Schools

D181 Board Quashes iPad Initiative

The @d181 Initiative was halted after board members voted down a measure that would have adopted a vision of a environment where a one-to-one student-to-iPad ratio would be the norm.

A split vote by board members Monday night shut the door on the possibility of District 181 putting an iPad in the hands of every student any time soon.    

The District 181 Board of Education voted down by a 3-3 vote the recommendation of the @d181 Initiative Committee to “adopt the vision of a one-to-one computing environment for District 181,” and task a new committee of teachers, administrators, students and community members with developing a three-year implementation plan.  
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The @d181 Initiative for the last two years has piloted one-to-one environments in two fifth grade classes (Elm and The Lane) and, for the last year, one third grade class (Monroe) and one fourth grade class (Walker). 

Board members Brendan Heneghan, Mridu Garg and Jill Vorobiev voted against adoption, while Gary Clarin, Marty Turek and Glenn Yaeger voted for adoption. Michael Nelson was absent.  

Heneghan said he sees the value in the use of iPads at school, especially by students with special needs.  

“I’m not so sure it’s the same requirement in the general curriculum,” Heneghan said. 

The district currently has enough computing devices according to Garg, who said that with work ongoing to put in place the Common Core and the new Advanced Learning Plan, the implementation of a one-to-one computing environment would put too much on the district’s plate at this time.  

“Before we get technology into it, we need to figure out our core curriculum,” Garg said. 

Board President Marty Turek supported the adoption of a one-to-one vision. 

“To me this is not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Turek said. “Either you’re going to go forward with the technology that’s at our fingertips now and pretty prevalent already, or you’re going to stand still or go backwards.” 

The @d181 report said that the one-to-one pilot has shown that such an environment makes feedback more immediate, maximizes instructional time, aligns with the principles of the Common Core and Advanced Learning Plan, and allows for better communication and collaboration among students and teachers while inspiring passion and confidence.  

“We live for this as teachers,” @d181 Initiative Committee member and Clarendon Hills Middle School social studies teacher Lori Stellwagen said. “To see light bulbs shine, to connect an idea, to make a friend over something that you learned in school—it’s an amazing thing.”

District 181 director of technology Eric Danley said the vote marked the end of the @d181 Initiative for the foreseeable future. 

“Certainly I’m disappointed,” said Danley, a member of the committee. “But the board is a deliberative body that takes careful consideration of the decisions it makes and I respect that decision-making process.” 

Assessment data was not a strong point of the @d181 presentation, which the committee’s report labeled “inconclusive.”  

The one-to-one students in Elm and The Lane’s fifth grade and Monroe’s fourth grade achieved a lower growth rate on the reading portion of this year’s MAP tests than the district’s fifth grade and fourth grade averages. Walker’s third graders exceeded the average third grade reading growth.  

Elm’s one-to-one fifth graders exceeded the district average in math growth, though The Lane’s did not. Math growth was greater than average for Monroe’s one-to-one fourth graders and Walker’s one-to-one third graders.  

The @d181 report said that factors including the short time frame, differing lessons across schools, and the inappropriateness of using of a single data resource (the MAP test) contributed to the assessment data’s inconclusiveness. 

According to the @d181 report, one-to-one environments are the norm in the following school district’s that are among Illinois’ top 10: Butler District 53, Avoca District 37, Norhtbrook/Glenview District 30, River Forest District 90, Kildeer District 96 and Kenilworth District 38. 

The other four top 10 districts—Lincolnshire District 103, Western Springs District 101, Wilmette District 39 and District 181—do not currently embrace a widespread one-to-one environment.  

The classrooms where one-to-one environments have been piloted will continue as such until the end of the iPads’ useful life of around three years, Danley said.

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