Several Honorable Mentions were also awarded at the ceremony, where top education executives from across the U.S. gathered to acknowledge the winners. (View the 2018 National Gathering Image Gallery.) Over the course of 2018, Learning Counsel CEO Leilani Cauthen hosted more than 25 events in key metro areas across the nation, where she had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of schools and districts about their digital realities. According to Cauthen, “The entire process of becoming digital is maturing. We’re finding real heroes across this new digital landscape, and learners are the beneficiaries.”
Buckeye Union High School District, Phoenix, AZ
Buckeye Union High School District is committed to ensuring that all learners are ready for the future by providing an exemplary digitally-immersive high school experience.
Classical Online Academy, Escondido, CA
Classical Academy Online is a self-directed digital learning program that provides live supportive, collaborative workshops. Students work alongside teachers in an open, flexible community learning environment that is focused on preparing every student to become an exceptional thinker, communicator, and achiever.
Evergreen School District 114, Vancouver, WA
Evergreen School District 114’s transition to personalized learning, amplified by technology tools, meant a significant shift in instructional design, including changes in how they select instructional materials, budget development, and measurement of what works.
Georgia Department of Education - Georgia Virtual, Atlanta, GA
Georgia Virtual school delivers quality digital material with refined technical interoperability among a myriad of learning systems. This unique state and national offering allows data to enhance and inform the personalized learning process for students and teachers.
Highline Public Schools, Burien, WA
Highline Public Schools promises to know every student by name, strength and need, and to engage students in personalized learning across all grade levels. Highline’s unique work includes preparing students for project- and inquiry-based learning through a digital citizenship initiative.
Houston Independent School District, Houston, TX
Houston Independent School District maintains a major 1:1 device initiative, a deep digital library of over 2 million curriculum and software resources in an integrated environment that provides students and teachers safe resources for instructional activities, and is working on remodeled teaching and learning spaces to suit the new learning realities.
Lammersville Joint Unified School District, Mountain House, CA
Lammersville has used technology to increase efficiency and provide meaningful data on demand to personalize instruction. A proud accomplishment towards this goal is the development of a year-long, cohort-based Blended Learning Academy and Advanced Academy for professional development.
Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, CA
LAUSD is ensuring digital navigation skills and digital literacy for all teachers and students. As the nation’s second-largest school district, LAUSD has reimagined models of support to reach the 60,000 educators who serve a student body of over 600,000.
Meriden Public Schools, Meriden, Connecticut
The Meriden Public Schools aligned technology and curriculum to ensure that technology was infused in all aspects of course content. With devices in the hands of students, key digital content partners onboard, and staff supports in place, Meriden’s transformation increased rigor and opportunities for all students, and led to the highest academic gains in district history.
Warroad Public Schools, Warroad, MN
To focus on personalized, student-centered learning, Warroad adopted a learning management system (LMS), hired an Innovation Facilitator, signed on with Zia Learning to provide professional learning for all teachers, and synced their student information system with the LMS. Upgrades to WiFi bandwidth created access throughout the school campus as part of a complete facilities renovation that improves the user experience with digital curriculum at all grade levels.
The Honorable Mention recipients for their work in digital transition included: Beta Academy in Houston, TX; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte, NC; Dekalb County Public Schools, Stone Mountain,GA; District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington, DC; Moose Lake Community School, Moose Lake, MN; New York City Department of Education, New York, NY; Philadelphia Public Schools, Philadelphia, PA; Pickerington Local School District, Pickerington, OH; Santa Ana Unified School District, Santa Ana, CA; and St. Katharine Drexel Academy, San Diego, CA.
About the Learning Counsel
The Learning Counsel is a mission-based organization focused on helping education professionals in the K–12 sector gain research and context on the digital education experience. For more information, please visit LearningCounsel.com.