortened class period specifically for exploration, or remediation for students who need extra help. Students who have fallen behind in a subject seek out help from their teachers, while the other students have time for clubs or studying something of their choosing.
Teachers also say that the new instructional model鈥攑articularly with the addition of computers鈥攈as increased engagement.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen their behavior struggles go down, their grades go up, the completion of assignments completely go up simply because they can email to me. They love to email their assignments to me,鈥� said Angie Charles, a language arts teacher at East Iredell Middle School.
The computer rollout is too new to have generated much data, but East Iredell Middle School Principal Jimmy Elliott estimates that school-discipline infractions have been cut in half. He attributes that effect in part to the sense of ownership that students feel over their laptops, even if they don鈥檛 technically own them.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 ever tell them that we would take [the laptops] away from them, but they don鈥檛 want any reasons for anybody to look for to take away those devices,鈥� he said.
Compounded Success
At the very least, the Iredell-Statesville district is proving itself to be savvy in pursuing and implementing new initiatives.
Since August 2010, Iredell-Statesville has won, in total, $25.8 million from the Obama Administration, including funds from the competitive-grant program and through the Office of Adolescent Health, to test a . Iredell-Statesville even gained entry to the Education Department鈥檚 , which features student art in the department鈥檚 headquarters.
Johnson estimates that the district has only missed out on one federal grant to which it has applied. Just one other district in the nation, Miami-Dade, seems to have achieved the same record of grant success at the federal level in recent years.
鈥淪uccess breeds success,鈥� Taylor, the associate superintendent, said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a very data-driven district, and we were prior to the grants, and that鈥檚 something that not all districts have in place, so they don鈥檛 have metrics and data to be able to share those successes.鈥�
No one is entirely certain what will happen when the grant runs out at the end of 2016. Abele, the project director, doesn鈥檛 seem sure he鈥檒l still have a job. The district is as attached to the computers as the students are, though, so something in the budget will likely have to give. Abele joked that educators will have to bring their own snacks to professional-development lessons.
Johnson vowed that, whatever the answer, Iredell-Statesville will keep moving forward.
鈥淭he best days of public education are ahead of us,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou haven鈥檛 seen our best work yet.鈥�
