Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Schools introduces Access Oak Ridge Digital 1:1 Initiative

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Oak Ridge Schools formally introduced its digital 1:1 initiative, called Access Oak Ridge, at its Board of Education meeting Monday evening. The Access Oak Ridge initiative will put a digital device in the hands of every ORS middle school student prior to the end of the 2015-2016 school year.

The digital 1:1 rollout will start with a proof of concept phase beginning this October, which will include the 6th grade at Jefferson Middle School and the 7th grade at Robertsville Middle School. This phase will be followed by a full, middle school rollout to include all middle school grades 5-8.

Bruce Borchers, Oak Ridge Schools superintendent, offered crucial context and explained the importance behind the Access Oak Ridge initiative, a press release said. [Read more…]

Letter: Paine the right candidate for school board

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To the Editor:

We are writing this letter in support of Laurie Paine, who is running for the Oak Ridge Board of Education. We have two children who attended Oak Ridge schools and are now pursuing college educations. We feel Ms. Paine has many excellent qualities that she can offer to the community by serving on the Board of Education.

Among those qualities would be her educational and work background. Ms. Paine has experience in both accounting and project management. As a project manager for several companies, Ms. Paine has worked with large budgets. She was the senior project manager for one company. We know personally that Ms. Paine is familiar with the Oak Ridge Schools budget as she has done research and has attended BOE budget meetings in the past. The tools she has gained with her business experience will prove to be invaluable in the budget deliberation process and other financial decisions the BOE must vote on. If elected, Ms. Paine will see to it that ORS and the BOE have financial accountability and transparency.

Secondly, Ms. Paine cares about Oak Ridge children and wants to make them a priority. Ms. Paine states that currently 47 percent of Oak Ridge students come from financially disadvantaged families. She wants to ensure that these students and all Oak Ridge students are given equal opportunities in our school system. She will work to fairly allocate resources to benefit all students, and she especially wants to give hope and a voice to those children with limited financial resources. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Schools has Technology Town Hall on Sept. 30

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Bruce Borchers

Bruce Borchers

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers will host a Technology Town Hall on September 30.

The town hall will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 30, in the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

“Oak Ridge Schools would like to invite all community members, parents, and students to attend,” a press release said.

The town hall will include a presentation by Borchers, followed by a question-and-answer forum.

The release said Borchers’ short presentation will discuss the benefits of Oak Ridge Schools launching a Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, platform starting the second nine weeks of school, on October 20, and the future of Oak Ridge Schools’ technology plan with a continued move towards integrating 1:1 (district-purchased devices for all students). [Read more…]

Guest column: ORS made gains on most of Seven Keys to College, Career Readiness

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Bruce Borchers

Bruce Borchers

In any transition year in which the state’s standards and/or tests change, it is difficult to make meaningful comparisons with the results on those tests from previous years. Comparisons within the year can be meaningful, such as the fact that the percentage of students in Oak Ridge Schools that were at or above proficiency is higher than the state average on nearly every test administered; or that the state said that “strong gains” were made on the high school tests, and our data shows that ORS continues to far outperform the state on every high school End of Course examination.

That being said, ORS did find areas for growth and also celebration within our results. Our overall student population did not achieve as highly as we had hoped. However, we did see significant increases in some of our subgroups. In fact, ORS closed the achievement gap in 10 of the 16 areas monitored by the state. For instance, our English Language Learners had a nearly 8 percent increase in the number of students who were proficient on the state’s mathematics examination.

So what do we do when the state changes the standards and tests? Is there a way that we can continue to monitor our progress to ensure the success of our students? Yes! We can look to the measures that we know indicate the success of our students—ORS Seven Keys to College and Career Readiness. These Keys were developed collaboratively with the community and focus on the steps needed to prepare students for the rigors of life after high school. In our Keys, we see positive gains on the majority of measures. [Read more…]