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Organization: New York City Department of Education - PS25 The Bilingual School

Problem Summary: Academic achievement in this school has been in a constant decline for years. One of the biggest problems faced is that students sit in outdated classrooms, where resources and teaching practices do not address their needs. Modern learners need tools and strategies that promote life-long learning and independent critical thinking skills.

A complete systemic transformation of the learning environments is urgent and necessary. Some educators have transformed their environments and shown the positive effects that this can have in overall academic achievement. Other initiatives, such as an academic Multimedia program have raised student engagement and brought upon positive results.

Background of organization PS25 The Bilingual School is the first bilingual public school fully funded by the US government. The school was funded as a result of the Bilingual Education Act of 1968. It is located in the South Bronx, in the Morrisania area. At that time most of the population around the area consisted of spanish speaking immigrants from Puerto Rico, with children who were going to English speaking schools that could not cater to their needs. The Bilingual School was established as a place where bilingual students could flourish, serviced by a team of educators who spoke their language and understood their cultural background.

PS25 The Bilingual School is located in New York's 16th Congressional District, the poorest congressional district in the United States. More than 90% of the students receive free lunches and more than 85% of its student population comes from homes where the main language is not English. English as a Second Language instruction is crucial to their academic achievement.

PS25 The Bilingual School is managed by Ms Carmen Toledo, an experienced and visionary Principal who took over the school one year ago. In one year the school was able to show progress in the academic achievement areas that it had for years struggled with. The incorporation of technology has shown academic improvement and the desire to take it to the next level is latent in the administration. Ms. Toledo and I have been working in finding solutions to this problem and are committed to continue until every child shows achievement.

I have access to internal information as needed. The administrative team of Ms. Toledo (Principal), Ms. Bonano (Assistant Principal), Ms. Acabeo (Assistant Principal) and Ms García (Bilingual Coordinator) has been very cooperative and open to analyzing and discussing student data as we design strategies to raise achievement. They know the students and their parents and can provide, along with the data, a more complete understanding of the problem.

Every school in New York City has an internet portal where the public can find information about the school. This information includes test scores (in general and by grade, not individual), a School Report Card and other pertinent information. The portal can be found at: http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/07/X025/default.htm.

New York City also has a system called ARIS that collects and analyzes student data. State tests scores, classroom grades and other periodical assessments are accesible to teachers and administrators. The access is dependent on one's relationship with a particular class or school, where teachers can only see the students they service and administrators see all students in their school. This service will provide actualized data and customized reports that will help design the proposed intervention.

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PS25 The Bilingual School wants to become a modern 21st Century Learning Organization. As a short term goal the school is envisioning to incorporate Project Based Learning (PBL) as its teaching strategy. Educators are being trained so they can then turnkey their colleagues. The goal is that all teachers in the school feel comfortable with PBL in their classroom and students can have the opportunity to express understanding beyond the tests. The school aims to accomplish this by the end of this school year. Several teachers have already been trained and are developing projects with their classes as a pilot program.

The next step is to incorporate technology to the PBL classroom. The plan is to purchase an iPad for every student and replace much of the textbooks, if not all, so that students and teachers can work together in the development of critical thinking skills. The iPad will promote independent learning and collaboration while raising student engagement and motivation. Students now have access to laptops even though not in a one to one environment. This will happen as soon as this grant is approved with Title IID funds. The plan is to submit it at the end of this school year.

The school had been in the 'Schools In Need of Improvement' (SINI) list for several years. Depending on this year's test scores for 4th Grade and Special Education students a decision will be made by the city to keep it one more year or remove it from the list. If it stays on the list for two more years it could then become a 'School Under Registration Review' (SURR) school. Under such status the school could be closed, reopened with a new name, a new administration and new staff. This has happened to several schools in the area already.

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PS25 The Bilingual School has had several short term interventions. A Learning With Technology grant supported Professional development for a small group of teachers. It also funded the purchase of three digital cameras and speech recognition software, but its efforts were not coordinated with the school's culture. Another grant funded Smartboards for five classrooms but with no projectors or computers to operate them or Professional Development to support the educators.

The intervention strategy that PS25 The Bilingual School needs now must be transformative. The efforts in isolated classrooms have brought upon positive results but they have not propagated around the rest of the school. The proposed intervention must look at the school as a whole and target areas that can bring permanent change. Modern tools are important but they must come with the necessary training to maximize their effectiveness. If the school is to adopt a common teaching strategy and provide a one to one iPad environment for students then the educators must be well prepared to make it work. Sufficient Professional Development is crucial for success.

The Professional Development plan includes partnerships with APPLE Education in NYC for iPad Professional Development (PD), The Buck Institute of Education for Project Based Learning PD, the Digital Arts Alliance for Digital MEdia PD, the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) for turnkey strategies for master educators and BronxNet for a broadcasting initiative that will publish and propagate student work across the Bronx through several cable channels.

The proposal will be for a three year intervention. The budget will be finalized as soon as all the components are in and should be sufficient to accommodate PD, hardware, supplies, field trips and miscellaneous in the school.

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As a Project Manager I will be responsible for carrying and completing the accepted intervention. These responsibilities will include all aspects related to and influenced by the analysis, intervention selection and design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the selected intervention as well as the continuation beyond the project's scope of any other required components to ensure success. The position will be defined as follows:

Job duties 1. Lead and coordinate Project design, development, and analysis 2. Develop short term and long-term project plans, priorities and objectives 3. Provides expert technical leadership 4. Liaison and contract negotiation with outside organizations who will be partners as well as schedule, deliverables, intellectual property considerations, and financial compensation for these partners 5. Develops required materials including technical specifications, project and resource plans, project updates, presentation materials. 6. Risk assessment and reporting 7. Coordinates and tracks project deliverables from multiple teams by defining, implementing, and updating a project reporting process to the organization 8. Model promising practices highlighting points of success

My qualifications:

BA in Social Sciences with a Major in Research Methods

MS in Bilingual Education

10 years of experience administering Technology and Innovation grants in educational environments

5 years of experience as a Project Manager in the New York City Department of Education

Strong interpersonal skills

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The New York City Department of Education has a website for purchasing hardware, software and services that are under contract. Most of the proposed resources can be obtained there. Below is a table showing proposed budget provisions for each resource. Other resources will be used but do not require listing as they are in house services, independently contracted services that serve other purposes and in kind services offered by community partners. These will be garnered along the project as they become available and necessary.

Number: 356172175 Vendor: APPLE COMPUTER, INC. || 4,790.00 || 10 || 47,900.00 ||
 * Budget Provisions **
 * FAMIS Description || Price(USD) || # of units || Total(USD) ||
 * 10 iPad Wi-Fi 16GB -10 Pack
 * APPLE Education - Learning with iPad Workshop - Price is per participant - 5 participants to turnkey || 500.00 || 5 || 2,500.00 ||
 * NYCDOE Office of Educational Technology- iPad for Productivity Workshop - Unlimited Participants || 0.00 || 5 || 0.00 ||
 * iPad Productivity Applications (Pages, Keynote & Numbers) || 4.99 || 100 || 499.00 ||
 * DRAGON Speech to Text Application for iPad || 0.00 || 100 || 0.00 ||
 * Project Based Learning in the 21st Century Bilingual Classroom - 5 day residency - 5 participants every year || 500.00 || 5 || 2,500.00 ||
 * Grand Total || - || - || 53,399.00 ||

Project Evaluation will be performed by the Office of Educational Technology of the New York City Department of Education. This Office offers free support to public schools in the area of educational technology including project assistance and evaluation. The office is located in the Tweed Courthouse Building in New York City. This evaluation will include:  · Pre and post project surveys for students and staff  · Pre and post home environment surveys for parents  · Pre and post project analysis of student data  · Ongoing satisfaction surveys  · Workshop and residency observations  · Teacher evaluations  · ARIS Data

The project will utilize standardized test scores to measure the impact and the attainment of the objectives. NYSESLAT test scores, ELA test scores and teacher observations will form part of a comprehensive pack of assessments.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; margin-bottom: 0.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0.1pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Other assessments will be defined by the classroom teacher to meet school benchmarks with the assistance of the PBL specialist assigned. As part of the PBL Residency participants will learn how to create opportunities that utilize the technology acquired.