Cisco's 21S Initiative Marks Two Successful Years of Helping U.S. Gulf Coast Schools Post-Katrina
Third-party study cites program's impressive results.
December 17, 2007
News@Cisco Staff Writer
The 21st Century Schools (21S) Initiative, which marked its second anniversary in October, has much to celebrate these days.
The Initiative was created in 2005 in response to the dire needs of schools and school districts damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Its mission is to help elementary, middle and high schools across Louisiana and Mississippi apply educational models to transform the schools, produce more successful students and ultimately build stronger, more prosperous communities.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the many people and organizations involved in 21S, schools throughout the U.S. Gulf Coast are using advanced technology to enhance classroom instruction and operational efficiency, and teachers and administrators are seeing results.
Third-Party Study Reports Impressive Results
In late August, the Education Development Center (EDC), an independent, international organization focused on learning and human development, released the results of a study it conducted on the 21S Initiative's efforts. According to the report, the program has achieved some impressive results since its inception 20 months ago.
"We asked EDC to design a study that would measure everything we call input - hardware, teacher training, leadership training …all of the things that are input into the system to make change - and look at how effective the 21S Initiative had been to date," says Bill Fowler, executive director of 21S. "We wanted to know how much had actually happened, versus how much we'd anticipated."
The EDC study surveyed 28 administrators, 20 technology specialists, 598 teachers and 371 families in seven Mississippi school districts to form a comprehensive picture of these stakeholders' experiences with technology and the 21S Initiative.
As the study states, "The key successes of the Initiative have been to put in place 1) a transparent and rigorous process of planning and implementation, 2) a complex and solid advanced technology infrastructure and human-resource support system and 3) a sustainable framework for 21S partners (Digital Opportunity Trust and IBM)," to continue to advance the program's goals.
Seeing Real Improvements
Dr. James Hutto, superintendent of the Petal School District in Mississippi, doesn't need a report to tell him how 21S is improving the schools in his district.
"I know intuitively and scientifically that 21S has had a definite impact on our teachers and our students," he says.
The Petal School District has enthusiastically embraced the second phase of the 21S Initiative, Connected Learning (which strives to improve student outcomes and improve administrative efficiencies, among other goals). All Petal teachers have completed initial training on two new high-tech classroom tools, the InterWrite board and the Lexile Framework for Reading Website; and six have become "Master Technology Teachers."
Although Petal is located about 50 miles north of the Gulf Coast, the area sustained substantial damage during Hurricane Katrina.
"We had 100-mile-per-hour winds for hours and hours," Hutto recalls.
Roads were impassable for months after the storm, and schools throughout the area remained closed for weeks. But despite more than US$2 million in damages, Petal schools were in better shape than many others in neighboring districts - some of which had been reduced to "concrete slabs," according to Hutto.
So Petal absorbed the students who had nowhere else to go, increasing the district's student population by 20 percent.
"We've been a top-performing district for several years, but a large influx of new students is difficult for any district to accommodate," Hutto says, "especially when many of those students are coming from low-performing districts."
Two years and hundreds of new students later, Petal schools continue to be among the best performing schools in the state, and Hutto believes that the resources his district has received through the 21S Initiative have played a significant part in that success.
"We're a relatively poor district, but thanks to 21S, we've got as good an infrastructure as anyone in the nation," he adds. "I believe what Cisco has done for us, in providing both technical and human resources, has helped us create real learning communities."