Technology Leadership for Transformation
Archive of Carol Leffler's November 18, 2005 presentation at the NCDAE/AccessIT national discussion meeting at NCTI.
When Community Consolidated School District 54 educators in Schaumburg, IL took one year to envision and write a district-wide technology plan in 1995, they began with remarkable resolve and commitment to educating all students and providing access to the district curriculum, regardless of any individual student’s needs. The journey has been an amazing learning experience for district administrators, teachers, students, the community, as well as the broader community of their curriculum providers and technology vendors.
SD 54 is regarded as a model for using technology to personalize education for all students. Building principals are required to learn about district initiatives which ten years ago would have been regarded as ‘special education technologies, as well as mainstream technologies. District professional development provides regular and on-going training for staff on all forms of technology integration to support student learning. The expectation is that the staff will participate because that is the culture of the district, and they are rewarded for participating. Ten years ago district staff began with a vision to educate all of their students, regardless of need. The district leadership committed to the dialog, envisioning a plan that fully incorporated district-wide deployment of accessible technologies. They determined that a parallel curriculum for students with disabilities was not in the best interests of the students or the district, and funded and configured an infrastructure to provide access to the general curriculum for every student. Along the way, students without disabilities began to benefit from the variety of technologies in their classrooms that were embedded in the learning environment. The reference changed from "accessible" and "assistive" technologies to just plain "technology." All students have access to whatever they need to ensure they are engaged and learning to the best of their abilities.
Archived presentation
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TranscriptView the Technology Plan from Carol Leffler's district (PDF).
