DiscoveryEducation.com 800-323-9084

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Discovery Education

IndianapolisPublicSchools

ReplacesTraditionalTextbookswithaDigitalContentSolution

According to Dr. Eugene White, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, students in Indianapolis were losing interest in school. He was concerned that the content delivery was flat and needed to be brought to life for the students. Realizing that “we have to match up our intention to teach them with their interest to receive it,” Dr. White brought a team together that would embrace the tools of 21st century learning and pilot a program for social studies that could change the way the entire district approaches teaching and learning.

The administrative leadership in Indianapolis Public Schools,

recognizingthattheirstudentswerefacingseriouschallengesin

reachingtheiracademicpotential,decidedtochangethewaythey

deliverinstruction.Thechange,designedtomakethebestuseof

digitalcontent,newtechnology,andresearch-basedteachingmethods,

startedinsocialstudiesandissettospreadtoothercontentareas.

“We realized that students in social studies in particular were struggling to really get a deep understanding of the great issues of the time… and faculty are always struggling with resources: trying to get appropriate video, video clips, images, primary documents. With the opportunity that Discovery has with its huge collections of multimedia and primary documents, we found that you can go to one place and find those resources.”

Dr. Gerald McLeishDirector of Secondary Curriculum & Programs Indianapolis Public Schools

800-323-9084DiscoveryEducation.com

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SingularLeadership,SharedVisionIndianapolis Public Schools enroll 33,277 students,

with 85 percent of those students receiving free

and reduced lunch. The district faces many of the

same challenges of other urban districts, including

high dropout rates and achievement results that

cause concern. Under the leadership of Dr. Eugene

White, though, Indianapolis Public Schools is

leading the way in innovation and making data-

driven decisions to improve teaching and learning.

“The more we can capture them with visual images, with dynamic kind of content, the better engagement they’re going to have, the better they’re going to learn.”

Dr. Eugene WhiteSuperintendent Indianapolis Public Schools

TurningtoDiscoveryEducationtoTransformSocialStudies

Dr. Eugene White wanted to start a transformation with social studies because he saw a real opportunity to bring the curriculum to life with digital content. He wanted to provide students with a variety of ways to access information and give teachers all the structure and support they needed to deliver it well. He enrolled his curriculum leadership team: Dr. Willie Giles, Deputy Superintendent; Dr. Li-Yen Johnson, Associate Superintendent; and Dr. Gerald McLeish, Director of Secondary Curriculum & Programs, and they met with Discovery Education to map out a plan for success.

The answer for Indianapolis Public Schools involved a specific package of services designed to help in the curriculum, delivery, and support arenas. Specifically, Indianapolis Public Schools and Discovery Education partnered to bring curriculum alignment, digital content, and robust professional development to a cohort of teachers committed to the pilot in five grade levels and schools.

Together with Dr. White’s team, Discovery Education hosted a series of meetings to garner universal support for the initiative. From the cabinet to the school board, the teachers’ union to the instructional technology department, every stakeholder needed to embrace the plan and vision. With everyone on board, the plan began to take shape.

“A lot of their training is the way we would teach a lesson in the classroom. So I’m actually learning better teaching strategies just from watching them teach us in the training.”

Brandon House5th Grade Teacher Indianapolis Public Schools

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First, Indianapolis Public Schools identified the grade levels for the pilot program (grades five, seven, eight, nine, and eleven) and Discovery Education streaming Plus as the digital content solution. Then, Jocelyn Chadwick, Director of Curriculum for Social Studies and Language Arts at Discovery Education, and her team got to work on curriculum alignment. This service provided a final document that provides a direct live link between the existing pacing guides in Indianapolis Public Schools and Discovery Education streaming Plus digital content assets. The final product allows teachers to continue using the district pacing guides while easily finding, accessing, and delivering digital content to students. The service provides video, video clips, speeches, images, articles, interactives, and much more, all linked to specific standards and benchmarks.

With two of the three key pieces in place, Indianapolis Public Schools and Discovery Education’s professional development team came together to design a rigorous schedule of professional development to ensure that the teachers in the pilot cohort would be knowledgeable and comfortable delivering content in this new and exciting way. The team realized that you can’t ask educators to use new technology if you haven’t shown them how to use it. From teachers with little experience integrating technology to those who readily adopted new tools, each teacher would need to embrace the new approach.

ImplementationThe trainings were designed to be scaffolded, beginning with introductions to the technology and digital content and then building in the use of sound instructional strategies to create lively learning experiences and increase student engagement. Discovery Education Professional Development Specialists returned to the district multiple times to meet with the same cohort of teachers. They were also available for consultation in between sessions by to ensure that the process in classrooms was smooth.

Ultimately, 42 teachers from the selected grade levels participated in scaffolded professional development over a period of several months. By design, each group had their own trainer, with whom they developed an ongoing partnership, collaborating on lesson plans and delivery design. Using strategies like collaborative planning, model lessons, and continuous evaluation and feedback, the team worked together to ensure both teacher and student engagement.

Although the Indianapolis Public Schools pilot in social studies is ongoing and state assessment results are not yet available, the feedback from teachers and students has been enthusiastic. Dr. White and his team are hoping to expand the application of digital content, curriculum mapping, and professional development to other core academic areas.

Dr. Giles notes, “The feedback that I get from teachers and from Dr. McLeish… has been great. They said that they see a real difference in student engagement, student involvement.” And Dr. White is excited about the changes. In fact, Indianapolis Public Schools and Discovery Education are at the table, again, to figure out how to transform learning in other core areas. As Dr. White says, “I know we can do this in science and mathematics….”

“We went with the whole package on professional development because of the quality of what Discovery Education had to provide.”

Dr. Eugene WhiteSuperintendent Indianapolis Public Schools

“[Discovery Education trainers] have a very good rapport with the [teachers], they all have a teaching background. They’re passionate about what they do.”

Dr. Gerald McLeishDirector of Secondary Curriculum & Programs