The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Using Computers
in American Primary Schools

Gates Foundation Grants

• Explanatory Notes

• Domestic Aspects
  of the Fellowship

  • Purpose of the Fellowship

  • Success of the Fellowship

  • The Fellowship Grant

  • Suggestions for Future Fellows

  • Dissemination of the Report

• Professional Aspects
  of the Fellowship

  • Overview

  • Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

  • Delivering the ICT Curriculum

  • Other Curriculum Areas

  • Assisting with Teaching Tasks

  • School Administration
    and Management

  • Electronic Communication

• Conclusion

• Appendices

  • Acknowledgements

  • Itinerary

  • Technical Details

  • Internet Links

  • TELDEC Grant Project

  • Gates Foundation Grants

  • US Dept of Education
    Executive Summary

  • WebQuests

• Picture Gallery

Washington State School Grants

Helping All Students Achieve

For three years beginning in May 2000, the foundation intends to initiate support to over 100 schools in Washington State. The goal of the Foundation’s school grant program is to demonstrate that it is possible to help all students achieve by improving teaching and learning and enhancing access to technology for students.

A New Mission: Helping All Students Achieve

The introduction of state standards, assessments, and accountability systems for students and schools marks the most important change in the history of American public education. This unprecedented attempt to spark system redesign will guide the next half-century of education. Simultaneously, advances in technology have unleashed unprecedented learning opportunities. We are asking our schools to meet difficult challenges simultaneously: help a more diverse and less traditionally motivated group of students meet higher academic standards by adopting new strategies and tools with no additional time or money. For the first time, American schools are struggling to adopt a new mission: to help all students achieve.

Not Reform; It’s Reinvention

Current results demonstrate that “business as usual” will not prepare our students for their future. Many students are bored, unfocused, and given ample opportunity to create a path of least resistance. Teachers lack preparation for a high-performance, standards-based, technology-enabled, learning environment. And while the public supports “high standards,” there is limited understanding of the challenges facing our schools. Tony Wagner, Harvard School of Education, points out that our schools no longer meet the needs of the innovation economy and the knowledge-based society:

The problem is that our system is obsolete. We have never educated all students—or even the majority—to think critically, solve problems, and work in teams—the essential skills for the global economy. We don’t know how. And so the problem is not reform, it’s reinvention. We have to reinvent American public education for a changing world, just as we had to ‘reinvent’ the one room schoolhouse a hundred years ago to adapt to the emerging industrial economy. Such reinvention will require a massive “R & D” effort — especially at the high school level, where very few models of ‘best practice’ exist in the world.

Linda Darling-Hammond, chair of the National Commission for Teaching and America’s Future points out that “the redesign task is defined as one of transforming the education system rather than merely getting schools to do better what they have always done,” and that “the challenge of the twenty-first century is creating schools that ensure—for all students in all communities—a genuine right to learn. Meeting this new challenge is not an incremental undertaking. It requires a fundamentally different enterprise.”

Students Focused on Clear Expectations

Successful schools focus on literacy and a few other important learning goals such as those articulated by Hugh Price of the National Urban League:

• Literate: capable of demonstrating a working command of reading, writing, and speaking in English.

• Mathematically competent: a command of the basic computational skills required in the modern workplace and in everyday adult life.

• Problem solvers: eager to seek out information, discover answers, and apply their skills in reasoning and critical thinking to solving problems.

• Scientifically literate: capable of appreciating nature and the environment, familiar with the scientific method and the role of science in modern life, and cognizant of the uncertainties of the scientific method.

• Good citizens: well-grounded in the forces and values that have shaped this nation historically, culturally, demographically, politically, and economically with an appreciation for the relationship of the United States to the rest of the world and this country’s role in the world.

• Technologically advanced: comfortable with technology and capable of using computers and related technologies in the normal course of everyday work and learning.

