Innovative Partnership: Napa Learns
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 06.12.13
Napa County has made some notable progress with educational technology in recent years. One effort that has guided and supported success among the county’s public school districts is Napa Learns.
Napa Learns is a community foundation that has partnered with schools to make a difference in public education. The mission of Napa Learns is to encourage the success of every Napa County student by providing resources, funding, and support to help district staff adopt new teaching methods focused on the demands of the future. The foundation actively works with Napa County school districts to support 21st century learning initiatives.
One of Napa’s superintendents invited me to the May 2013 board meeting of Napa Learns at American Canyon Middle School. I went to get a better understanding of how this organization operates in partnership with districts to impact countywide efforts.
Touring American Canyon Middle School
Board members and visitors were invited to tour American Canyon Middle School classrooms prior to the business activities of the meeting. The tour demonstrated the work Napa Learns has collaborated with Napa Valley Unified School District to create. Classrooms revealed students working in a one-to-one technology environment and carrying out various activities with laptops, netbooks, and tablets.
Many of the activities I observed involved innovative uses of Google docs. As an example, I noticed a series of classes engaged in “jigsaw activities” where a shared document with common questions was used by all students in a group. Individual group members had separate sections of an “answer document” that needed to be read and processed, then synthesized into the group’s common document.
This school and others partnering with Napa Learns have at least one staff member who is released from part of their teaching assignment to offer onsite training for staff in project-based learning and/or technology. These teachers gain skills by attending summer Buck Institute activities, then bring back ideas for their school and offer other teachers implementation options from project-based learning websites.
Budget Planning and Action Areas
After the tour, the Napa Learns board convened in a classroom to carry out business activities. Representatives were present from each of Napa’s districts, the Napa County Office of Education, and Napa Valley Community College. The May meeting focused on budget planning. Members were reviewing expenditures for the next two years. Budget appropriations included:
- Personnel, including an executive director and education technology integration specialist
- Support for school district hardware acquisition
- Support for digital curricula
- Educator professional development
- Teacher and school mini-grants of up to $500
- Tuition support of up to 50% for all teachers who wished to pursue a Master's Degree in Education at Touro University
Spending categories totaled over $2 million per year for the next two years. I understood that spending was aimed at supporting three action areas:
- Early childhood reading and math
- Project-based learning opportunities in grades K-12
- Technology and Internet access for all
Listening to reports and observing interactions, I was impressed by the coherence and shared interests for Napa County’s 50,000 students. Districts and community members were working together to implement a vision focused on 21st century skills, technology, and project-based learning. From my perspective, Napa Learns models an innovative partnership between schools, community stakeholders, and local businesses.
Learn more at the Napa Learns website, napalearns.org
Blog: Technology for Learners
