Decatur City Schools in Alabama is considering a digital conversion that would significantly change how the district delivers education and communicates with parents. The plan would eliminate textbooks, provide each student a personalized approach to learning, give them 24-hour access to the classroom and eliminate the assignment gap by assigning tasks appropriate for each student’s learning level. DCS would not be the first school district in the nation to take a total digital approach to learning, but school leaders said they want to be a model for the state in the way Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina became one for the nation. “We can do this, and if we don’t, we’re cheating our students by not preparing them to be competitive in a global society,” Walter Jackson Elementary Principal Rhonda Reece said. Reece serves on an 11-member committee that started meeting in August at the request of Superintendent Ed Nichols. The group, which includes administrators, parents and Central Office employees, rolled out its proposal last week. If successful, DCS, by 2018, will eliminate teachers leading lessons from textbooks for a model that will include student-directed learning, which relies heavily on digital material. The plan is ambitious, but it is one committee members and parents Mary Ila Ward and Lorrianne Curtis Sparkman said is achievable before 2018. “This is where our students are, and the good thing about this proposal is it allows them to customize their learning plan,” Ward said. The first key step, DCS director of technology Kathy Rains said, is school board buy-in, something the committee didn’t overwhelmingly get last week.
Alabama’s Decatur City Schools district is considering a transition to becoming fully digital by 2018, doing away with traditional textbooks. The idea, which was proposed by a committee, now faces scrutiny and also doubt from a sceptical board. The concern is that tech access remains an issue for low-income students, however the committee suggests this issue could be countered by creating a plan to offer families discounted Internet at home. A new report released today shows how much more students are spending on books than they did in 2014. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that funding such plans can be controversial. In North Carolina’s Mooresville Graded School District, 37 teaching positions were reportedly eliminated to pave the way financially for similar new technology.