The Gadgeting of School

From the States
California
Green Dot Public Schools announced recently its students’ API scores based on the official release of California Standards Test (CST) data for the 2009/10 school year. Green Dot Public Schools averaged greater than 30 point growth, compared to a 16 point average growth for LAUSD and 13 points for California.
New York
Mayor Bloomberg announced Monday that the City University of New York and IBM will team up to open a school, grades nine through 14, that will guarantee its students a job at IBM after graduation, WNYC News reported Monday.
Tennessee
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that one Tennessee elementary-school class received a $25,000 technology upgrade this summer after winning a contest. Students in teacher Jordan Haney’s fifth-grade classroom are using new iPads, MacBooks, Flip video cameras and other devices in many parts of classroom learning, such as choosing novels, taking quizzes and creating blogs.
Virginia
Pearson and the Commonwealth of Virginia today launched the nation’s first-ever complete social studies curriculum for the iPad.  Pearson has developed four new iPad Apps plus digital curriculum aligned to the Virginia editions of Pearson’s U.S. History and World History programs for seventh and ninth graders.  The new iPad program will be piloted in several schools for 12 weeks beginning November 1 as part of Virginia’s Beyond Textbooks initiative.