Maturity Model Benchmarks Review

- Middle Eastern American School Background and Demographics The Middle Eastern American School is a co-educational day school founded in 1964. It is privately owned and offers an academic American curriculum from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 to both national and expatriate students. The MEAS is accredited by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and is formally recognized by the Ministry of Private Education. MEAS has a student enrollment of just under 2000 full-time students and a faculty of just over 200 full-time staff. MEAS students represent 46 different countries with a staff coming from 10 different countries. The current MEAS enrollment is 45% Nationals and 55% Expatriates. There is a 57% male and 43% female gender breakdown. The school is divided into an Elementary School (Pre-K through Grade 5), Middle School (Grade 6 through 8) and High School (Grades 9 through 12). The school tuition is the highest in the country and the school has an extensive admissions waiting list. Maturity Model Benchmarks - Administrative Filter The MEAS included 6 Integrated and 2 Emerging stages of technology use with respect to the Administrative filter. Resource availability throughout MEAS campus is strong but these resources are not yet available to, and not yet universally accepted by, all staff on campus at all times of the school day. Policy - MEAS is a dual-platform (MAC & PC) school that includes a pupil-computer ratio of 6:1. Technology is used in all parts of the school with student and staff appropriate use guidelines in effect and communicated through school, staff, and student handbooks. Further, teachers include technology-use related language in their class syllabus and course outlines. Instructional staff and students are on-board with the need for policy development and adherence but we currently have strong resistance to following guidelines for new technology from our Business Office as they prefer to utilize time-tested databases and spreadsheets in favor of new, innovative, budgeting and payroll software. Further, we are in the midst of ratifying the language in a campus-wide Acceptable Use Policy for technology. As such, I am reticent to rate the Policy section beyond the integrated stages. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Planning - Technology planning has been incorporated into both formal tech-curriculum development and school-wide initiatives including the promotion of Moodle use by teachers and students, the development of Curriculum Maps, and the school-wide use of Understanding by Design as a template for unit development. Our Technology Adoption and Integration Plan is currently under development, is short-term in focus, and is coming on the heels of the completion of a two-year Technology Hardware Improvement Plan. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Budget - As a privately-owned educational institution, MEAS has a budgeting procedure based on general guidelines rather than firm numbers. A formal technology budget does not yet exist but is currently in development. A review of the past 5 years of

tech-related investment has been underway and will serve as a scope from which to develop a formalized technology budget for MEAS. This budget will be referenced in our Technology Integration and Adoption Plan with the hopes of formalizing the purchasing, delivery, deployment, integration, and adoption of hardware and software on campus. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Administrative Information - MESA currently uses an outdated Administrative Information Systems platform (AdminPlus and GradeQuick) where student records and data are available only to Administrators and our Database Manager. There is a concerted push from our school community for a comprehensive system that allows for parent access to grades, staff to work remotely on their gradebooks, and staff access to student discipline data. Further, our Business Office is being encouraged to participate in the selection of a new Information System that could include a student payment records program that is more robust than the current spreadsheets that are used in the accounting department of our school. This is an area of our school that is in need of a new plan. Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent

Maturity Model Benchmarks - Curricular Filter MEAS predominantly ranked at the Island stage with respect to the Curricular Filter. Technology resources have been planned for (student email accounts, high-speed fiber internet services, and campus wifi) and will be available this fall for the first time but, currently, are not. Electronic Information - Presently we have a basic approach to providing electronic information at MEAS. All staff have individual workstations, email accounts, a basic software package, and access to DSL internet services. Students have limited access to computer labs and student workstations in our Media Resource Center. Student and Staff access is not integrated, is not pervasive, can be inconvenient, and is not available at all times throughout campus. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Assessment - Technology is used to develop the vast majority of the content presented in classrooms and the many assessments used by instructors to evaluate student learning. Technology is not used in any marked or sustained way by instructors to gather data on student learning that can assist in driving instruction or directing the course of curriculum refinement. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Curriculum Integration - We have a traditional Curriculum Director who advocates for standards-based education tied to traditional methods of delivery. This is problematic as many new standards are infused with technology-related skills. Further, technology is used in developing much of our curriculum related documentation such as curriculum maps and UbD units with little emphasis placed on leveraging technology to engage the learner. Rather, emphasis is placed on using templates, adhering to font size, and following specific word choice when developing units and lesson plans. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

Teacher Use - Teachers utilize technology (PCs, SmartBoards, document cameras) on a daily basis. Often this use is seen in lesson delivery. We are not yet a one-toone school and, as such, much of our content and evaluation is formally delivered and received on paper thus making delivery possible with a decrease in available classroom technology resources. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Student Use - Student use of technology is apparent in the completion of out-of-class work but not necessary for the majority of in-class activities. There is a definite passive aspect to student learning where students are viewing teachers using technology during lessons without ever having to use technology in the classroom themselves. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

