National Education Technology Plan - Baker School District

Founded in 1997, the state-funded institution serves 21,270 student
enrollments and employs 150 full-time and part-time teachers.
Experienced teachers monitor the progress of all students and are
available to students by telephone or e-mail.
Ninety-seven percent of the school’s students take only one or
two courses to fill a need not met in their own schools. Minorities
make up some 30 percent of enrollment. The students come from
public schools (72 percent), home schooling (21 percent), and
private or charter schools (7 percent). The majority of students
are from Florida, but there are students from many other states and
even as far away as Shanghai.
Missouri
Peabody Elementary School in St Louis is situated in an urban
neighborhood marked by abandoned buildings and serves almost
entirely Title I students from the lowest income families. Principal
Myrtle Reed had high expectations and through online assessments
and customized instruction over three years achieved remarkable
improvement in students’ scores on Missouri Assessment Program
(MAP) standardized tests.
Reed selected the eMINTS program — enhancing Missouri’s
Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies — which provides
200 hours of professional development, coaching and technical
support for teachers as they use multimedia tools to promote
critical thinking and problem-solving techniques.
Peabody students take regular online assessments of their progress,
allowing teachers to customize instruction to the specific needs
of individual students. Teachers assign online reading instruction
software and online tutoring programs based on individual
student’s level of mastery of the curriculum. Working on desktop
computers, students proceed at their own pace.
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