At the Learning Counsel’s 2018 Annual Gathering and National Awards event in Houston, 10 innovative schools and districts were recognized for their transformational work in creating digital ecosystems that catalyze the learning experience and offer increased opportunities for both students and educators. Several Honorable Mentions were also recognized at the ceremony where top education executives from across the U.S. gathered to acknowledge the winners. The Learning Counsel also bestowed its three highest awards: The Industry Superhero award, The Education Superhero award, and the Lifetime Achievement award.
While the Survey was open for respondents in 2018, Learning Counsel CEO Leilani Cauthen hosted more than 25 events in key metro areas across the nation where she had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of schools and districts about their digital realities. According to Cauthen, “The entire process of becoming digital is maturing. We’re finding real heroes across this new digital landscape, and learners are the beneficiaries.”
Recipients of Learning Counsel 2018 Digital Curriculum Strategy Awards:
Buckeye Union High School District, Phoenix, AZ
Buckeye Union High School District is committed to ensuring all learners are ready for the future by providing an exemplary digitally-immersive high school experience.
Classical Online Academy, Escondido, CA
Classical Academy Online is a self-directed digital learning program that provides live supportive, collaborative workshops. Students work alongside teachers in an open, flexible community learning environment that is focused on preparing every student to become an exceptional thinker, communicator, and achiever.
Evergreen School District 114, Vancouver, WA
Evergreen School District 114’s transition to personalized learning, amplified by technology tools meant a significant shift in instructional design, including changes in how they select instructional materials, budget development, and measurement of what works.
Georgia Department of Education - Georgia Virtual, Atlanta, GA
Georgia Virtual school delivers quality digital material with refined technical interoperability between a myriad of learning systems. This unique state and national offering allows data to enhance and inform the personalized learning process for students and teachers.
Highline Public Schools, Burien, WA
Highline Public Schools promises to know every student by name, strength and need, and to engage students in personalized learning across all grade levels. Highline’s unique work includes preparing students for project and inquiry-based learning through a digital citizenship initiative.
Houston Independent School District, Houston, TX
Houston Independent School District maintains a major 1-1 device initiative, a deep digital library of over 2 million curriculum and software resources in an integrated environment that provides students and teachers safe resources for instructional activities and is working on remodeled teaching and learning spaces to suit the new learning realities.
Lammersville Joint Unified School District, Mountain House, CA
Lammersville has used technology to increase efficiency and provide meaningful data on demand to personalize instruction. A proud accomplishment towards this goal is the development of a year-long cohort based Blended Learning Academy and Advanced Academy for professional development.
Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, CA
LAUSD is ensuring digital navigation skills and digital literacy for all teachers and students. As the nation’s 2nd largest school district, LAUSD has reimagined models of support to reach the 60,000 educators who serve a student body of over 600,000.
Meriden Public Schools, Meriden, Connecticut
The Meriden Public Schools aligned technology and curriculum to ensure that technology was infused in all aspects of course content. With devices in the hands of students, key digital content partners onboard, and staff supports in place, Meriden’s transformation increased rigor and opportunities for all students and led to the highest academic gains in district history.
Warroad Public Schools, Warroad, MN
To focus on personalized student-centered learning, Warroad adopted a Learning Management System (LMS), hired an Innovation Facilitator, signed on with Zia Learning to provide professional learning for all teachers, and synced their Student Information System with the LMS. Upgrades to Wi-Fi bandwidth created access throughout the school campus as part of a complete facilities renovation that improves the user experience with digital curriculum at all grade levels.
The Honorable Mention recipients for their work in digital transition included: Beta Academy in Houston, TX; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte, NC; Dekalb County Public Schools, Stone Mountain,GA; District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington, DC; Moose Lake Community School, Moose Lake, MN; New York City Department of Education, New York, NY; Philadelphia Public Schools, Philadelphia, PA; Pickerington Local School District, Pickerington, OH; Santa Ana Unified School District, Santa Ana, CA and St. Katharine Drexel Academy, San Diego, CA.
The Industry Superhero Award
The Industry Superhero award was presented to ClassLink. ClassLink provides OneClick single sign-on into web and Windows applications, and instant access to files and sysems from anywhere. The Learning Counsel's 2017 National Survey identified Single Sign-On as one of the significant issues needing to be addressed to simplify the daily access to the digital resources of a school district for students, for teachers and for school administrators. ClassLink was awarded Superhero status by also newly providing schools and school districts an overview of how digital resources are being used once implemented - making the utilization rate and return on investment analysis easily accessed for a variety of decision-making processes surrounding the teaching and learning process.
The Education Superhero Award
The Education Superhero award was presented to Renton Preparatory School. Renton Preparatory School is an example of what the future of student learning and school administration can be. Taking a systems approach to managing the personalization of student learning, Renton Prep has been at the forefront of the movement to embrace digital content and tools to transform the teaching and learning process. Their efforts to redesign the education experience has drawn the attention and praise of educators from around the world. Renton's students are regular presenters at education conferences around the country on topics as complex at artificial intelligence. Beyond evolving the learning experience for the student, they have also redesigned the organizational structure of the school to better drive and deliver the learning experience that their students have come to expect.
The Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Peter Haapala, Superintendent at Warroad Public Schools in Minnesota. Haapala has served in education for 30 years, from the classroom to the Superintendency. After retiring, Haapala graciously returned as Superintendent to again lead a school district needing his skills. Throughout his years in education, he has always been a forward thinker with the interest of students at the center of his motivation. His work as Superintendent to lead change in a rural, small school district is, by any standard, cutting edge. A mix of digital content use, digital devices for students, project-based learning, and complete professional development, are all exceptionally well executed in the small district of Warroad, MN. Executive staff, teachers and students alike adore Peter, and he has earned the great respect of educators and industry alike. For all of this, Mr. Haapala is given this Lifetime Achievement Award for his compassionate leadership excellence.
View the 2018 National Gathering Image Gallery
About the Learning Counsel
The Learning Counsel is a mission-based organization focused on helping education professionals in the K-12 sector gain research and context on the digital education experience. For more information, please visit LearningCounsel.com.
