Classworks Superintendents earns Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards

The Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards, conducted by eSchool News, honors those superintendents who embrace the move toward an increasingly digital society and the emergence of a new era of accountability in the nation's schools. As school leaders come to rely on computers and the internet to engage students' interest, track their progress, personalize instruction, and aid in decision making, an understanding of how technology works and how it can be used to transform teaching and learning is an increasingly essential characteristic for the 21st-century school executive.

The eighth annual presentation of the honors announced in the Feb. 5 edition of eSchool News recognizes just 10 of the nation's top K-12 executives for their outstanding ed-tech leadership and vision, including Ron Saunders, from Barrow County School District in Georgia, who has overseen Classworks implementations in his schools.

Saunders, a 37-year veteran educator, has been the superintendent at Barrow County Schools since 1998, where he has consistently leveraged technology and innovation to provide a world-class education to every student in the county.

Saunders became superintendent at Barrow in 1998. In 2005, Classworks was installed in two Barrow elementary schools. The district testing specialist in Barrow ran an analysis of pre- and post-test scores at the two schools to determine the effectiveness of Classworks’ Math and Language Arts components.

The results were impressive. The testing showed that average pre-test scores in the test class were 54.18 for reading and 65.73 in math. After working with Classworks, these student’s post-test scores jumped by 20.05 and 12.47 points, respectively (to 74.23 in reading, 78.20 in math).

Saunders has been busy implementing various technology initiatives throughout Barrow County. Two years ago, Saunders began his “Break the Bandwidth Barrier” campaign to implement an advanced cyber infrastructure, providing unprecedented access to educational resources, mentors, experts, interactive activities and virtual learning environments for every student. This year, Saunders established his “Direct-to-Discovery” program to expand learning opportunities for middle and high school science. He established long-term educational partnerships with the state's three tier-1 research universities, pairing Georgia's leading professors in nanotechnology and genomics with district science teachers, to develop a series of interactive sessions designed to engage students in the excitement of real science discovery.

Among the other winners, three -- Randy Aceveda of Monroe County School District, Fla., William A. Hamilton of Walled Lake School District, Mich., and Abelardo Saavedra from the Houston Independent School District, Texas – all have Classworks in their schools.

Curriculum Advantage is proud to congratulate Saunders, Aceveda, Hamilton and Saavedra on their Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award.