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Quaker Valley gets picked to go digital No more pencils, no more books; school district wins high-tech grant Friday, February 23, 2001 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
In the video, Quaker Valley High School sophomore Marissa Scalercio takes a course in Japanese over the Internet. She takes a test on a laptop computer. She checks her schedule on a hand-held organizer and a parent looks up her grades online.
Welcome to the future.
The Quaker Valley district, already a technological leader among local school systems, is going fully digital.
The district is one of three in the state chosen to become national models of advanced technology in education.
The distinction, announced yesterday, will bring up to $2 million in state funding to the district this year and next. Students in grades three through 12 will get an array of new computer gear.
"You are going to invent the future of education," Gov. Tom Ridge told Quaker Valley students yesterday. Fittingly, he appeared on a large screen via satellite hookup from Spring Cove in Blair County, one of the other districts chosen for the program.
An international panel that chose Quaker Valley also selected Carlisle Area School District in Cumberland County.
Spring Cove was selected by the Ridge administration because it "demonstrated the effective use of education technology in a rural school district, where the 'digital divide' often is greatest," according to a state news release.
At Quaker Valley, the high school auditorium had a pep rally atmosphere with the school band, cheering students and school, business and community partners as well as state Education Secretary Eugene Hickok.
Students from third to 12th grades will be issued the "QVePack," a book bag equipped to give them ready access to technology around the clock. Some grades will get them this fall and others will receive them the following school year.
It includes a laptop computer. Instead of conventional textbooks, the pack has an eBook, an electronic device about the size of a paperback that can be updated with the latest information.
At the high school level, some students also will have hand-held personal digital assistants if needed for math or science classes.
Filled, the book bag weighs less than 12 pounds.
Each student's home will be provided with high-speed Internet access and a wireless antenna so the student's laptop can be used in any room. Wireless technology also will be used at school.
"Quaker Valley is making history," Hickok said.
Superintendent Gerard Longo likened the district to a teaching hospital because it welcomes visitors who want to learn and share ideas.
Quaker Valley has about 1,850 students from Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leetsdale, Osborne, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills, Aleppo and Leet.
The district has about 20 community and business partners for the digital project. Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University will evaluate the district's efforts.
Joseph Marrone, director of administrative services, said the project would have cost twice as much as the available state grants were it not for in-kind donations.
The state is looking for businesses and others to contribute to the program in the three districts and help three other finalists that weren't selected -- including Franklin Regional -- pursue their technological goals.
The six finalists were selected from an initial field of 77.
Hickok is flying to California next week to try to encourage more partnerships. An earlier visit there inspired the competition, which state officials said was the first of its kind in the nation.
The plan also calls for starting a charter or independent school this fall for 25 to 50 students whose "extraordinary talent" prevents them from fitting into a regular school program -- for instance, a student appearing on Broadway or competing in tennis nationally.
The charter school is designed to serve an area within about 10 miles of the district's boundary.
To Quaker Valley, the excitement isn't the glitz of the devices; it's what can be done with them to improve and tailor education for each student.
"We have to make sure we don't lose the vision. It's a tool to help us do teaching and learning efficiently and effectively," Marrone said.
The eBooks, for example, will help the district to offer students the latest, customized information.
The laptop computers will be used for writing, e-mail, distance education and research and will be able to run academic software.
Students will be able to connect to the Internet on the laptops at school, home and the library. Parents will have passwords so that they can look at their children's homework and grades online.
"I'm so excited because I think it all will be so much easier to use," said Scalercio, who acted in a video shown in Harrisburg as part of the competition. "I think I'll be more organized."
Next year's budget proposal calls for another competition to choose two more digital districts. Hickok said guidelines for that contest have not been set.
In Franklin Regional, Judy Morrison, principal of Newlonsburg Elementary School and district spokeswoman, expressed disappointment over not being selected.
But she said the district will move forward with its technology plans and partners. She said the pace will be slower because it won't have the state grant.
"We're better for the trying," Morrison said.
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