Charleston County School District (CCSD)
Background
CCSD strategic plan- Charleston Achieving
Excellence, centers on four priorities:
1. Literacy Improvement,
2. Effective Teaching and Leadership
3. World-Class Schools & Systems
4. Strategic Partnerships
CCSD has three goals:
1. Close the achievement gap
2. Elevate achievement overall
3. Raise the graduation rate
Charleston County School District Overview
All Students:
• Special Education Students:
• LEP Students:
Enrollment by School Level:
Elementary
• Middle/Junior High:
• Senior High:
• Combined:
Ethnic Percentages:
• African American
• Hispanic
• Asian
• Native American
• Caucasian
Student Percentages:
• College Bound Students
• Free & Reduced Lunch
• Below Poverty Line
44,963
4,788
1,952
23,996
7,245
11,359
1,850
48%
6%
2%
0%
44%
74%
48%
19%
Charleston County School District Partners with Capstone
Charleston County School District’s (CCSD) partnership with
Capstone began in June 2009 with the purchase of 206 digital
books from the Capstone Interactive Library (CIL) platform.
Struggling, remedial, reluctant, gifted, and ELL students became
more confident and successful readers and Capstone became a
“favorite” across the district. From graphic novels to board books,
picture books to chapter books, Capstone’s imprints—Compass
Point Books, Picture Window Books, Stone Arch Books, and
Heinemann Raintree—made an invaluable impression with both
staff and students.
The Charleston County School District watched usage statistics
soar with the use of these books from June 2009 through June 2011
(101,558 books read). During the past school year (2010-11) North
Charleston Elementary, a Title I school, read 8,100 of these digital
books from CIL. This school had the highest access rate of any
school in the district’s 58,000 books read that year. The
excitement generated among district students and staff created
new, positive challenges for district staff-how to move from
anecdotal evidence of literacy improvement to measurable data.
Connie Dopierala, CCSD’s media services coordinator, began a
cross-curricular dialogue with curriculum specialists, Office of
Exceptional Children staff, as well as the Title I department on
how best to position these resources to achieve the highest use and
exposure to district students to enable literacy growth. This
dialogue centered
around creating more collaborative opportunities for school
librarians, teachers, and administrators on how best to
maintain student excitement and motivation, create
personalized reading opportunities for students, foster
cross-curricular collaboration, and engage parents in the
reading process. Following those discussions, a formal
plan to integrate myON reader the next phase of digital
books, across Charleston County School District was
created.
Funding myON reader:
Charleston County School District’s superintendent, Dr. Nancy J.
McGinley, started a five-year classroom technology modernization
project in 2009. The mission of this project was to provide a 21st
century learning environment for every student, in every school,
everyday. It was with a portion of these funds that the initial
purchase of CIL and other digital resources began. The bulk of the
funding for the initial subscription for myON reader (enhanced
digital books) came from this same capital funding stream.
Because myON reader provides not only digital books with online
reading supports but also embedded assessments, K-5 instructional
material funds were used for the assessment portion of the initial
purchase. The cross-curricular nature of the program, interest from
other departments, and the flexible nature of online and print
materials presented CCSD staff with areas to explore for future
funding of this resource.
•
•
Instructional materials and assessments can be
purchased using K-5 instructional materials funds.
Curriculum being developed with special needs
students in mind provides opportunities for use of
IDEA funds.
•
•
Providing additional support and resources from
Capstone aimed toward meeting the needs of the Title I
population creates an opportunity to leverage a portion
of those funds.
Grant funds like the School Improvement Grant (SIG)
creates an additional funding stream to explore for use
in meeting the needs those identified schools.
Department staffs from all of educational areas are currently
discussing ways to maintain and expand the use of myON reader
though working together. This will create a seamless, 24/7 access
of all resources for staff and students to raise the achievement
scores in all subsets of students within the district.
As the need for digital instructional materials increases, CSSD’s
staff is committed to solidifying the cross-curricular nature of this
initiative to create personalized learning material for each unique
student and opportunities for staff professional development. Since
departmental funds are limited, it is imperative that all departments
work to both maintain and expand use of these resources. It is
incumbent upon all staff members to find multiple streams to both
assess the effectiveness of our efforts and provide for future
expansion.
