Mooresville’s Mark Edwards on how it took his district five
years to become an overnight success.
By Elizabeth F. Farrell
If they haven’t been tossed already, textbooks at
Mooresville Graded School District sit unused, piled in corners of classrooms.
Desks are no longer neatly arranged in rows, and students rarely sit quietly and
listen to extended lectures.
At Mooresville, 20 miles outside of Charlotte, North
Carolina, this is the new norm. The district undertook a massive “21st Century
Digital Conversion” in 2007. Students now frequently work in groups, and they
use one of dozens of interactive learning platforms instead of textbooks.
Rather than lecturing, teachers act as facilitators, circulating among groups
or leading students in interactive lessons.
Results of this transformation are off the charts—the
graduation rate for African-American students was 95 percent in 2012, up from
67 percent five years earlier. The overall graduation rate is the third highest
in the state, and 88 percent of 2012 graduates are attending college, compared
with 74 percent in 2007. Mooresville has accomplished this while keeping
spending in check—among the state’s 115 school districts, it ranks 100th in
spending per student at $7,463.
Mark Edwards has spearheaded the digital conversion since
taking over as superintendent in 2007. The centerpiece is a one-to-one
approach—every student from fourth grade on, along with every teacher, receives
a MacBook Air. (Third graders get MacBooks.) Despite the major undertaking of
distributing and maintaining 5,000 laptops, Edwards made it clear to parents,
teachers, administrators, and students that the digital conversion wasn’t about
technology. It was about preparing all of the district’s students for a
successful and bright future.
“Ninety percent of our visitors come here talking about
hardware and leave talking about culture. This was very much about engendering
a culture of caring,” says Edwards. “We implemented the digital conversion to
increase student achievement and close gaps between different groups of
students.”
The success of the eight-school, 5,600-student district has
earned it numerous accolades—Edwards spoke on a White House panel and was named
AASA’s Superintendent of the Year in February. A New York Times front-page
profile of the district in 2012—which called Mooresville the “de facto
national model of the digital school”—was the most blogged education story of
the year, Edwards says. Reports in The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News and
PBS followed. In March, CoSN joined the parade, naming Mooresville as the
winner of its TEAM Award. All that publicity has led to a steady stream of
visitors from more than 40 states and countries. For educators with grand plans
to transform their schools through technology, Mooresville has become a mecca
of sorts.
Visitors to Mooresville schools may be inspired by what they
see, but they probably won’t get a full picture of the careful long-term
efforts that made the success possible. Given the cultural shift and the moving
parts involved, district leadership had to navigate a minefield of challenges
to realize the digital conversion.
But before heading to North Carolina or buying thousands of
computers, say veterans of the Mooresville transition, consider the following
10 lessons.
1. Build a Foundation
Among the many things that are “easy to say and hard to do”
is building enthusiasm among stakeholders in the schools and community, says
Edwards. Before going digital, it’s crucial to convince them that they have a
vested interest in the success of the conversion.
“It took a good two years to build a firm foundation,” says
Edwards. “We needed to build trust and a sense of shared aspiration.”
He did this by emphasizing the “why” of the digital
conversion. The district needed to become more focused on truly engaging students
in learning and imparting skills that would equip them for real-world success.
Achievement gaps, which had been widening for poor and minority students,
needed to close, and graduation rates had to improve. Mooresville adopted the
slogan “Every Child, Every Day” as a guiding mantra.
Edwards brought in outside education experts to explain how
the conversion could transform learning and how it aligned with the skills
students needed to succeed in a tech-centric economy.
Advisory councils of teachers and parents were created to
consult on all aspects of the digital conversion plan. These groups still meet
quarterly with school district officials.
2. Form Strategic Alliances
To provide the resources needed for the conversion, Edwards
and other district leaders reached out to a wide variety of partners.
Mooresville brought in instructional technology experts from Apple and
Discovery Education. Through professional development sessions and
consultation, they helped teachers and administrators implement curriculum
changes and new approaches to learning. Colleagues from Virginia’s Henrico
School District—where Edwards had previously served as superintendent and
pioneered a similar initiative—offered training and advice on implementing the
one-to-one program.
