From laptops and e-book readers to touch-screen tablets, an influx of technology in a handful of classrooms in Newberg has proven to be powerful tools for students so far this school year.

Perhaps even more promising to district administrators is the possibility that such devices could improve student achievement across the Newberg School District over the next two years thanks to the success of seven technology pilot programs.

In a presentation to the school board in late February, three teachers shared their experiences. District communications spokeswoman Claudia Stewart, who headed up the initiative, stated that all the program applications that were approved to become pilots focused on improving basic academic skills, but several other common threads have emerged. Among the most powerful was how the devices and their applications have allowed teachers to personalize and differentiate instruction.

A big part of that has arisen from the ability of teachers and students to receive instant feedback, for example the Kindle Fire tablets Cindy Cordray is using with special education students in reading, writing and math instruction at the Mabel Rush Intensive Learning Center.

In addition to having the ability to individualize apps on each student’s tablet, the feedback helps Cordray identify problem areas and in turn target what each student needs to work on.

“I can put apps on this child’s Kindle Fire that work on sequencing and know that  during the day this child can work on that more times than I could possibly get to,” Cordray said. “My kids are all completely independent.”

Ewing Young instructor Terry Evers has been impressed by the quality and availability of free applications for the iPads he’s using with his fourth- and fifth-grade students, which don’t simply force-feed the students facts for memorization, but actually engage them.

Cordray has found the same thing with her students, who in the past would have grumbled at the prospect of doing math problems, but now ask her regularly if they can work on their own.

“It draws them in because for my kids, school is hard. It’s the toughest thing they do,” she said. “If any of us had to do something that tough every single afternoon, we wouldn’t do it. My kids come back every day with a smile on their face and have something learning-focused that engages them and that they want to do, they’ll beg to do it. There’s a win-win.”
Ann Light, who is using Chromebook laptops to improve typing skills and prepare NHS Silver School students for the essay writing portion of the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) test, reported seeing remarkable improvement.

With the OAKS moving from a bluebook format to writing on a computer, Light felt students coming out of middle school simply didn’t have the typing skills to produce quality work quickly enough for the test, but also to handle the workload they will face in college.

Light estimated that, in the past, students typically completed two to three essays per semester, but with the introduction of the technology, her class this fall finished nine.

Cordray reported a similarly impressive jump in her students’ math performance.

“They all set goals and most of them blew them out of the water,” Cordray said. “It’s more improvement than we’ve seen in any previous years.”

Stewart said each program will be re-evaluated through a survey with teachers in the next month or two, which will provide some valuable information when the district makes large-scale purchases with funds from the recent bond specifically earmarked for technology.

“It takes a lot of time to do the start up on this,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t like we got the devices and boom, let’s go the next day. (The teachers have) broken a lot of ground for whoever’s coming next.”

By: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic