Austin schools ranked No. 8 in nation for tech
Published 10:56 am Monday, June 13, 2016
- Student Kyle Hillman works on a laptop provided by Austin High School. -- Herald file photos
Austin Public Schools has integrated different technologies into its school curriculums and its website over the years, and it was finally recognized for the efforts.
The district was recently awarded for its innovative uses of technology from the Center for Digital Education for the 2015-16 school year, and Austin is now ranked No. 8 in the nation for school districts sized 3,000 to 11,000 students.
“It’s work that’s been going on for years in our district,” Director of Technology Burke Egner said. “It’s nice to be recognized.”
The school district has accomplished a lot in terms of integrating and leveraging technology into classrooms and its website.
Devin Klapperick, part of a student-led tech support group at Austin High School, puts ends on CAT5 cable.
It has recently revitalized the district website, which made it accessible from any device and was a big help in getting the award, Egner said. To connect further with parents and community members, the district added links to documents such as school board minutes and agendas.
“We get that information out to our community and our stakeholders,” Egner said.
Egner applied for the award and had to provide many different sources for the award committee to choose them. District leaders evaluated a variety of documents, board policies, school board meeting minutes where members talked about technology in their school district and links to the website to see where content was housed.
The committee also wanted to see how easy it is for parents to access the website, how transparent the school board is with information, how technology is utilized and leveraged in the district and what technology initiatives the district is exploring, Egner said.
“It’s all encompassing,” he said. “We’re recognized as a premier school district nationwide. We’re ahead of the curve.”
He attributed the award to school board members and the policies in place which allow students to use the technologies.
Some of the technology programs include teaching students how to use email, what’s appropriate and inappropriate online and how to operate and live in a digital world.
Egner said strong leadership from the school board, hard work from the principals and support from the community contributed to the award.
“A lot of things… helped get this award,” Egner said. “We really set up and put things in place for years and we’re finally at the point where we’re being recognized.”
