TIECorp HELPS SOUTH CHICAGO SCHOOL DISTRICT REMOVE A "CLIMATE OF BITTERNESS"
The current national emphasis on school district and teacher accountability was reflecting itself in a "climate of bitterness and ill will" among the teaching staff of the Prairie Hills Elementary School District in the south suburbs of Chicago. The teachers, in this district of some 3100 students in grades K-8, found themselves forced to manually sift thorugh vast amounts of data, in different formats, to produce student progress reports that needed to reflect judgment of progress based on multiple sources of information. During parent-teacher conferences, the teacher uses the reports to explain a child's progress. The task of trying to pull together information from four distinct sources into a coherent presentation was a daunting one. In addition, teachers were unaccustomed to having to define progress in the context of specific curriculum statements that reflected the educational standards they were being held accountable for in their classroom. For the first time, progress reporting held the potential to actually impact funding streams to the school district. Not surprisingly, there was a great deal of teacher resistance that was compounded by resistance by some to the use of technology in the instructional process. Prairie Hills faced a substantial challenge.
The school's administration and its teacher's union found a solution in the web based TIENET® system from TIECorp. It was a means, says Roman Potempa, (District Assessment Coordinator) efficiently maximizing the district's investment in data generated from standardized testing, as well as data from other sources that the district wanted to use to define progress. Mr. Potempa, who also heads the district's teachers union, was amazed at the results. He calls TIENET® "the most teacher-friendly instructional management tool I've ever encountered." Not only did the union embrace the TIENET® solution because it "saved untold man-hours," Potempa reports but also "using technology in this way has become a matter of self preservation for the teaching staff." Potempa likes the fact that teachers now have the ability to track multi dimensional data on their students. They can easily communicate the results directly to parents, thereby completely eliminating a laborious data gathering and reporting task formerly done by hand.
Teachers can easily compare the progress of students who have been in the district for several years versus those who have arrived recently. They are able to now know where to focus their efforts and have a way to individualize attention. But what is most unique about this successful effort has been the participation of the teachers' union in this process. "Rather than disdain the program, Prairie Hills teachers have embraced the TIECorp technology," Potempa says.
The TIENET® system was developed by TIECorp, a New Jersey-based provider of Internet tools designed to support both general and special educators with mandated student performance reporting issues (IEP, etc.). Potempa and Dr. Barbara Nadler of TIECorp say they will be more than happy to make themselves available to discuss how the TIENET® system can help to solve similar problems in other schools - particularly how this accountability tool can help to make a positive difference in the daily life of a teacher, principal, administrator and student.
To arrange to speak with Mr. Potempa or Dr. Nadler, please contact William Friedel at 732-933-4040 X 108 or bill@TIECorp.com.
July 10, 2003
