By Mark Edwards, Scott Smith, and Todd Wirt
Find out how Mooresville Graded School District
improved student achievement and revolutionized
teaching with its Digital Conversion program.
Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD) in North Carolina, USA, was in a
tough situation that is all too common
for districts across the country. Our
student poverty ratio rose significantly
from 2007 to 2011 because of the economic recession, and we were ranked
99 out of 115 school districts for per-pupil expenditure in the state. No less
than 40% of MGSD students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch,
student test scores were low, dropout
rates were high, and the digital divide
was wide.
We knew we had to come up with
something to turn the statistics around, and the solution had to be
effective and financially viable. In
2007, we began planning our Digital
Conversion program, a six-year strategic plan that set clear goals for using
technology in classrooms and focused
on academic achievement, engagement, opportunity, and digital equity.
The program has revolutionized
our learning and teaching, despite
family income, school funding, and
resource disadvantages. Since 2008,
student achievement at MGSD has
skyrocketed, test scores have increased
in all of the district’s eight schools, and
four-year graduation rates have soared.
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