Cleveland Schools Plan To Give Every Student A Device By 2017-2018 School Year; Teachers To Prepare To "Go Digital"

  • Friday, January 30, 2015

Cleveland School officials said their technology goal is to give every student a device by the 2017-2018 school year.

Officials said each teacher would get one year to prepare for "going digital".

In a report for next Thursday's school board meeting, officials said:

"We are currently looking at a device similar to the HP Stream 11. The Stream 11 costs around $200. For this proposal we will be using the HP Steam 11 as our laptop, but we are still investigating other devices.

"A laptop cart that fits thirty to thirty-five laptops typically cost around $1,000.

"Ten laptop carts were purchased before the 2014-2015 school year. Those ten carts were used exclusively in Social Studies classrooms for grades 6-12.

"In the 2015-2016 school year we would need a cart for every Math and Social Studies classroom. There are nine Social Studies teachers and eleven Math teachers at CHS currently. If we assume that a cart with 35 laptops would cost $8,000, the cost of outfitting every classroom with a cart would be $165,000.

"At Cleveland Middle School, there are 15 Math teachers and Eleven Social Studies teachers. Eleven of those teachers are 6th grade. We would use our ten existing carts in 6th grade. Their maximum class size is 30. That cost is $7,000 per cart. The rest of the classes would need carts with thirty-five laptops. A chart with the cost for each grade level is provided below. Our total cost at CMS would be $162,000.

"For the 2015-2016 school year, the estimated cost to begin the 1:1 plan at both CHS and CMS is $308,000 for just devices and carts. The 2016-2017 projected expense for devices and carts is $284,000. After the initial purchase of these devices, the annual cost for purchasing 2 grade levels of devices comes to $180,000.

"Our wireless goal is to have no more than one wall in between the AP and the end user. Access points will be installed this school year to accomplish this goal.

"The goal for our wired network is to have a 10 gigabit connection from the network core to the network equipment that feeds the classrooms. From the networking equipment to the end user we would like a 10/100/1000 megabit connection. We plan to purchase as much equipment as possible using the remaining Race To The Top funds this year. E-Rate funds would be used to purchase the remaining equipment next year.

:Blackboard Learn is the learning management system (LMS) used by Cleveland City Schools. It houses all digital content for the district. Teachers are able to embed videos, documents, give quizzes and tests, and post discussion boards in Blackboard. CCS would pay teachers a stipend to compose digital resources and post them in Blackboard. We believe that teachers need one school year to prepare for this digital conversion. During that year of preparation, teachers will gather digital resources and put them in Blackboard. They will also meet as a team to plan for the migration to digital content.
CCS is currently paying for the following online programs.
? SchoolNet (K-12)
? IXL Math (Elementary)
? SuccessMaker (Elementary)?

Big Universe (Elementary)
? OverDrive (K-12)
? BrainPop (K-12)
? Study Island (CMS)
? Discovery Streaming (K-12)
? Big Brainz (Ross)
? Starfall (Elementary)
? Raz Kids (CMS)
? GradeResults (CMS, CHS, TLC)
? Classworks (Mayfield)
? NetTrekker (K-12)
These programs will be integrated into Blackboard.

"This plan would accomplish both goals of giving teachers a year to prepare for digital content and give every student a device by the 2017-2018 school year. Laptops would be on a five year refresh cycle. After being used at CMS or CHS, laptops would go to the elementary grades (3-5) to finish out their life cycle.

"With this plan, each teacher would get one year to prepare for 'going digital'. Training will be provided during that prepatory year for every aspect of this transition. Our professional development focus for the secondary level would be completely on the digital conversion."

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