An excerpt of the Charleston County School District
Professional Development and Implementation Plan
In order to build capacity throughout the district, a variety of
workshops were designed to meet the needs of various
stakeholders:
Session 1: Principals and district specialists attend a high
level overview and begin to think about how myON will
support their new literacy workshop model.
Session 2: A core team of media specialists (8) provides
support both for other media specialists as well as just in
time assistance for additional school-based staff
development.
Session 3: The core team of CCSD staff developers, along
with the rest of the media center staff (60) gather at the
combined campus media center at Academic Magnet and
School of the Arts for hands-on training of myON reader.
Session 4: The core team of CCSD staff developers; along
with the other site-based media center specialists (60) meet
to discuss the district literacy workshop model and myON
readers.
Topics covered during Professional Development
Session:
• Overview of Capstone
• Connection to Charleston County School District
initiatives
• Exploration of program components
• Understanding the roles, responsibilities, and associated
naming conventions of a building administrator,
librarian, teacher, and student.
• Becoming familiar with the student experience
including assessment, reading, rating, reviewing books,
and growth monitoring.
• Accessing reporting and accountability tools.
• Preparing to share knowledge and excitement with
colleagues.
CCSD Goals for myON reader:
The district seeks to utilize myON reader to:
• Overarching: Focus engage staff, students, and parents
in the process of increasing literacy across the district
while fostering life-long love for reading.
• Short Term:
o Establish myON reader as an effective literacy
tool.
o Have students login and take their interest
inventory and placement test before Measures of
Academic Progress (MAP) testing starts. (This
will enable district staff to measure the accuracy
of each programs Lexile® measure to ensure the
reliability these data sources.)
• Medium Term:
• Steadily monitor the increased usage of students
and staff throughout the first semester to
determine if additional professional
development opportunities are needed.
• Long Term:
o Curriculum integration set up through shared
resources internally and through the myON
portal.
o Validate student reading and comprehensive
analysis of data.
CCSD myON Participating Schools:
Military Magnet Academy
A C Corcoran Elementary School
Goodwin Elementary
Hunley Park Elementary
Lambs Elementary
Mary Ford Elementary
Midland Park Primary
Morningside Middle
North Charleston Elementary
Dunston Elementary
Lincoln High
Haut Gap Middle
Ft. Johnson Middle
James Island Middle
Murray LaSaine Elementary
Frierson Elementary
St. John's High
Stiles Point Elementary
Oakland Elementary
Springfield Elementary
St Andrews School of Math and Science
Stono Park Elementary
C E Williams Middle
Laing Middle
Moultrie Middle
Pepperhill Elementary
Minnie Hughes Elementary
Garrett Academy of Tech
Montessori Community
Cario Middle
St. Andrew's Middle
James Island Elementary
Burke Middle-High
Charleston Charter School for Math and Science
Mt Zion Elementary
West Ashley Middle
Ellington Elementary
J B Edwards Elementary
Belle Hall Elementary
Charles Pinckney Elementary
Laurel Hill Primary
Angel Oak Elementary
Blaney Elementary
Baptist Hill High
St. James-Santee Elementary
Ashley River Elementary
Academic Magnet High
Charleston Progressive
Drayton Hall Elementary
Buist Academy
James Simons Elementary
Mitchell Elementary
Sanders-Clyde Elementary
Chicora Elementary
Burns Elementary
North Charleston High
Jennie Moore Elementary
Whitesides Elementary
Mt Pleasant Academy
Sullivan's Island Elementary
Wando High
Harborview Elementary
APPLE Charter
Charleston Development Academy
Clark Corporate Academy
East Cooper Montessori
Greg Mathis Charter
Hursey Elementary
James Island Charter High
Jane Edwards Elementary
Jerry Zucker MS
Ladson Elementary
Memminger Elementary
Northwoods Middle School
Orange Grove Charter
Pattison's Academy for Comprehensive Education
Pinehurst Elementary
School of the Arts
Stall High
West Ashley High