Teachers Focused on Improving Teaching and Learning

The Foundations education grant programs are predicated on three essential components of powerful teaching and learning in a standards-based technology-enabled environment:

• Active Inquiry: Students are engaged in active participation, exploration, and research; activities draw out perceptions and develop understanding; students are encouraged to make decisions about their learning; and teachers utilize the diverse experiences of students to build effective learning experiences.

• In-Depth Learning: The focus is competence, not coverage. Students struggle with complex problems, explore core concepts to develop deep understanding, and apply knowledge in real world contexts.

• Performance Assessment: Clear expectations define what students should know and be able to do; students produce quality work products and present to real audiences; student work shows evidence of understanding, not just recall; assessment tasks allow students to exhibit higher-order thinking; and teachers and students set learning goals and monitor progress.

Attributes of High Achievement Schools

The growing number of schools that are successfully helping diverse groups of students achieve at high levels exhibit the following attributes:

• Common Focus: In high achieving schools, the staff and students are focused on a few important goals. The school has adopted a consistent research-based instructional approach based on shared beliefs about teaching and learning. The use of time, tools, materials, and professional development activities are aligned with instruction.

• High Expectations: In high achieving schools, all staff members are dedicated to helping every student achieve state and local standards; all students are engaged in an ambitious and rigorous course of study; and all students leave school prepared for success in work, further education and responsible citizenship.

• Personalized: In high achieving schools, the school is designed to promote powerful, sustained student relationships with adults where every student has an adult advocate and a personal plan for progress. It is vital that schools are small, intimate units of no more than 600 students (no more than 400 strongly recommended) so that staff and students can work closely together. Following are two resources regarding small school size: www.ruraledu.org/matthew.html and www.edweek.org

• Respect and Responsibility: In high achieving schools, the environment is authoritative, safe, ethical, and studious. The staff teaches, models, and expects responsible behavior and relationships are based on mutual respect.

• Time to Collaborate: In high achieving schools, staff has time to collaborate and develop skills and plans to meet the needs of all students. Parents are recognized as partners in education. Partnerships are developed with businesses in order to create relevance and work-based opportunities and with institutions of higher education to improve teacher preparation and induction.

• Performance Based: In high achieving schools, students are promoted to the next instructional level only when they have achieved competency. Students receive additional time and assistance when needed to achieve this competency. Data-driven decisions shape a dynamic structure and schedule.

• Technology as a Tool: In high achieving schools, teachers design engaging and imaginative curriculum linked to learning standards, analyze results, and have easy access to best practices and learning opportunities. Schools publish their progress to parents and engage the community in dialog about continuous improvement.

Grant Proposal Requirements

Funding

• Elementary and middle schools will receive $400 per student. Junior and senior high schools will receive $450 per student.

• High need schools, where more than 50% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch, will receive an additional $50 per student.

• Funding will be provided over three years; 15% in year one for planning, 70% in year two for implementation, and 15% in year three for follow up, unless otherwise requested in the grant proposal.

Use of Funds

• The proposal must indicate the process and budget for adopting or developing an instructional model aligned with the Attributes of High Achievement Schools.

• The proposal must indicate the process and budget for providing access to one computer for every four students (or better) and how the staff will be trained prior to deployment.

Submission Guidelines

The first round of proposals are due no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 22, 2000.

Proposals should be no longer than ten 12-font pages, including budget.

Proposals should include the following:

• Demonstration of planned alignment with the Attributes of High Achievement Schools.

• Demonstration that more than one teacher has participated in the Teacher Leadership Project or an equivalent standards and technology-based professional development activity.

• Demonstration of broad staff support for the proposal.

• A commitment to a five-year evaluation plan including the designation of an on-site evaluation coordinator.

• Budget for use of proceeds, including demonstration of a budget match of at least 20% of the grant, including at least 4% for project management and professional assistance to achieve the goal of the grant program.

• A plan to support and replace computer hardware and software.

• For public schools, demonstration that the school has the full cooperation of the district and that funds will be used for that school and normal district funding to that school will not be impacted by this award.

Range of Gates Grants

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