Viva88

Award Years: 2018-2021

Target populations:

This project targets all K-12 teachers directly through high-quality, robust professional development and technology integration mentoring and all K-12 students through the addition and integration of technology to support, enhance, and expand the district's capacity to fully implement personalized learning for all students.

Description of the District:

Geneva is a suburban district located in Ontario County in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York serving approximately 2,100 students. The racial/ethnic breakdown of the student population is as follows: Black/African American 12%, Hispanic 32%, White Non-Hispanic 43%, and multiple and other races 13%. Over 10% of our students are English Language Learners, 13% have disabilities, and 66% are economically disadvantaged districtwide, though some individual schools have even higher levels of poverty. For example, 3 out of 4 students at West Street Elementary School (74%) receive free or reduced-price lunches.

Within the City of Geneva, 32.3% more residents live below the poverty line than statewide, with 21.7% of all residents living below the poverty line compare to 14.7% across the state. As is often the case in high-poverty communities, transience is high as evidenced by 1 in 4 (75.3%) of Geneva residents living in a different home 1 year prior to the survey than they lived in at the time of the survey compared to 1 in IO residents (89.3%) statewide. Higher education rates are low.

State testing results for English/Language Arts and Math evidence significantly low academic achievement and large achievement disparities between subgroups. The district is responding by implementing personalized learning, which has begun but is only in the early stages. Students and teachers need more technology resources to make full implementation realistic and teachers need professional development to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to implement technology-supported personalized learning approaches.