Kyrene School District

12/17/06

ELearning innovation continues to break out all over Arizona.

Kyrene district won national acclaim with its “Kyrene Teaches with Technology Project” by the National School Board Association (NSBA). Only three districts in the United States won this award in 2006. Why is the KTTP so great?

Intel made a significant early contribution by providing significant technology support in the 1990’s to a Kyrene school The result was significant learning on how to and how not to implement eLearning. This current generation of Kyrene innovation now focuses on curriculum, assessment and classrooms not computers and connectivity. The plan is not a technology plan but a long range strategic plan. Longtime and innovative Technology Director Mark Share, originally at Scottsdale in the 1990’s and now at Kyrene, has focused on evolution (not revolution) with his dedicated classroom teachers.

We had a delightful connection in the 1970’s when Superintendent Ben Furlong and Gifted Director Klonda Ball were leaders in an innovative gifted program call HIP (don’t remember the words in the acronym but Klonda had the kids chanting “Hip Hip Hip” as they walked down the halls. Klonda and I worked on founding the Arizona Association for Gifted and Talented and brainstormed the name “Potential” for the AAGT newsletter.

Like a star being found at a lunch counter in Los Angeles, the news ignores the years and decades of unheralded work behind the “instance success.” Hundreds of other Arizona districts are ready for innovative eLearning breakout. And so is the State of Arizona.