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Bastrop Independent School District
Bastrop, TX
School Type: Public
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School Setting: Rural
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Level: K-12
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School Design: Traditional
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Content Presented By:
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Edvantia
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Summary
The practice: Integration - School leaders must model the purposeful use of technology and ensure that teachers and students integrate technology into daily classroom practice.
- Participants scored 22% higher than students in the old program
- Student absenteeism, tardies, and discipline problems decreased by 43%
- One seventh-grade course in 1993 developed into a required ninth-grade course throughout the district and many electives in grades 6-12
- Students form competing five-member "advertising agencies" and use computers to solve company problems
- Rejuvenated the old course that made students work in isolation on word-processing, spreadsheet, and database units
WOW is right! In a middle school that reported high absenteeism among students and teachers in its required seventh-grade computer literacy skills class and where 50% of the students who took the course failed it, dramatic changes have been documented. A switch to a student-centered, problem-based class that provides real-world experience and cooperative learning opportunities improved teacher morale and community satisfaction in addition to student achievement. Students establish companies of five individuals, each forming an "advertising agency" in competition with each other. Each of the five students assumes one primary job responsibility that he or she is required to teach to the rest of the company. The setting is modified to resemble an office -- cubicles and updated technology. The new teaching model is now used for required ninth-grade computer courses as well as for elective computer classes offered in grades 6-12. This district is no longer concerned about absenteeism, because the elective classes are always full. Team teaching methods and project-based learning have crossed subject boundaries. Teachers in language arts, math, science, and social studies have adopted this approach as well.
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