Will SmarterBalanced testing force us to become 1:1?

Back in December, a small group of teachers and admins met to review the SmarterBalanced testing requirements to help the district prepare for the technology needs.

Perhaps the most significant question on everyone’s mind….

Will on-line testing and SmarterBalanced specifically, force the district to become 1:1 and provide a device for each student?

Answer:  No.  

We’ve taken a look at the estimated time per test, factored in the number of students/sections and ran some calculations against the amount of equipment that our schools have – and in all scenarios and in all buildings, we’ll be able to administer the test using existing resources.

You mean we don’t even have to buy additional computers/laptops?  Correct, the only thing that needs to be purchased is headsets and we’re estimating that cost to be $65,000 every two years.

Status of new Print Shop Software

Here’s the latest updates on the new software that will soon be available for teachers/staff to send print jobs to the district print shop…

 

We are upgrading the software used to send electronic print jobs to the Print Shop.  The new software is called Digital Store Front.

Valley High School

We will be training several testers at Valley High School to use the system during the week of Jan 11th.   The testers will have 1 week to provide input to the Print Shop.  All Valley High School certified staff will be trained to use the software on January 20th.

The Digital Store Front implementation will be building by building, as there is more set-up required in the initial phase.  Laurie Heald will be contacting each Principal to set up a training session for their building.  Jackie Neuberger & Laurie Heald will provide training, which will take approximately 45 minutes.