IFL to Use NexPort Campus as Technology Platform for 5-Year Project with Dallas Schools.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced more than $90 million in grants to support public school academic achievement initiatives. Darwin Global, parent company of Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE), will partner with the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Learning(IFL) to support literacy improvement efforts in the Dallas Independent School District for the next 5 years.
The Institute for Learning (IFL) is an outreach of the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC). Comprised of scholar practitioners, the IFL helps educators apply the latest research on teaching and learning into classrooms. IFL believes, and research confirms, that virtually all students are capable of high achievement, if they work hard at the right kinds of learning tasks.
The $7.4 million grant will support IFL’s efforts to increase proficiency in English/language arts and the number of disadvantaged students on track for high school graduation in the Dallas school system. Integral to this effort is Darwin Global’s NexPort Campus Integrated Learning Technology Platform. The technology platform features a secure, robust, and user-friendly online video coaching component that allows literacy coaches to assist English Language Arts teachers in the development of robust teaching practices. NexPort Campusis the same platform used by SHCOE’s high school programs.
Noted philanthropist and SHCOE Chairman, Dr. Richard Goldman, is also a University of Pittsburgh alumnus. He stated,
“Darwin Global’s state-of-the-art technology platform is an ideal solution for delivering IFL’s educational services.”
According to Ed Week, the goal of the Gates Foundation grants is to coordinate networks of schools to address specific problems that act as barriers for low-income students and students of color on their way to high school graduation and beyond. Based on a concept of “continuous improvement,” the team will seek to evaluate different approaches to problems, find what works, and then recreate the viable solutions at similar schools within the district.*
For further details, refer to the EdWeek article.
*Sawchuk, S., Education Week, With $92 Million in Grants, Gates Foundation Launches Newest Strategy to Improve K-12 Schools, August 28, 2018.