Apple - Education - Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy, Page 1

Profiles in Success: Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy

Sacramento, CA — By the dawn of the new millennium, Jonas Salk Middle School was in trouble. After years of low academic achievement, high turnover rates by students and teachers, and ongoing discipline problems, Jonas Salk was placed on a School Improvement Program. Then new San Juan Unified School District Superintendent Steven Enoch took office. His solution: Create a technology-infused curriculum, delivered by a new, extremely motivated faculty. Since rechristened as the Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy, the school’s collection of Apple technology tools has helped spark a remarkable turnaround in teaching and learning. (See "Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy's API Score Soars.")

When Enoch assumed his new post, he brought with him some fairly revolutionary notions. Having seen first-hand the benefits of 1 to 1 learning, Enoch believed the model would be beneficial at Jonas Salk as well. Jon Leister, technology coach at the school, said Enoch’s approach prompted some drastic changes. “He came up with the concept of ‘reconstituting’ the school: It was basically closed and everyone from the top down had to apply or reapply for a position, with the understanding that technology would be infused in the curriculum. It was a highly competitive process. People didn’t necessarily have to be technology experts. But they had to be willing to learn.”

The kids actually told us that they loved coming here! Our suspension rate went down, and we actually saw increases in attendance.

— Jon Leister,
Technology Coach,
Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy

Apple Products Create a 21st-Century Learning Environment

At the same time the faculty of the future Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy was being selected, an array of Apple technologies was being uncrated. The school purchased Apple Mobile Learning Labs, iMac computers for the classrooms, and iWork. As usual, all of the computers came preloaded with the iLife suite of authoring tools. Behind the scenes, Xserve servers and an Xserve RAID were deployed to support students’ and teachers’ mobile accounts, and house all digital content. In addition, Leister ordered eight days of Apple Professional Development (APD), which facilitated the technology integration.

“Our trainer was very knowledgeable, and customized the classes to exactly what we wanted,” Leister notes. “Each session was extremely relevant, whether it was about digital storytelling, or publishing curriculum to a website with iWeb. We were able to bring our teachers in and get some really good training, which helped us to do what we needed to do.”

Student Engagement Runs High

At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy welcomed its first students. Whether it was the enthusiasm of the new faculty (over half of whom had just been hired), or the new Apple technologies, Leister isn’t entirely sure. But from the start, he says the changes in students’ attitudes and behaviors were striking.

Says Leister, “The kids actually told us that they loved coming here! Our suspension rate went down, and we actually saw increases in attendance. But the main thing was that we had a lot of visitations from outside of the district, and every single person said the same thing: ‘The reputation of this school has been completely turned around.’ It used to be pretty chaotic here. But now the students are engaged, they’re on task, and they’re doing what needs to be done.