Iowa High School Changes Course with Laptops

For the past several years, subpar student test scores have earned North High School in Iowa the distinction of being a low-achieving school.

The 1,200 students at this urban school move in and out of the Des Moines area frequently and come from low-income homes and diverse backgrounds. Low attendance rates, lack of parental engagement and a high incidence of disciplinary referrals haven’t helped matters.

The staff cared about these students, but they couldn't care their problems away. With a U.S. Education Department School Improvement Grant, the school chose to make changes with a new principal and existing staff.

"We knew we had a lot of the right people," said Jeremy Schwennen, a literacy teacher and leader for the campus. "We just didn't know what the right things to do were."

With a new principal and a new four-year plan that includes laptops for every student and teacher, North High is seeing improved student learning, fewer disciplinary referrals and more teacher-student communication.
 

Laying the foundation

Based on student test results, many students needed work on literacy skills. Halfway through the 2010-11 school year, Principal Matt Smith pulled time from each 80-minute block period to create a 45-minute literacy course in the middle of the day.

Along with the literacy course, every class in each subject area started using a writing-to-learn strategy. By giving students frequent, short writing activities about concepts they learn, students are honing their writing skills and understanding concepts better.

During the 2010-11 school year, students gained 19 percentage points in reading and science and 9 percentage points in math on the Iowa Tests of Educational Development.

Then North High School brought in the laptops to drive further improvement.

In January 2011, each teacher received a laptop 10 months before students got theirs in October 2011. That gave the teachers the time necessary to figure out policies for the student laptops. The teachers also explored interactive tools and transitioned from using PCs to Macs.

Out of about 60 schools in Des Moines Public Schools, North High is the only one with a laptop initiative and the largest school in Iowa that has one.
 

Teaching differently

Every Wednesday, teachers meet to share ways they can incorporate writing-to-learn, reading comprehension and fluency strategies while using laptops. This dedicated time helps them work together to meet common goals, Smith said.

The laptops also have encouraged teachers to teach differently and design new lessons. "Nobody could just go to the filing cabinet and pull out something that used to work for the kids that we used to have," Schwennen said. "Everybody had to buy in to starting from scratch." Principal Matt Smith added, "It really unified the staff."

While not every teacher is comfortable yet with the computers, many teachers are using the tool to design engaging and rigorous coursework. "The machine will never make a difference by itself," Schwennen said. "You have to have people who accept that we have to change the way we do business as a school."

For this laptop initiative to work, the school also had to re-engage parents. Normally, 30 to 40 percent show up for parent-teacher conferences. After a major push to contact parents, close to 98 percent came to two-hour laptop training sessions to sign paperwork and learn about the computer policies.

Since the school made changes, there have been 500 fewer disciplinary referrals. Attendance improved slightly. And students value the laptops because they now have access to the Internet and other resources.

"You don't have to be right; you just have to get started, and that's kind of how we pictured this situation," Smith said about the laptop program. "We planned as much as we could, but at the end of the day, there's not enough planning in the world that's going to prepare you for a rollout like this. It changes the entire culture of the building; it changes how you do everything."