Looking into the digital future: Carlisle's designation will allow the district to invest in software and teacher training, with a big emphasis on data-driven decision-making. (district profile).

Upon winning a high profile, $4 million state technology grant earlier this year, the Carlisle, Penn., school district unwillingly landed in the pages of others' science fiction fantasies.

Many people have imagined Carlisle will turn into some technological Disneyland rife with gadgetry--perhaps an android.

"What we are really doing is a lot of R&D," says Gerald Fowler, the Carlisle superintendent, noting that hardware purchases are not where most of the money is going and most new programs are starting small. So the android is out, but Carlisle plans to undertake some 28 different technological initiatives during the next few years, turning more than a few fantasies into reality.

Carlisle's winning proposal suggests investing heavily in software and teacher training to ultimately free schools from such fetters as time and location. The district is trying to develop a Web-based school system, offering virtual academies, textless courses, online tutoring with real teachers, and a portal for parents to go straight to the teacher's grade book.

Carlisle, serving a racially and economically diverse student body, was one of three chosen by the state out of a pool of 77 to receive the two-year Digital School District grant. The state hopes the grants will help make these districts the most technologically advanced in the country and provide some blueprints for other districts, says Jodie Daubert, state Department of Education deputy press secretary. "The goal of the contest was to think out of the box, ... to take these districts to the next level."

Carlisle, Quaker Valley School District and Spring Cove School District were selected for their ability to execute the proposals, because each one is expected to evaluate their programs with the aid of a research institution, serve as mentors to other districts, maintain a Web site detailing progress (www.carlisleschools.org, click on the Digital School District icon), offer tours and form alliances with high-tech companies.

"TECHNOLOGY-CRUNCHING"

Carlisle is used to visitors due to other high-profile programs, so Fowler says interested educators should not be shy. The superintendent predicts that out of all of the projects the district is currently developing, the one on data-driven decision-making will have the most profound effect on students. Daubert agrees. Teachers, who once could only really account for what had been taught, can now have the ability, through data-crunching computer software programs, to accurately and quickly, sometimes even instantly, assess what has been learned. Starting this fall, kindergarten through high school math teachers, trained this summer, will use the software.

Another big initiative is to create Internet access for everyone. Carlisle plans to install equipment, such as computers and scanners, to seven sites in the community, and by spring of 2002 directly link to each household when the Web portal comes online.

Next spring a $9.57 million addition to the high school will be completed. Including a digital conferencing center, a broadcasting studio, and unlimited scalable broadband communications capability, it will open up information sharing and communication to all 11 school buildings as well as shared information processing by the community. The district is also arranging to lower the expense of Internet access for residents as well as provide low-cost loans for those who want to buy computers.

This increased access is needed for many of the initiatives, such as virtual courses. The district plans to launch five of them this fall and hopes to expand to 10 in the next year. Virtual courses will consist of online work and assignments as well as guidance by teachers through chat sessions and e-mail. Fowler says he has seen a trend of students accelerating through their studies so fast that they go on to college work by sophomore year. He says the colleges and universities are already preparing online curriculum for such students, so virtual classes are one way for his district to hold onto its best students.

VIRTUAL REALITY Middle school teacher Colleen Angel is one of the teachers planning to run a virtual course, Real Life 101, next year for high school students. The Family and Consumer Sciences teacher is a leader using technology and her work seems to foreshadow what is to come. For two years now she has managed three Web sites, one for each middle school grade. Her eighth-grade site has had some 3,000 hits.

Parents and students go online and check on homework assignments, grade-point averages, even lesson plans. "Many parents really like that," Angel says.

She strongly encourages her students to e-mail her, finding it has particularly opened up communications with shy children, and she conducts homework chat sessions. Angel says these sessions can equal a classroom setting, even with more than 10 students participating at once.

"It is so beneficial that I think it is worth it," she says of her online programs. "I have enjoyed it."

It will be a few years before this type of communication is available for all teachers and students in the district, but each year it will expand, Fowler says.

This fall, parents of eighth-graders at one of the two middle schools will have the ability to access the grade books. The district plans to provide all eighth-graders with laptops and work with a NetSchools program that connects the computers to create Web-based programs in social studies, science, math, and English, greatly reducing the use of textbooks.

One of the other big projects this fall is to get the tutoring program underway. Selected students will be able to work with real teachers through the Internet after school and in the evenings. The district is using the eSylvan system to help about 80 students in the coming year. The tutors will be based in Baltimore, but the district is working with Sylvan to train some of its own teachers to do the tutoring. Approximately eight teachers can handle about 80 students, Fowler says.

Another initiative is to offer foreign languages in the elementary schools over the Intranet by having secondary-school foreign language teachers use the new broadcast center and online programming to deliver instruction. Fowler notes the district can do this at about $60,000 in recurring cost. This program, like some others, cannot be offered until the new technology center is finished.

As for gadgetry, Fowler says his favorite is the Smartboard, which works like an electronic chalkboard. The teacher writes notes on it and the information is immediately downloaded to students' computers as well as the teacher's Web site. Students can access that Web site later for note reference. Smartboards, he said, will eventually be installed in all of the high school's classrooms."

CARLISLE SCHOOL DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA

Cumberland County Population: 213, 674 (2000 Census)

Student Population: 4,741

Number of teachers: 370 certified staff

Dollars spent per pupil: $8,118 ($7,529 minus debt service and inner-fund transfer.)

District's expenditure per pupil for instructional materials: $162

Number of elementary schools and students: 7; 2,067

Number of secondary schools and students: two middle schools, 1,190; one high school, 1,484

Per-capita income: $49,798 (2001)

Median price of a one-family house: $114,000 (2000 Census)

Ethnicity: 87% Caucasian; 8% African-American; 2% Hispanic, 1% Asian, 2% other

Superintendent: Gerald Fowler, superintendent since 1992

Web site: www.carlisleschools.org

Amy D'Orio, [e-mail], is a writer based in Brookfield, Conn.