Saugus schools going high tech

SAUGUS – Students will return to district schools in the fall with the ability to use a variety of new technology, according to Superintendent Richard Langlois.From e-readers and Skype to data software and technology workshops, Saugus schools will be getting more high tech as Langlois looks to keep students, teachers and administrators more connected.This summer, Langlois will also look to apply for an $8,000 Race to the Top grant to put Skype in the high school and middle schools for the fall. This will allow classes to communicate face-to-face with students around the world.”I have classes in the Belmonte Middle School where a class can sit in the library and see a classroom in Ecuador and discuss a book that they both read,” said Langlois. “Now I’m using a grant to use it in the high school library and the middle school library.”Langlois said he’s also exploring the possibility of using e-readers like the Kindle or Nook for literature classes. This is all just a part of some major hardware upgrades the schools have seen since Langlois took over in 2008.”There was no technology K through eight,” said Langlois. “A kid could go through this school system in 2008 and never touch a computer until they got to the high school. Now we have a presence of computers in every classroom. When I came in we had about eight students to one computer. We had some really antiquated equipment. I brought everything up to currency and we’ve begun a recycling process.”That process has seen computers that are five years or older replaced with new equipment, with other computers slated to be replaced as they get older.School Committee Chair Wendy Reed said providing students with e-readers could condense a student’s coursework into one single device and lessen the amount of books they would need to carry.”Middle schoolers seem to be carrying so many textbooks that it seems there would be benefits,” said Reed. “Students can have all their summer reading on it as well and just carry around one item.”But while Langlois speaks with pride about all the new hardware, it’s the software that he said has him even more excited.One program is called Data Director, an online data management system that, when combined with the district’s current X2 program, another data management system, will allow teachers and administrators to track student progress in all areas of learning for his or her entire school career.These programs are all a part of the assessment portion of Langlois’ District Improvement Plan, which relies heavily on data input and tracking to improve both student and teacher achievement, and makes up what Langlois calls the “triangulation” of curriculum, instruction and data.”Data drives the decisions on what you’re going to do with the curriculum and how you deliver the instruction,” said Langlois. “If you take a test, I can get the results online in a few minutes and assess that data and look at the whole class. The new factor is our teachers are using the data to improve their instruction. It’s amazing stuff.”But all of these new systems would be useless if teachers didn’t know how to use them. So this summer Langlois will have two professional development workshops, one based on research for better teaching and the other based on data. This fall, Langlois said every school will have up to six staff members trained to help his or her colleagues.”There was no professional development ? ” said Langlois. “If you want to use technology ? you have to teach people how to do it.”For Reed, keeping track of a student’s progress not only benefits the student, but it also helps teachers work on their own skills.”You can see what (a student’s) weaknesses are and make individual improvement plans,” said Reed. “It also helps teachers pinpoint their weaknesses. We’re building our own assessments and don’t have to rely solely on the MCAS tests.”Langlois was prepared to make some deep cuts to the school budget when summer started that would have amounted to $1.