Maturity Model Benchmarks - Support Filter The Support Filter is again Island-stage heavy. While MESA has a collaborative culture that involves stakeholders in the development of policy and planning there is a distinct lack of resources placed in training and retraining opportunities for staff. Consequently, staff members who find themselves with the opportunity to participate in technology-related training are expected to quickly become masters of these platforms and then facilitate training opportunities for colleagues without the assistance of an external support community. Stakeholder Involvement - There is a high level of engagement and involvement by various stakeholders (students, teachers, administrators, support staff, tech support staff) in the development of our new Technology Integration and Adoption Plan. However, communicating and promoting this plan and making its goals clear and processes accessible to all stakeholders is proving to be problematic and challenging. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Administrative Support - Our Senior Administration is characterized by technological disengagement and an unwillingness to advocate for the staffing of positions that are not directly tied to student instruction and face-time with students. There is a distinct disconnect and lack of understanding when it comes to the value of non-teaching positions such as integration coaches, network and tech support staff, and database managers. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Training - There is often a cost-cutting approach to technology-based training. Teachers or tech personnel who are given the opportunity to travel for training are expected to return with a level of competency that is unrealistic for short training seminars that are not certificate based. Consequently, many of the teachers and administrators are left to self-teach software programs. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Technical & Infrastructure Support - Technical Support is limited at MESA. With a student enrollment of 2000 and a staff component of 200 there is a FTE Technology

Director, Network Administrator, and three Technical Support staff. Consequently there are times when tech-related tasks are not fielded in a timely manner and this leads to staff dissatisfaction and an unwillingness to rely and depend on the MESA Technology Support Staff. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Maturity Model Benchmarks - Connectivity Filter The Connectivity Filter is improving. For the past five years we have run the campus on a 3MB Corporate DSL connection that was unreliable and needed constant monitoring and demanded heavy usage restrictions in order to run smoothly. This year we have invested in a dedicated fibre channel and will be shifting to a 15MB up and down connection. It is our hope to use this connection to supply students with wifi access and begin encouraging a BYOD (bring your own device) approach for students on campus. Local Area Networking - Teachers and students currently have access to technology but it is limited and is dramatically impacted by scheduling and availability. It is our hope that shifting to a BYOD approach as we lay the groundwork for an eventual one-to-one adoption we will improve tech access throughout campus. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands District Area Networking (WAN) - Staff access to various networks is robust but not sophisticated. Our ability to complete basic tasks is reliable but moving beyond the basic into streaming audio and video is not currently an option for staff or students on campus. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Internet Access - Staff have reliable internet access at their classroom workstations and students have access to internet services in our computer labs and media resource center. However, this access can be limited due to scheduling and availability and during high-use times can be rather restrictive. Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Communication Systems - Staff use email, messaging, and Moodle services robustly for communication. Some students use Moodle services on occasion but no students have school-based email accounts and there is not a comprehensive school-wide plan for ensuring communication with students or parents beyond recording personal or company emails in our school database. Behavioral: Intelligent Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

Maturity Model Benchmarks - Innovation Filter The Innovation Filter finds MEAS firmly entrenched in the Island stage. New technologies and possible innovations are often received enthusiastically by tech personnel and but resisted by those with staff members with little technology-related investment or ability. Our Technology Department is enthusiastic in testing new software and hardware but often hamstrung with an unwillingness by the school to fund extensive training or supplemental tech-related FTE positions.

New Technologies - Staff are often receptive to new technologies and innovative software and enthusiastic about their application but due to a lack of a sophisticated or reliable training program or support mechanism there is little to no experimentation occurring on campus. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Comprehensive Technologies - There is little advanced application or sophisticated use of technology on campus. Most use is basic in nature due to a lack of extensive or in depth training opportunities and workshops that are limited to basic levels rather than robust application. Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

Maturity Model Benchmarks - MEAS Summary I would place the Middle Eastern American School as moving from the Island Stage to the Integrated stage. Technology is easily accessed by both students and staff but this is done in a basic and traditional manner with students using computer labs, teachers using their individual teacher workstations, and data projectors being to enhance instruction and delivery. Technology use is rudimentary and involves supplementing a stand and deliver model where the teacher is the focus and the students part in the learning process is largely passive. Technology is being used in communication and instruction but this use is not yet sophisticated or innovative. Directly involving students with technology in hands on, authentic, and meaningful ways during the lesson and capturing learning data, and improving overall efficiency need to be the new goals for MEAS. MEAS lacks a culture where technology is truly integrated through collaboration. The school has recently completed an extensive technology plan focussed on improving the hardware available to teachers and this has given them a strong groundwork to now build up from. Strong policies, procedures, and plans along with a shift to a stakeholder developed, collaborative, and transparent technology plan have been established and demand to be built upon. MEAS is now at a place where it must deeply consider extensive training that goes beyond the basics where broadening software use and application is the focus. This will allow the school to begin to leverage the potential of the new hardware resources that have been adopted and fall in line with the Integrated Stage and avoid seeing their investment gather dust and become obsolete due to a lack of understanding regarding real-world use. Further, advocating for a shift to a BYOD approach, and an eventual one-to-one adoption, that will ultimately allow for seamless use by students and staff in the processes of teaching and learning is paramount need to be a goal at MEAS.