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Educational Design & Technology

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Learning Technology Grant Program Overview: NYC Community School District 21

Award Years: 2021-2024

FlippedTIPS

Community District 21 (a 2020 designated Targeted District based on accountability status from New York State Ed.) is a large urban geographic district in southwestern Brooklyn, New York, encompassing neighborhoods such as Brighton Beach, Coney Island and Bensonhurst.  Our students have been historically under-represented and are considered at-risk as measured by socioeconomic indicators (e.g. free and reduced lunch percentage) and have been underserved in terms of not having adequate access to WiFi, Internet and libraries. District 21 is focused on servicing youth and families impacted by at-risk circumstances.

Forty-four schools are part of District 21.  District 21’s total K-12 enrollment is 33,868 (68% are non-white minorities) and the student population has large percentages of English Language Learners (18%), students with disabilities (19%), and economically disadvantaged students (75%).  These schools are in areas of high unemployment and low achievement, as evidenced by the designation of International High School at Lafayette as Targeted Support and Improvement School (TSI).

FlippedTIPS is a proven problem-solving approach which is used by hundreds of teachers in New York City schools as well as other districts throughout New York State.  Teachers learn the six-step Public Policy Analyst (or PPA), a unique problem-solving approach to social problems that students will use to analyze issues in their curriculum, community and beyond.  Teachers will create their own hyperdoc lessons that will be accessible through the District website and meet the Open Education Resource (OER) standards for other teachers to adapt.

The 75 content teachers and library media specialists will achieve four objectives:

  1. Teachers will demonstrate problem-based learning by guiding their students in the identification, analysis, and solving of a curriculum or community social problem.
  2. Teachers will develop an original, interdisciplinary, PPA based hyperdoc, which is an online inquiry-oriented activity, for their students.
  3. Teachers will design and develop a web-based presentation for their students
  4. Teachers will create an original screencast and interactive video to be used in “flipping” one of their lessons.

The two student objectives:  Students will…

  1. Show significant gains in meeting the technology standards as outlined in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Standards for Students
  2. Meet the New York State Next Generation Standards/Common Core Learning Standards through their completion of the online PPA lessons created by their teachers.

The FlippedTIPS program will provide three to six days of professional development, online activities, independent time for each teacher to develop technology products aligned to state standards, and follow-up technical assistance from the Directors (professional development providers). At these PD workshops, teachers will be introduced to the educational philosophies of blended learning/flipped teaching as well as the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) and Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) models of technology integration. Teachers will develop lessons using Open educational resources to meet the New York State Next Generation Standards/Common Core Learning Standards

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