home

Evaluation Plan Phase 1: Max Hodgen, Darren Swenson, Anne Elisa Brown, Don Strand The effective use of technology is an integral component aiding Madison in fulfilling its mission of assisting students in reaching their potential as lifelong learners. The purpose of this evaluation is to examine the effects technology has had on Madison’s mission statement and provide guidance moving forward. Specifically, the evaluation process will focus on technology use in the classroom, ongoing professional development needs, and impact on student learning. Evaluation Audience: The audience of this evaluation will be made up of the Madison School District administration, the Madison School Board, the individual educators, students', parents, and Madison community members. Each group has its own interest in seeing that the technology plan is effective and efficient. Each group will also have specific questions and concerns they would like to see addressed by the evaluation. These specific questions and concerns will help the groups understand where we are at, where we should be and also what is in the future with education and technology. Secondary audiences include: Partners at DSU, the SD State Office of Technology and Assessment. Description of the Evaluand: Madison Central School District 39-2 is located in Lake County, South Dakota. The city of Madison has a population of around 6300 people. Madison also is home to one of the most technical Universities in the Midwest, Dakota State University. The student body of the district ranges in age from kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12). The student population consists of 1158 students. The ethnicity of the student population is as follows: 1063 white, 35 Hispanic, 22 Indian, 15 African American, 11 Asian, 10 biracial, 2 Pacific Islander. Madison is the county seat of Lake County. The community of Madison is also home to some major attractions like Prairie Village, which is a living history museum created from turn-of-the-century buildings moved from around the state to create a community that never was. The Smith-Zimmerman Museum, located on the campus of Dakota State, allows people to explore Victorian furnishings in four period rooms along with early forms of transportation. The Dakota Prairie Playhouse and Conference Center is home for great entertainment for the Madison area from theater performances to music groups to speakers. Madison’s general sales and gross receipts was $2,299,000, property tax was $1,087,000 and other license tax was $38,000 Infrastructure The district is currently running XP and Windows 7. The district updates software when it becomes obsolete. The district is also currently running Office 2007, will look at 2010 or newer in the next couple years. After becoming a one to one school we limited the amount of installed software and moved more to web based items. We do buy individual licenses for Office in the district and currently have about 1000 licenses. We also have a site license for the high school for Adobe CS3 Master Collection and SynchronEyes 7. Items such as routers, hubs, access points, battery backups and other network related items are purchased with district general and capital outlay funds. The firewall service is dependent on the State of South Dakota and the Department of BIT. When changes need to occur we are notified via the State and BIT, and we comply with their recommendations.ATM switches, Monitors, interactive televisions ITV, Video equipment, Video services, etc.).
 * Purpose of Evaluation: **

High School · Teachers – Fujitsu 4410 (35) · Freshmen – Dell 2100 netbook (100) · Sophomores – Gateway m285 (300) · Para Professionals – Gateway m285/295 (5) · Offices – Dell t1500 (6) · Lunch – Gateway m405 (4) · Misc. Desktops (lunch, custodian) · 6 Kyocera Printers · 3 HP printers · 3 kyocera copiers · Every room has a Epson 1705c Projector · Cisco Wireless AP’s (30) · 4 Physical Servers · 10 Virtual Servers · Cisco Wireless Lan Controller · HP Procurve Gigabit Switches · Auto Lab · DVR with 12 security cameras Middle School · Teachers – Fujitsu 4410 (30) · 2 Mobile Carts of 27 Dell 2100 Netbooks · 1 mobile Cart of 27 HP 5101 Netbooks · Lab of 25 HP Desktops · Lab of 30 HP and Gateway Desktops · Lab of 12 Dell Desktops · Lab of 12 Fujitsu T1010/12 Gateway m285 · Lab of 10 Gateway m405’s · 8 Kyocera Printers · 2 Kyocera Colored Printers · 1 Kyocera Copy machines · DVR with 12 Security Cameras · Secondary Domain Controller · HP procurve switches · 3 HP printers · Para professionals – m285/m285 (5) · Every room has a epson 1705c projector / 3 rooms have Epson 85+ projectors

