|
Healdsburg Unified School District "NovaNET® has a different approach using short readings and interactive questioning that requires a physical response. It effectively engages kinesthetic learners in academic material. It's very popular with vocational education students. It is light years ahead of other kinds of online education." The Healdsburg Unified School District is located in the rural California wine country where grape growing provides year-round agricultural work. The district has 2,593 students enrolled in Kindergarten through Adult Education. Healdsburg Alternative Education, Healdsburg Adult Education, and Marce Becerra Academy has 240 students enrolled for various aspects including adult basic education, credit recovery, GED, high school diploma completion for adults, and Grades 9 – 12 continuation education.
Challenge The district faced an array of challenges with their Alternative Education program. A teacher in the Center for Independent study was voluntarily staying after hours to help adult students complete their diplomas. The Continuation School required a core curriculum for students who needed different learning technology and one-on-one interaction with the instructor. The morning Adult ESL program was also providing computer literacy and basic skills in the primary language, but further education in English and math was needed for the more advanced second-language speakers.
Then, according to the account by Stewart Fox, "the unit requirement for graduation was increased from 220 to 240. We needed something that could teach many students with different needs at the same time and would allow students to succeed so they would be motivated to finish." Charged with finding a way to address the potential of many students not graduating from Healdsburg under the new requirements, Mr. Fox began researching solutions. Stewart Fox is an educator who spent 33 years of his career with the Healdsburg district in various roles including that of teacher, principal, acting superintendent, director of instructional services, and director of alternative education. Solution: NovaNET Throughout the course of a year, Mr. Fox evaluated a variety of educational programs and services in the market that could be prospective matches for addressing the district's unique challenges. After participating in many product demonstrations and visiting multiple sites with different solutions in place, Mr. Fox recommended the NovaNET system, now offered by Pearson Digital Learning. "After seeing what was available, I thought NovaNET offered the most curriculum with the most differentiation. The fact that NovaNET is continually upgraded without cost to the subscriber impressed us as well. Other CD-ROM-based programs required buying updates yearly." According to Ruth Stadnik, Healdsburg's Instructor of Adult Education, "NovaNET offers the most curriculum with the most differentiation, serving students at various ages and stages of learning. The top three reasons NovaNET was selected for our alternative education needs were product flexibility, functionality, and because it serves as a total solution for our unique challenges." Currently, NovaNET is widely-used by 470 students in five different schools in the Healdsburg system. More than 240 adult and continuation students, 120 Santa Rosa Junior College ESL students, 30 summer school, and 80 high school students are all effectively utilizing NovaNET to reach their respective educational goals. Results Since 1997, NovaNET continues to have a lasting impact on the graduating class from Healdsburg Unified School District. Each year, 20 percent of the senior class have made up lost credits through the Adult Education program and have graduated on time. This equates to approximately 40 seniors out of 200 in each graduating class. In addition, each year another 15 adults have completed their GED preparation and another five adults have received their high school diplomas. This has had a strong economic impact on a town of 10,000 – about five percent of the citizens of Healdsburg have set the stage for a successful future through the Healdsburg Adult Education program.
 |
 |
|
Find
a Success Story 
Nearly 54 percent of the students at Healdsburg Unified School District receive free and reduced price lunches. The ethnic makeup of the student population is approximately 51.3 percent Caucasian, 46.8 percent Hispanic, .05 percent African American, .08 percent Asian, and .06 percent other minorities. Healdsburg Adult Education/GED Program receives 43 percent of its enrollment from students of English as a Second Language who migrate into the area for agricultural work and end up staying stay long term. 
In addition to the district's obstacles, adult students from the community were often from working families who needed flexible scheduling to accommodate numerous life issues and crises. Many of them had children and worked overtime. In some cases, they had lost families and housing tragically further complicating their situations at home. These students desperately needed an educational system that would meet their needs and allow them to continue their education whenever and wherever they had time available.
In Ms. Stadnik's own words, "NovaNET frees me from correcting papers, it keeps good records, and provides instant feedback to the students. My job is to work one-on-one with the students who are having difficulty understanding the material, while others work independently. I can explain things in different ways and relate the concepts each student's life. Basically, it provides excellent material and leaves me free to teach the students who need help. It allows me to offer 50 classes to 180 students per year while working part time in a 16 station lab. Is that cost effective enough?" 
Get Acrobat Reader