A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Christopher Columbus Middle School, Union City, New Jersey

• Schoolwide curriculum change
• Linking school and home
• Small group collaborative learning
• International correspondence

All that began to change in the 1989-90 school year. A new district superintendent and a new executive director for academic programs were appointed, and, because of the district's poor academic track record, the state required Union City to develop a five-year restructuring plan. As a result, teachers developed a new interdisciplinary curriculum for grades K-8 that emphasized research, learning by doing, cooperative learning, and the reading of challenging literature.

Other reform activities included changes in class schedules, with (a) extended block periods in communication and math and science, (b) the elimination of pull-out programs, and (c) more emphasis on staff development. With additional money from New Jersey's Quality of Education Act, the district made a significant investment in technology resources. In the last four years, for example, 775 computers were installed.

At the same time district reforms were taking place, the school district extended feelers to business and industry in New Jersey, hoping to convince those communities to invest resources in the schools. Initially there were no takers. However, Bell Atlantic looking to test a communications system in an inner city, minority school district with a dense population spotted the district's call for investment and decided that Union City was a match. The school district was renovating an old parochial school it had recently purchased to house seventh and eighth graders from two elementary schools that were overcrowded. During renovations, a state-of-the-art networking infrastructure could easily be installed, and in 1992, Bell Atlantic approached the school district and offered to implement a technology trial. It was an offer the district could not refuse.

Wiring Up

While the two-year project at Christopher Columbus Middle School began in September of 1993, planning had been underway for about a year. In the summer of 1993, Bell Atlantic installed in the school and homes of all seventh grade students and their teachers 486-level computers equipped with graphics and voice capabilities. The computers are tied into a local area network that is itself connected to a wide area network, users can communicate between school and home and have basic software tools to carry out curriculum activities.

Students and teachers are encouraged to keep the computers over the summer; and the computers supplied by Bell Atlantic now supplement the ones already purchased by the school district. In addition to each classroom having several computers, there are computers in the media resource room, the science laboratory, and the computer laboratory, all areas to which students have access. The media resource room and the computer lab also have a large collection of software programs; and the teacher's room, too, is equipped with computers.

Technology and the Curriculum

Administrators and teachers now see the technology as an integral part of the curriculum, as it fits in well with their emphasis on research, critical thinking, and cooperative learning. For example, when students study the American Revolution, the teacher has them conduct research that they later share with the class. The teacher also can divide the class into research teams. One or two teams conduct their research through traditional information, such as textbooks; another team goes to the media center and researches the topic on the Grolier multimedia encyclopedia; a third team uses the computer to research the topic through a CD ROM information disc; and a fourth group uses E-mail to access other forums or groups that may have information on the Revolution.

In their communications class, students can choose a novel to read and research novels written about bravery and the Revolution. In math, they can make pie and bar graphs to compare, say, British and American resources available during the Revolution. Teams that do not complete their work during class time can continue working at home and communicate with one another through E-mail. Student teams then write group reports on the computer, which they present to the class to establish class knowledge.

Support is the Critical Factor

One sometimes hears that teachers fear technology, but not at Christopher Columbus Middle School. Teachers at the new school had volunteered for the assignment. Their enthusiasm was supported by training they received from Bell Atlantic and from the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology.

Before the school year began, teachers learned computer basics and how to plug in multimedia applications to the new Union City seventh and eighth grade curriculums. They received training in how to manage files, use Microsoft Works and Microsoft Publisher, and generate applications using KidPix. Training continued through the school year, so that teachers learned how to use spreadsheets and database applications, E-mail, Lotus Notes, and Internet. The Center for Children and Technology also worked with teachers interested in discussing various technical and curricular issues that arose out of their work with Project Explore.

Teachers held two workshops to introduce parents to the new technology; and Bell Atlantic staff are currently in the process of setting up parent accounts on the network. The project had the support of the principal, who provided strong leadership and gave parents, students, and teachers an active voice in the decision-making process.

Glitches

Installing the technology is complex, and it is complicated by scheduling and coordinating the lines in students' homes and the school. Furthermore, it is more time consuming to maintain the computers and the network than Bell Atlantic initially anticipated.

Some teachers feel students might benefit from more software to help them develop and practice basic skills; others want bilingual software. Administrators want more educational tools to enhance the curriculum content. In Phase II of the project, beginning in September of 1994, a CD ROM library will be introduced to fulfill some of these desires.

Administrators raised some concern that the two-year length of this project may be too short a period for teachers to become comfortable with the new technology. Thinking about their students' future, administrators also are concerned that Christopher Columbus graduates, accustomed to working with technology, will be frustrated and constrained by the lack of resources they may discover at home and in their high schools.

The Future

Reforms initiated by the district have had a positive impact. Collaboration has become the norm among teachers, administrators, and parents using the network; and parents, teachers, and administrators are working toward establishing a school-improvement team.

When compared to national averages, Union City students in grades K-8 are performing in the average to above average range in reading and language arts, and to the above average to best range in mathematics. On New Jersey's Early Warning Test, which measures eighth graders' knowledge and skills in reading, math, and writing, students in Union City are outperforming other urban and special needs districts in the state by approximately 10 percentage points.

In fact, on the practice Early Warning Test taken by seventh graders, students at Christopher Columbus had the highest overall scores of any students in the district. According to the Director of Academic Programs, these higher scores can be partially attributed to the amount of writing and editing that students are doing on the computers at the school and at home. Christopher Columbus also holds the district's best attendance record for both students and faculty.

While the transfer rate in the district has declined overall, it dropped significantly at Christopher Columbus. Students are using the media resource room during lunch time and after school. They're actually eager to hand in their homework, neatly typed on the computer. And they're lining up before the formal school day begins so that they can get into the building eager to continue their learning activities.

John Grady
Bell Atlantic Video Services
(703) 708-4180

Fred Carrigg
Executive Director of Academic Programs
Union City School District
Union City, New Jersey
(201) 348-5671

Margaret Honey
Education Development Center
Center for Children and Technology
96 Morton Street
New York, New York 10014
(212) 807-4209
mhoney@confer.edu.org

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