Technology Goals and Professional Development (PD): o PD: Train all staff on using Achievement Series; o Train all elementary and middle school staff on using writing to learn; o Integrate the use of ActivExpressions in grades k – 8 o PD: Provide summer opportunities for teachers o Attend conferences o Yearly technology symposium o Middle school staff will be involved with training on technology and 21st Century skills o PD: Provide after school training across the district o Sessions for technology based on integration and 21st Century Skills
 * Utilize technology in order to improve formative assessment and teacher effectiveness
 * Provide educators with educational opportunities to research, analyze, and implement technology in order to improve academic achievement.
 * Utilize technology to enhance the curriculum and instruction

o PD: Hold trainings for teachers to update their sites. Guiding Evaluation Questions: 1. How is technology used to promote authentic learning and critical thinking in students? 2. What are the teachers' biggest professional development needs? Are those needs being met? How? 3. Are graduating students technologically prepared to succeed in their undergraduate studies? 4. How does technology impact student learning and teacher productivity? 5. What percentage of graduating students pursues technology related degrees? 6. How does the use of technology impact the communication between the teachers and students? ...the teachers and parents?
 * Increase supplemental activities in the classroom and professional development through the use of distance learning and DDN
 * PD: Increase teacher professional development activities through the teleconferencing system
 * Increase investment in K-12 technology to increase access and utilization for all students and teachers
 * Increase links between parents, community, businesses, and the school district to encourage understanding and partnership

Description of the Evaluation Approach: The evaluation will be a formal evaluation of the plan. It will initially be an internal evaluation done by members of the faculty who work with the technology plan. The evaluation will gather feedback on areas of the plan which are undergoing review and revision. Interviews/surveys with faculty, staff, and students will take place in order to provide an objective view of areas of interest to the evaluation. Data will also be gathered to address the various evaluation questions and issues. This internal review will be formative in nature. Once the internal phase of the evaluation is complete, the external phase of evaluation will take place. This external phase of the evaluation will be summative. The external review will address concerns of bias on the part of the internal evaluators.

Phase 2 Create teacher survey forms using surveymonkey.com Direct observation results from the principal's evaluations of teachers. ||  || complete a section of the survey which will assess what the teachers believe to be there professional development needs, whether they believe their needs are being met, and how those needs are being met. The administrators will also be surveyed. ||  || Students need to be prepared to handle the technology requirements of their undergraduate courses. || We need to compare what the graduating students know to what the mission statement states that they should know.
 * //**Evaluation Questions**// || //**Why the Question is Important**// || //**Information Needed to Answer the Question**// || //**When and How the Information Will Be Collected**// || //**Data Analysis and Interpretation Procedures**// ||
 * How is technology used to promote authentic learning and critical thinking in students? || We need to agree on what authentic learning is and what constitutes critical thinking skills. || We need know the amount of technology inclusion teachers are implementing into their instruction. We need to know the types of assessments teachers are using with their students. || At the May in-service teachers will provide outlined lesson plans detailing activities and assessments.
 * What are the teachers' biggest professional development needs? Are those being met? How? || To promote authentic learning and critical thinking skills, teachers should be trained using the best practices and latest technology skills. || We need the teachers' judgments regarding their strengths and weakness of applying technology into the curriculum. || At the May in-service teachers, using surveymonkey.co, the teachers will
 * Are graduating students technologically prepared to succeed in their undergraduate studies? || We need to agree that technology is an integral component in fulfilling the districts' mission statement.

We also need to know what the typical technology requirements are for undergraduate programs in the area. || Survey graduating seniors on how technology educated they are. Then we will match the undergraduate studies they are looking into the use of technology in that undergrad with how educated they are with technology. ||  || Survey alumni as to what major field of study they have pursued in college. ||  || Dakota Step Test ACT Achievement Series ||  ||
 * What percentage of graduating students pursue technology related degrees? || We need to be concerned with how technology applications are being promoted and encouraged. || We need to poll recent alumni and gather data from the guidance counselors to find out what percentage of our graduates pursue a technology related degree. || Survey graduating seniors as to what major field of study they will pursue in college.
 * How does technology impact student learning and teacher productivity? || We need to determine if the technology impact has negatively effected standardized test score. || Test scores from years when technology was not used and current test scores which reflect technology use. || Quantitative test results from:
 * How does the use of technology impact the communication between the teachers and students? ...the teachers and parents? || We need to determine the various methods in which students and teachers, as well as teachers and parents, communicate via technology. We also need to determine which communication methods are more effective. Once we know which communication methods are effective we can promote their use and explore new ways to incorporate technology as a communication tool. || Which forms of communication are being utilized between teachers and students, and teachers and parents. How is this communication impacted by technology? How can we improve the impact that technology has on communication? || The students, teachers, and parents will be asked to fill out an attitude scale to assess their attitudes about their current communication methods. The results will be gathered and assessed at the end of the year. ||  ||