Daniel McIlhenney 7/22/12 Michigan High School: - Approximately 800 students - 55% White, non Arabic and non-Hispanic

- 35% African American - 10% Hispanic or Arabic - 35% of students are school of choice, which means they come from outside of the district, mostly Detroit - More than 60% of the students are considered At-risk. - School is located in a small, working class neighborhood that has experienced a high amount of foreclosures over the last few years. The area has historically depended on factory jobs which have disappeared in large numbers and left the area in a difficult economic state. - Has made AYP in every area for the last 3 consecutive school years - 84% graduation rate - Has received a B grade from the Michigan Department of Education for 3 consecutive years - All staff members are Highly Qualified and there are no teachers working on emergency certifications. - Greater than 50% of the staff has a Masters Degree Administrative Policy Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent The policies regarding appropriate technology use are clear and presented to every staff and student each year. Each year, students, staff, and parents are required to read the policies and sign a form agreeing to follow those standards. The policy is managed by the districts Tech Committee. The policy is reviewed and possibly revised yearly. The districts board of education must approve it as well. The same is done with the schools annual Tech Plan. The same group formulates it, reviews and revises annually, gets approval from the board, and then disseminates the results to the district via the school web site. Planning Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent The Tech Department works with the NCA/School Improvement Committee to make sure both plans are aligned. The Tech Department reviews and revises annually. The School Improvement Committee is a continuous process. That group meets regularly and reports back to the entire staff during monthly meetings. The annual Tech Plan is comprehensive in that

outlines the prior plan, includes multiple assessments relating to the success of the prior plan, and indicates the changes being made for the upcoming year. The Tech Plan always includes certain elements that are directly tied to the school and district goals for continuous improvement based off the prior NCA/QAR team visit. Budget Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Emergent is not really the right term, more like declining. The Tech budget has shrunk to near non-existent levels over the last two years due to a decrease in the per-pupil funding in the last state budget and a slowly declining student population. The goal at this point is to maintain what exists. The current budget is 5% of what it was last year. Instead of having a district staff of 5 people that solely handled tech issues, the district is down to two people. There is no longer a Tech Director. Administrative Information Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent Zangle is required for all attendance and grades. Groupwise is used to the majority of communication. Teachers are required to check email daily and enter attendance daily. All staff are trained in the use of these programs and competency is required. As a special education teacher, all aspects of the IEPs and case management is handled electronically through Zangle.

Curricular Filter Electronic Information Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated The means to access a wealth of electronic information is available. The school has access to multiple research libraries/databases. The Media Specialist has set-up a nice homepage in the Media Center that highlights many of the special tools/features/sites/software available to students for finding reliable information. Every classroom has computers with internet access and access to these resources. However, some teachers, despite the availability, do not take advantage of these resources. Some teachers prefer using the text, hand-outs, and lecture notes. Assessment Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent Class A was introduced 2 years ago and is slowly being adopted by more and more teachers. Class A is fully an assessment tool that allows teachers to easily create tests that align with state standards. Teachers can share and alter other teachers tests. These may be other

teachers in the building or other teachers across the State that have made their tests public. Class A is automatically connected to our Zangle gradebooks, so after scanning the tests, it automatically enters the grades. It gives a full analysis of the test, for example: % breakdowns for how many students got each question right, % breakdowns of proficiency at each standard, etc. Despite the mandatory training, some teachers still find it difficult and are not interested in using it. Other teachers love it and have become experts. It is not mandatory yet, but I believe that time will be coming soon. Curriculum Investigation Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent Some teachers have their set ways and are resistant to making many changes. While there is support provided to those teachers, there is no real consequence for a teacher not adopting the technology into the curriculum. However, there are many resources for the teachers that choose to integrate. There are databases for research (the English department requires they be used for research projects), Elmo document camera for math, overhead projectors in every room, CISCO networking classes, CAD program with computers and necessary software, and computers with special mutli-media software for the Graphic Design and Art classes. We also have Sharp Schools websites which are required to be made and updated by every teacher. Through those websites, teachers can create class forums, share media, set-up class blogs, etc. Teacher Use Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent There are daily tasks like checking email, recording attendance, and entering grades which are required daily. There are shared drives that teachers are required to add artifacts and data into on a regular basis. Every teacher has a computer with internet access, a printer, and an overhead LCD projector in their classroom. There is a teacher work area with access to multiple copying machines. The copying machines also work as scanners. Teachers can send documents to and from the copying machine and their class computer. Student Use Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent All students have a user id and password that allows them access to the network from any school computer. Aside from the various computer labs that teachers can up for, each class room has at least 2 student computers to access. The media center is available before school, during lunch, and after school for students to use. As for how often the technology is used, it varies from teacher to teacher.There are some classes where competency in using technology is necessary to meet course outcomes. On the other hand, there are classes where the teachers are not integrating technology beyond making an assignment to be typed, instead of handwritten. There is a lot of variance from teacher to teacher. Support Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

