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Administrator Quotes
VRSchoolhouse has played a key role in the success of our new alternative school in Coffeyville. Its performance-based learning format matches the standards-based philosophy of our school and has allowed many students, on their own schedule, to accelerate and regain credits lost in the traditional high school.
Dr. Rod Allen, Superintendent of Schools, Coffeyville, KS
“Dr. McDaniel’s commitment to kids motivated him to begin an educational business endeavor from which he has taken a systems approach to curriculum development, alignment, and assessment. Galena Unified School District No. 499 has been associated with Dr. McDaniel for the past four years. During that time he and his company have always delivered the services and products we requested in a timely and professional manner. His global view of the curricular process allows VRSchoolhouse to create a curriculum alignment model which encompasses local , state, and national standards. VRSchoolhouse’s most recent project of creating a student tracking component will insure an ongoing assessment of student progress through an aligned curriculum.”
Dr. Chris Christman, Superintendent of Schools, Galena, KS
"Dr. McDaniel has been instrumental in our school district's curriculum review and alignment process. Selecting VRSchoolhouse as the avenue for curriculum alignment to national, state and local standards has proven to be one of our best decisions. Dr. McDaniel brings to us experiences as a former teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent and university professor. These experiences, in addition to a positive attitude and genuine willingness to provide specialized assistance, has helped develop a curriculum alignment process in our school district, which continues to involve every classroom teacher and building administrator. This in return, has provided for a better understanding of the school district's board-approved curriculum and standards. The results have been annual increases in academic achievement, with two of our elementary schools reaching the Kansas Standard of Excellence in mathematics.
Since working with VRSchoolhouse, every curricular area has been unanimously approved by our board of education. Parents and patrons continue to appreciate the curriculum being available on-line. Administrators and teachers are learning how lesson plans can be developed to align with the approved curriculum and standards. Dr. McDaniel and VRSchoolhouse have the respect from the administration and teachers of Pittsburg Community Schools. We simply would not be as effective without Dr. McDaniel and what VRSchoolhouse offers us."
Dr. Matthew A. Wendt
Assistant Superintendent
Pittsburg Community Schools - USD #250
Pittsburg, Kansas
Student Quotes
“Some kids that would usually not graduate are taking this more seriously because if they have problems with school and other kids, they can do it at home. It’s letting me work at my own pace. If I finish one assignment, I can start on the next. They’re challenging, but they’re really interesting so I want to do them.”
Kori Barber, student (NADO Learning Center, Coffeyville, KS)
Service Center Quotes
“VRSchoolhouse has been an excellent business partner for the Education Service Center and Virtual Greenbush. VRSchoolhouse content serves as the platform for our online learning courses, and their Internet platform has allowed us to deliver instructional services and media aligned with state standards. Above all, VRSchoolhouse has accomplished projects in a timely and very cost effective manner.”
Mike Bodensteiner, Virtual Greenbush Program Director, Education Service Center, Greenbush, KS
“As Director of a Technology/Media Center serving over 130 school districts throughout the state of Kansas, I had been pursuing the possibility of aligning over 15,000 media resources to Kansas Curriculum Standards for over 1 1/2 years. After visiting with several nationally known companies, we chose Dr. Randy McDaniel and VRSchoolhouse. VRSchoolhouse was able to design a program to meet our specific needs in a timely, cost effective manner. I am quite excited about our new project and will be providing training sessions to over 9,000 teachers during the next month.”
Denise Bodensteiner, Director of the Technology Media Center, Education Service Center, Greenbush, KS
"The VRSchoolhouse CurriculumTracker is just the right tool now for Missouri teachers as they seek to build lessons from the seemingly "ever-changing" Missouri standards. The tool makes it very easy for them to align standard sets and allows them to assign a variety of standards to each lesson developed in the tool. The tool is very user-friendly, and technical personnel at VRSchoolhouse are readily available to answer questions for users. Southwest Center is pleased to provide this tool for its member districts."
Bob Collier, Director of the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence
"VRSchoolhouse has provided Southwest Plains Regional Service Center an on-line product that teachers find user friendly. This makes the curriculum truly a living document that not only guides instruction in the state standards but also allows for current resources to be linked to the curriculum. VRSchoolhouse cares about education and cares about kids."
Kelly P. Gillespie, Executive Director, Southwest Plains Regional Service Center
Administrator Reference Story
Situation:
Assistant Superintendent, of a large school district
Critical Issue:
The district lacked the ability to easily and efficiently gather and report consistent data about student learning and to provide student performance information without a time lapse as students move within the district.
Reasons:
The mobility of the 11,000 students, transferring among the district's 23 schools.
Vision:
She said she needed a way to easily generate reports that reflect consistent data and format, yet allow for some individual school decisions and also provide real time information about student achievement to minimize the impact of mobility.
We Provided:
We provided her with these capabilities.
Result:
They are now gathering data about student learning across the district and reporting it in a consistent format. Their network allows for sharing of student information no matter which school they attend.
Curriculum Director Reference Story
Situation:
Curriculum Coordinator from a school district that spends much of their staff development funds on curriculum development.
Critical Issue:
The district had little control over, or confirmation of, whether or not new curriculum was being used in the classroom.
Reasons:
Although groups of teachers spend portions of their summer developing curriculum, which was copied and distributed to other teachers within the district, there was no process to verify if the curriculum was being used or the impact it is having on student achievement.
Vision:
She said she needed a way to provide teachers new and updated curriculum without "killing lots of trees", ensure that it is being used in the classroom, and measure its impact on student achievement. Further, she envisions using this process to empower teachers to share best practices.
We Provided:
We provided her with these capabilities.
Result:
New and updated curriculum is being entered directly into UnitMaker, accessed and shared electronically among all teachers via their classroom computers. Results of student performance on curriculum activities are recorded by teachers in the UnitMaker gradebook and used for classroom and district decision making.
Parent Reference Story
Situation:
A parent of a high school student attending a suburban school district.
Critical Issue:
His daughter was performing poorly on several standards and although he wanted to help, by the time he became aware of the need, it was often too late to impact her achievement results.
Reasons:
The few reports that the school sent home were "after the fact", and lacked sufficient detail to correlate standards to curriculum and results.
Vision:
He said he needed to obtain timely information about his daughter’s performance so that he could help her improve her results.
We Provided:
We provided the district with these capabilities.
Result:
Reports are arriving home on a regular and timely bias with up to date information not only about his daughter’s performance, but also information that links performance to the standards based curriculum she is currently studying and assigned. His daughter’s achievement has improved.
Teacher Reference Story
Situation:
A high school Biology teacher responsible for teaching multiple standards in her classroom.
Critical Issue:
She was overwhelmed by the requirements of gathering evidence of student learning for writing and science standards and reporting both standard scores and traditional course grades for the class.
Reasons:
The data needed to manually complete required reports came from multiple sources, and she had no ability to show multiple standards in one course.
Vision:
She said she needed a way to electronically manage recorded evidence of student learning, so that it was available in one place, for multiple purposes. Further, she wanted to be able to easily develop her Biology curriculum with multiple standards within the course.
We Provided:
We provided an electronic system with these capabilities.
Result:
She is now able to use an electronic system to align multiple standards in her Biology course and record student learning information in her gradebook simultaneously for each standard, easily facilitation stand score reporting and traditional course grades.
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