“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
Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy: Technology Infusion Transforms
Low-Performing School
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.”
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.”
