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Staff writer
With a year of the iPad program under its belt, the Isle of Wight County school division is ready to face the “brutal facts,” said assistant superintendent Laura Abel.
School staff is undertaking a “blame-free autopsy” of the Isle-21 iPad initiative, which gave each high school student his own iPad this past year, said Abel, who referenced a book called “Good to Great” by Jim Collins as the basis for her approach.
Abel hopes to compile feedback from a variety of sources and present it to the School Board at its July 16 meeting.
“This is not about who did what, but rather where we go from here,” she said. So far, staff has received 80 completed surveys, which they randomly sourced from parents of highschoolers, and is actively seeking more parent feedback through a survey online.
This week, staff will hold focus groups with parents, said Abel.
Focus groups of teachers and students have already met.
Both high schools shared this information with parents via the Alert Now system, school email groups and iPad apps, said Bowers.
The schools submitted 20 Windsor High and 30 Smithfield High parents’ names to represent all grade levels in the focus groups, said Bowers.
The online survey is anonymous but asks parents to indicate which school their child attended to gauge whether there is a difference in experience from Windsor to Smithfield high schools. ...(Subscribe!)
