Inside Cobb Schools Show Premieres On Cobb edTV

The Cobb County School District’s Cobb edTV cable channel has added another piece of original programming to its lineup this month called Inside Cobb Schools.
The show features one-on-one interviews with students, teachers and District administrators, as well as news segments highlighting educational activities in Cobb. The purpose of Inside Cobb Schools is to provide the community with in-depth information about initiatives and issues within the school district, from the people most directly involved.

The premiere episode features an interview with Chief Technology Officer Chris Ragsdale regarding the 21st Century Classroom initiative and the District’s technology improvements.

Inside Cobb Schools will air on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Read more on the District Web site.

Textbook Review Ongoing

Parents still have an opportunity to review and offer input on new textbooks proposed for adoption. The new textbooks and materials are being considered for use in kindergarten through fifth grade science, ninth through 12th grade science, and ninth through 12th grade mathematics. Parents who wish to examine the books and materials may visit the school district central office, 514 Glover Street in Marietta, through March 28, 2008. Central office hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SPLOST UPDATE:
The good news story of SPLOST continues for Cobb County taxpayers. In February 2008, the school board:

• Authorized the extension of RFP 03-07 with Lexmark International, Inc., for one year, from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. This RFP provides for the purchase of printers under the SPLOST II Refresh Obsolete Printers Initiative. It is estimated the District will spend $1.4 million for the refreshment of printers during this time period.

• Authorized the award of Bid 08-12, Fiber Components and Installation Services, in the amount of $6 million to NetPlanner Systems and Graybar Electric from March 1, 2008 through Feb. 28, 2009. The Cobb County School District network infrastructure, wired and wireless, currently serves over 50,000 nodes such as laptops, desktops, servers, printers, and other devices. For these network devices to operate properly and support current and future administrative and academic needs, an upgrade to a fiber network infrastructure is necessary. The fiber, fiber components, and installation services needed for the upgrade are included in the bid.

• Authorized the award of Bid 08-09, Cisco Switches & Related Equipment, in the amount of $13 million to Coleman Technologies Inc., of Sandy Springs, Ga., from March 1, 2008 through Feb. 28, 2009. The Cobb County School District network infrastructure, wired and wireless, currently serves over 50,000 nodes. These nodes are comprised of laptops, desktops, servers, printers, and other devices. For all nodes to operate properly, the network infrastructure must be stable and secure. The components responsible for providing stable and secure access to the network are the network switches. SPLOST II Technology Initiatives 04 (Refresh Existing District Network) and 07 (Refresh and Enhance Mobile Computing Access District Wide) provide the means to refresh these vital network components.

These projects were part of the SPLOST II program approved in 2003. To view the agenda items for the projects, click here.

Cobb Eighth Graders Show Big Gains On Writing Test

Cobb County middle schools are proving that proactive efforts to help students develop writing skills are paying off. Cobb eighth graders made significant gains on the 2008 state writing assessment with 84 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards – an increase of seven percentage points from 2007, the first year the assessment was administered. The district-wide average scale score also increased four points to 219. Both Cobb’s scale score and percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards were higher than those of other metro Atlanta school districts and students throughout Georgia.

Two key student subgroups, Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners, showed marked improvement on the writing test. Students with Disabilities (SWD) showed an increase of 15 percentage points, from 40 percent to 55 percent, in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards. English Language Learners (ELL) saw a similar upward trend in student proficiency with a 12-point improvement from 30 percent to 42 percent. Scale scores increased for both groups of students by 7 and 5 points, respectively.

Read more on the District Web site.

Understanding Recently Approved District Infrastructure Upgrades

Recently the Board of Education approved several significant upgrades to the school system’s outdated technology infrastructure (See SPLOST Update at left). This upgrade, approved by voters as part of the SPLOST II program, ranks as the Cobb County School District’s highest technology priority. Without an adequate infrastructure in place, upgrades to other technology components – such as the Student Information System – would not be effective.

The first step in the infrastructure upgrade was increasing the bandwidth of the wide area network, or WAN. The Board of Education approved that upgrade in January 2008. The WAN provides the bandwidth from the school district’s data center (located in Kennesaw) to the front door of each school. However, the WAN bandwidth does not complete the path to each student or teacher’s computer workstation. Only one step remained to complete the District’s network infrastructure upgrade.

In order to take advantage of the increased bandwidth from the datacenter, the network inside the school must be updated as well. Only then will schools be able to access at full speed the resources housed at the datacenter. Those resources include the Student Information System, Financial System, Human Resources System, Email System, School Library Management System, Electronic Grade Book System, Internet access, and other digital resources. The School Infrastructure upgrade will provide gigabit connection speeds to each workstation. The upgrade also will provide wireless access inside every school. Currently, some schools have limited wireless access, but not enough coverage to accommodate all of the laptop computers now utilized by teachers.

With the WAN and School Infrastructure upgrades, the school district will be able to provide access to applications that will further enhance the learning environment in each classroom for years to come.