The chairmen of the Legislature’s education committees say they haven’t been spending too much time tracking the state’s 11 technology pilot projects.
But that will change when the 2014 Legislature convenes.
Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde says he will hold hearings on the pilots, so committee members can hear from the participating schools — and so other school administrators can learn from the pilot programs.
House Education Committee Chairman Reed DeMordaunt is encouraged by what he’s heard about the pilots; two are under way in Meridian, in the Eagle Republican’s corner of the state. But he wants to drill down and learn more.
The legislation that set up the $3 million grant program requires applicants to report annually on how they have used their money, “and the student growth results from those uses.”
“(I’d) like to go back to that criteria and see how those things are measuring up,” DeMordaunt said Thursday.
Lawmakers may also have to decide whether they want to put more money into additional tech pilot programs. State superintendent Tom Luna’s 2014-15 budget proposal contains a $3 million line item that could be applied to pilots. For a closer look at the funding prospects, here’s a link to our story from Thursday.
Here are in-depth stories on the state’s 11 technology pilot schools:
- A schoolwide Chromebooks project at Kuna Middle School.
- A career-oriented laptop pilot at Middleton High School.
- An attempt to reverse achievement gaps at Parma Middle School.
- A writing emphasis at Weiser’s Park Intermediate School.
- A collaborative learning effort at Meridian’s Discovery Elementary School.
- A student-led iPad rollout at McCall-Donnelly High School.
- An effort to bridge geographic gaps at the Idaho Distance Education Academy.
- A Proposition 3 lookalike at Sugar Salem High School.
- Teachers and students team up to rollout iPads at Dayton’s Beutler Middle School.
- A big-screen vision at Moscow Middle School.
- A K-12 approach at Meridian’s Compass Public Charter School.