Community partners also joined the effort. About one third
of the district’s students lacked Internet access at home, so the local cable
company offered discounted packages to students’ families. Fifteen percent of
homes still don’t have Net access, according to Scott Smith, the district’s
chief technology officer. But by working with town officials, the district was
able to secure agreements for free Wi-Fi in parks, at the local library, and in
all municipal buildings; some businesses also offer free Internet access.
To provide teachers and administrators with more intensive
training to help lead the conversion, the district worked with nearby Wingate
University to offer three graduate degree tracks—two doctoral programs in
educational leadership and a master’s program in instructional technology.
3. Thoroughly Think Through Logistics
“You name it, we probably discussed it,” says Smith. “We
played out so many different possible scenarios and challenges, and did a lot
of vetting of equipment, services, and educational software programs—no
decision was made lightly.”
Before distributing computers, school officials created a
detailed code of conduct that set clear expectations for laptop care and use.
Students are required to charge their laptops at night so the devices are
powered up for class time. They must use a school-issued backpack with a laptop
sleeve, in addition to another protective case, for transporting their laptop
between home and school. A robust firewall keeps students from accessing
content that lacks redeeming educational value—including Facebook. Students and
their families are required to take introductory classes at the beginning of
each year to ensure that they understand how to operate and care for their
laptops.
4. Rethink Fund Allocation
With 5,000 MacBooks in circulation, a district-wide
management learning system, ongoing tech support, dozens of paid subscription
software services, and new staff positions, one might think the cost of the
digital conversion would have been prohibitive. But Mooresville officials
insist it can be done without an influx of outside donations and grants. Though
the district did receive a $250,000 start-up grant from Lowe’s, it funds 98
percent of the digital conversion costs through its operating budget, which is
smaller than it was five years ago.
“Basically, we did this by repurposing existing funds,” says
Smith. “Textbooks are pretty much out of date by the time we get them, and we
eliminated some positions to create new ones. We save on other expenses as
well.”
When budgeting, it’s important to regard equipment expenses
as operating costs instead of one-time capital expenses. Mooresville leases its
equipment from Apple so it can spread the cost over multiple years. According
to Smith, districts can make a big mistake by buying a ton of equipment because
they often don’t budget for maintenance costs, and technology can quickly
become obsolete.
5. Apply Gentle Yet Sustained Pressure
To make huge cultural changes in how teachers were teaching
and how students were learning, Mooresville’s leadership eased teachers into
the transition incrementally.
Teachers received brand-new MacBooks to take home over the
winter break in the first year, with encouragement to “just try them out.” The
following semester, PCs that had been in every classroom were removed. High
school English teachers were the first pilot group of instructors required to
incorporate the Macs and learning software in their classroom instruction.
Students used laptops wheeled in on carts.
Teacher enthusiasm began to build as they saw colleagues
applying tech in the classroom. The following year, laptops were distributed to
all 1,650 Mooresville High School students and 850 middle school students. By
the beginning of the 2012–13 academic year, 4,400 of the original computers
had been replaced with Airs and all students from third grade on up had their
own MacBooks.
The steady pace of the transition was pivotal in convincing
teachers that the digital conversion wasn’t just the latest whim. Once they
knew it wouldn’t fizzle out, they were more willing to invest their time and
effort into making the technology work for them.
“I’ve been a teacher, and I know, by our very nature, that
we are control freaks,” says Smith. “There was a lot of initial skepticism
toward making this change, because it made everyone a first-year teacher all
over again.”
6. Empower and Educate Your Teachers
As you ease teachers into the transition, be sure to provide
meaningful, sustained professional development and the time to complete it;
Edwards built 10 early-release days into the academic year for professional development.
Prior to each school year, Mooresville also offers an annual
summer training institute for its teachers—more than 90 percent attend. From
the beginning of the digital conversion, teachers have been encouraged to
experiment and collaborate to find the most effective methods and digital
learning resources.
