July 2005 — SETDA

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Closing the Achievement Gap: Nevada's Churchill County School District

By Kerri Angel

Can Technology Improve Student Achievement?

Faculty from a rural Nevada district take part in the Rural Science Teachers Teaching with Technology (RST3) grant program to discover whether technology can really make a difference in student learning.

When my department at the Churchill County Junior High School in Fallon, NV, got the chance to partake in the Rural Science Teachers Teaching with Technology (RST3) project, which uses technology to teach science, we were a little giddy at the prospect of each participant receiving a laptop, an LCD projector, software, professional development, a full year of paid high-speed Internet access at home, three graduate credits, and a stipend. All we had to do was write and teach two units with a technology component and two without, teach two units developed by another team, and then collect the data, and our department got to keep all the money. Sounds easy, right?

When our rural district in Northern Nevada was asked to take part in the RST3 grant program, which involved action research through the University of Nevada, Reno, there were initially five people involved from my department; we viewed ourselves as scientists. We each had an average of 13.5 years of teaching experience, so we knew how to teach children and were already integrating technology into our curriculum, albeit it was on a sh'estring budget with only one computer. Needless to say, we were ready for anything that was thrown our way.

Getting Hit With Reality

Computer problems. Often what looks easy on the surface is a lot more difficult when you wade into it. Our first hurdle was a squabble over who would have administrative rights and ownership of the computers and projectors. The second one came when the district decided to wipe the computers clean and load a lower-end operating system on them. The third hurdle was having to wait a month for the technology department to finish wiping and reloading the software onto the laptops, which caused the teachers to lose some momentum and enthusiasm.

Content problems. Once the computer problems were resolved, the next hurdle was developing content. We had to develop two units that would somehow meet state standards and fit into our current curriculum. The first problem was trying to collaborate since this is a rural community, and some of the participants were up to two hours away by car. We live on Highway 50, also known as the "loneliest road in America," so finding someone to collaborate was a challenge. Fortunately, we were able to resolve most of the distance problem by relying on e-mail and phone correspondence.

This content portion proved to be the area of give and take. We negotiated like we were planning for a peace summit in the Middle East. In the end, we each found out our individual strengths and weaknesses. I was lucky enough to have four people involved in the project at my school. It was an amazing journey to collaborate with colleagues who I had worked next door to for 10 years but had never really worked with. As we overcame each obstacle, our respect for one another grew exponentially.

Skewing the data.