There are surveys sent to staff, students, and parents. However, when the actual meetings are held and policy is shaped, the administration and members of the Tech. Committiee are the only ones involved. The Tech Committee is chosen by administration and consists only of the media specialists and Technology teachers. Administrative Support Behavioral: Resource/Infrastructure: Administration is largely represented in planning. Administration schedules trainings of new software, hardware, etc. They follow-up to ensure staff attends the training. However, they are generally not consistent about following through with additional training or checking to see if staff are using the technology. Administration is generally helpful when staff have questions. Training Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated All staff members are required to attend PD tech training that the school provides. When the school adds something new, such as Class A or Sharp Schools, there is mandatory professional development. Generally, that involves small groups meeting in the labs for hands-on training with a member of our Tech Department, a consultant from the ISD or an employee of the manufacturer of the product. However, some teachers do not take the training serious and have no intentions of implementing anything new. There is often a lack of follow-up to the training. Technical Support and Infrastructure Support Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent Some teachers are not interested in making major changes to the way they teach. They are aware of, but do not utilize the support available to them. However, that is the minority. Most teachers welcome the support and put in honest attempts to integrate technology. There is a full time staff dedicated to responding to technical issues in the district (although due to reductions in the budget, the staff is spread thin and requests take awhile to be filled). The district also depends heavily on the technical support provided by the ISD. Connectivity LAN Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Even many of the most resistant staff members utilize the local area networks for streaming educational videos and managing classroom data. All staff members access the LAN daily for record keeping at the minimum. Staff use the network to access shared drive from anywhere and can then easily collaborate and share with other staff members while outside of the school. While the network is available in every classroom in the building, the Wi-Fi system is only set-up in certain areas. This can make the use of mobile devices a bit challenging. WAN Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent

The school network is available from any computer anywhere in the world. The network is high speed and offers the capacity to handle video and voice. It is helped maintained by the Cisco classes which gives students a hands-on education into the world of networking. Students in those courses receive credit from a local community colleges CISCO Networking Program and automatic acceptance into the program upon high school graduation. Internet Access Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent In general, the use of the internet is integrated into every class. Some classes use it much more than others. Generally, the older staff members are resistant or just struggle to find opportunities to use the internet. Younger staff often build much of their class around the use of the internet. Internet is available in every class. There are multiple labs with enough computers for every student in a class to use one. They have high speed internet access, access to streaming video content, etc.

Communication Systems Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated All teachers have email address which they are contractually required to check at least once every workday. Most teachers check much more frequently as email is the most commonly used form of communication amongst staff. All important instructions, news, dates, etc. are passed along through email. Students are not allowed to access their private emails on school computers. However, all staff has been trained on how to set students up with a Gaggle email address. My one complaint is that all students are not made to set-up a Gaggle account and given training on it. The teachers know the basics of setting it up, but it is capable of so much more. Some students are not very tech savy and struggle using Gaggle. Instead of putting the onus on the students to request an account or help, Id prefer the school take the lead role. Innovation New Technologies Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Staff want more technology and want to improve, but I often find that once given tools from the district, they either dont know what to do with them or find it too much work to integrate them. Some of the problem is that the teachers want more technology, but arent involved enough when picking out the technology. Then, they are given something they did not ask for and do not know what to do with it. The opposite was when of the math department requested ELMO document cameras. They received them and use them nearly daily. They had a need and found the tech to fill the need, instead of getting some tech and trying to find a need for it. Also, many teachers feel it is a high pressure environment and there is no time to experiment or try something new since the pace in class is quite furious. The state has a very long list of standards, tests are standardized, and it is dangerous for a teacher to get off track. Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated

There is a good solid array of technology available. There is video and image editing software or the Art classes and the Graphic Design classes. The special CAD software for CAD classes. Smart boards, digital cameras, and classroom sets of clickers are available to rent from the media center. There is music and video editing software available in certain labs as well. Some of the software is becoming a big out of date and is unlikely to be updated any time soon. In addition, many staff members do not know how to use the software so they avoid it. Many of the best toys go unused for much of the year. Conclusion Overall, I would rate Michigan High School as Integrated. The school is better at providing the tools than it is as providing the environment and continual training needed to take advantage of the tools. However, there is initial training available and resources for the teachers to seek out. The problem is some staff members do not see the value in the technology to take the extra time to seek out additional information. The most efficient way the school could improve their rating is by bringing a more diverse representation of stakeholders into the annual planning. If the choices being made as to what technology to bring in was coming more directly from the staff that would use it, there is a greater chance that the technology will be faithfully applied. It is more likely teachers would take the extra time to seek assistance and develop new lessons. The school has done the best job at integrating technology in an administrative role. There are regular contractual obligations teachers must meet when it comes to using technology for communication and administration. Perhaps the district could look at how those policies were put in place and replicate them for key instructional technologies. Another example of a technology that is catching on is Class A. One of the reasons it has been so successful is that it is integrated with the state standards and our Zangle gradebooks. It is this type of integration that makes it useful and meaningful to staff. When adopting future technologies, integration with existing technologies should be of paramount importance. The greatest challenge facing Michigan High School over the next few years will be the maintenance of the existing technologies. The shrinking budget is just enough to maintain most of the existing systems. However, some hardware and software is already old and out of date. How long will it hold up? A widespread focus on taking advantage of the free resources available would be recommended as a way to keep up with trending developments. The CISCO classes, media labs, media center, and CAD programs are some examples of integrated technology done in a useful, powerful and meaningful way. It is clear that the school has some very exceptional uses of technology. The training for the staff is not always as thorough and consistent as it needs to be. The same for training the students to use technology. That should be more of a consistent focus. Not all teachers or students are always held responsible for using the technology, but for those that wish to put forth the time and effort, Michigan High School provides multiple options for technology integration into the curriculum.