“Anything we are asked to do, the support is there,” says
Felicia Bustle, principal at Mooresville Intermediate School. “Having the time
to get together and share ideas as teachers and administrators is key. The
teachers are empowered to determine which programs and approaches will best
serve the students.”
The district also hired instructional technology specialists
to help teachers find and incorporate appropriate resources and technology-based
teaching approaches to meet Common Core curriculum standards.
Furthermore, Mooresville’s school and district
administrators tap “leader teachers” who identify particularly effective and
innovative strategies and tactics to lead training seminars for their
colleagues.
“Competency is evolutional,” Edwards says. “Our best
teachers five years ago wouldn’t be in our top 70 percent now if they didn’t
grow.”
7. Watch the Transformation
Once the district had cultivated trust and enthusiasm among
a critical mass of Mooresville teachers, momentum spread rapidly. The
noticeable uptick in student engagement inspired the more skeptical teachers to
embrace technology in their classrooms.
“The kids think it’s the coolest thing ever,” says Stephen
Mauney, Mooresville’s executive director of secondary education. “They see how
it is relevant to their future, and they love that they get to explore and
analyze and think creatively.”
Absentee rates have plunged, and the district is seeing far
fewer disciplinary problems.
And the technology saves teachers time and provides them
with more insight into their students’ progress: Instead of manually grading
quizzes and assignments, teachers administer them digitally and analyze
aggregate and individual student test scores more easily. The technology also
allows for a “flipped classroom,” in which teachers use class time to help
students work through assignments and present new material by recording their
lectures on videos that students watch as homework.
8. Collect and Use Data Wisely
For parents, teachers, and administrators, the ability to
track students’ progress (or lack thereof) in real time is a huge advantage of
the digital conversion.
Administrators benefit from having a bird’s-eye view of
overall progress and can swiftly intervene when a particular school, grade
level, class, or even individual student seems to be falling behind. “I know
where every student is every day, and I don’t have to interrupt the teacher’s
day to get data on specific students,” says Bustle. “It makes parent meetings
entirely different, as we can talk about particular assignments and
assessments.”
And parents no longer have to rely on their children to find
out when tests are scheduled or what the results are. In most cases, if a
student finishes a test at 11 a.m., parents can log in remotely to see how
their child did by 11:15.
Teachers say the data yielded by the conversion has created
a far more collaborative environment with their peers. Each school is required
to conduct quarterly data meetings to review progress at every level, but the
majority of teachers meet informally with their colleagues on a weekly basis to
compare results.
9. Share Best Practices
Success can be challenging to sustain, which is why
Mooresville’s leadership does not shy away from opportunities to share its
experiences and best practices with education colleagues far and wide. The goal
is to sustain momentum, and thus far it seems to be working. Parents like Shawn
Huggins chose a two-hour round-trip commute so his 9-year-old son can attend
school in Mooresville.
Teachers and administrators don’t plan on leaving the
district anytime soon. “I can’t imagine going back to the way it was. It would
seem like going backward,” says Bustle. “Teaching here has been the best
experience of my life.”
10. Continue to Evolve
Though they enjoy their success, just about everyone
involved thinks of the digital conversion as a work in progress. They know they
have to remain flexible and respond quickly to changes in technology. Teachers,
curriculum experts, and tech staff are constantly vetting new interactive
learning platforms and open-source courseware. They are considering moving to
cloud computing. Dozens of vendors are regularly monitored to make sure
Mooresville receives the best deals and service.
Responsibility among students is reinforced through monthly
digital citizenship lessons that emphasize Internet safety. Committees of
parents and teachers meet regularly with district leaders to collaborate on
improvements and changes, and teachers are expected to attend the annual summer
training.
Administrators say that as a result of the great strides
their schools have made, and the improved baseline they use to judge their
progress, moving the needle even further becomes more challenging.
“We’re still building the plane as we fly it, and that’s
always going to be the case,” says Smith, Mooresville’s CTO. “It’s easy to get
hung up on the logistics, but the important part is why we are doing this: to
change the teaching and learning environment in ways that are better for the
kids.”
—Spring 2013—
