TechSmart @ Portland Public Schools




Reading, writing, listening and speaking are at the heart of equity-based balanced literacy instruction.

Students need multiple tools and ways to communicate, collaborate, create, and demonstrate understanding. These tools allow for more personal learning that affords students access to a more dynamic approach to learning the foundational skills of literacy. Digital technology can further expand the way students interact and communicate in more active and creative ways.

When learning to solve complex problems of the 21st century, students can independently use digital resources to access information, inquire, network with others and ultimately, produce and create new and novel information that can be shared globally.

Digital technology opens up learning and sharing opportunities far beyond the capacity of a single classroom.


TechSmart+ Goals

1.

Ensure all K-5 students are meeting grade-level benchmarks for reading and eliminate the opportunity gap between white students and Black, Indigenous and/or Students of Color, as well as, students who identify as emergent bilinguals, or neuro-diverse.

2.

Provide embedded supports and technology-rich materials to help teachers transform practices and provide culturally & linguistically relevant personalized learning.

3.

Validate and disseminate effective practices that use technology to provide culturally & linguistically relevant personalized learning and improve K-5 literacy outcomes.

TechSmart Vision

We coach to empower teachers by using differentiated supports in order to promote self-reflection, increased teacher capacity, and more socially-just learning opportunities for Black, Indigenous, People of Color, emergent bilinguals, and neuro-diverse learners through the integration of education technology in literacy instruction to bring about systemic change.

TechSmart Resources

Chromebooks (at a 2:1 student-to-device ratio)

Storage/charging cart

Increased school wifi capacity

Coach support

Applications: Lexia Core 5, MyOn, Book Creator & Seesaw

TechSmart Schools

Cohort 1

2016-2017

  • Bridger

  • Grout

  • Lewis

  • Sitton

  • Vernon

Cohort 2

2017-2018

  • Atkinson

  • Bridlemile

  • Peninsula

  • Rigler

  • Stephenson

Cohort 3

2018-2019

  • Astor

  • César Chávez

  • Forest Park

  • Glencoe

  • Woodstock

Cohort 4

2019-2020

  • Beach

  • Lent

  • Martin Luther King, Jr

  • Scott

  • Whitman

TechSmart + Cohort 5

2020-2022

  • Boise-Eliot Humboldt

  • Faubion

  • Harrison Park

  • James John

  • Kelly

  • Lee

  • Marysville

  • Rosa Parks

  • Vestal

  • Woodlawn

  • Woodmere

Canvas: Getting Started with TechSmart

About the TechSmart 3rd Grade Reading Project

Through the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (MHCRC) TechSmart grant initiative, MHCRC is providing PPS with $5 million over the course of 5 years to support blended learning(1) strategies that improve 3rd grade reading outcomes. The grant project is design to directly align with the PK-5 Language Arts adoption. It will support K-3 pilot classrooms with the goal of all 3rd graders in pilot schools reading on grade level by 2020.

The overall project goal is to identify, refine, and scale instructional practices that leverage technology to personalize learning to improve 3rd grade reading outcomes for each student.

The MHCRC 3rd Grade Reading Project operates on the premise that third grade reading outcomes will improve while all educators have a foundational knowledge of literacy and know how to implement effective instructional strategies and practices that are bolstered with the use of technology to personalize learning.

(1)BLENDED LEARNING is defined as “a formal education program in which a student learns: (1) at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; (2) at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home; and (3) the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.” Clayton Christensen Institute, “Blended Learning Definitions.”