District Administration - July/August 2011 - (Page 56)

FinDing the Right PuRchaSing SoLution rank them in order of importance,” says Scrogan. For example, Boulder Valley considered long bulb life a top requirement at this stage when the district was considering new projectors. Committees and focus groups are useful tools in this phase, and they are most effective when they are as diverse as possible. “When we form committees to determine our requirements in a large initiative, we’ll often include not only teachers and technology staff but school board members, current and former students, parents and other community members so we can get a cross section of feedback,” says Pileiro, who says the Linwood district recently created such a committee to determine which computers to implement for special education students. “That committee included special education teachers, assistive technology specialists, administrators and IT staff. The more diversity you have, the better, because each member can bring perspectives to the issue you might not have thought of,” he says. Scrogan typically will form committees or focus groups of different sizes and configurations, depending on the size of the initiative, with committees being more crucial the larger the purchase. “You want to have the technical and education sides represented, using IT staff as well as teachers and administrators, since nearly everything we do has an impact on student learning,” he says. In the 9,000-student Barrington (Ind.) 220 School District, administrators formed a committee called the Technology Leadership Team (TLT), which meets every month to review requests and ideas for new purchases. “In the TLT, we focus on how the project meets our curricular goals, how it will support student achievement, and if we can sustain it,” says Patricia Haughney, director of information services, who adds that including the district’s curriculum director on the committee is vital to ensuring these goals. “Having our curriculum and technology departments working together is a great partnership that takes advantage of the knowledge, experiences and skills of our entire administrative team in making these decisions,” she says. 56 July/August 2011 Teachers in the Boulder Valley (Colo.) School District undergo professional development training to ensure effective use of any new product or technology the district implements. Becky Cook, director of instructional technology at the 107,000-student Cypress-Fairbanks (Texas) Independent School District, trains a teacher on using the new student information system the district will be implementing in the fall. “First we look at how it will impact classroom instruction,” she says, about looking at purchasing new products. “We also consider how it relates to state standards, how well it prepares students for college or the workforce, how well it integrates into our network and how easily we can support it.” Roderick Matthews, director of information technology of the 27,000-student Recovery School District in New Orleans since 2007, says he has learned the importance of specifically involving the eventual end user in the group that is compiling and ranking requirements, a doesn’t end up being utilized. Let them be part of the decision, and don’t make a unilateral decision as an administrator.” Surveys can also be useful in this phase by involving many more participants than could realistically join a committee. Administrators in the 2,300-student “We’ve saved a lot of money by researching and being very familiar with what we already have, and essentially preventing the same products from being purchased over and over.” —Roderick Matthews, director of information technology, Recovery (La.) School District strategy that sounds intuitive but can often be overlooked. “If it’s classroom technology, I involve teachers in addition to other administrators. If it’s an infrastructure product, like the Internet content filter we recently purchased, I make sure my IT staff can try it out during the decision-making process, as they’re the end users,” he says. “You have to have buy-in from those who will be using the product every day or you risk spending money on something that Teton County (Wyo.) School District issued a voluntary online survey to all district employees in November 2009 as part of the process of determining which new email system would meet their needs more effectively than their existing system. The survey asked staff to identify their most common email problems, how satisfied they were with each aspect of the existing product, and what specific features would be most important to them in the new District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July/August 2011

District Administration - July/August 2011
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Facilities News
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The Social Media Dilemma
Is Year-Round Schooling on Track?
After 50 Years, Ethnic Studies Still Controversial
Finding the Right Purchasing Solution
Look, Listen, Learn
Research Center
Supervisor’s Opinion
Going Mobile
Superintendent’s Insight
Books
Product Focus
New Products
Online Edge

District Administration - July/August 2011