Technological Interventions Keep Students 'On Track'

January's interim report on Scientific Research Based Intervention in Darien schools met the Board of Education with concern that the plan may have put unnecessary strain on special education resources; but Tuesday's meeting brought news of an unlikely hero: technology.

"Technology is helping these students get in and out of the program; many of them receive the supports they need to get back on track," said Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Judith Pandolfo.

A state-mandated program, SRBI was introduced to Darien's elementary schools in September of 2008 and requires that each school create tiered level academic support plan. Where the old system prompted teachers to take action only when there was a major discrepancy, SRBI is designed to benefit all schoolchildren.

Determining who needs help and to what extent demands a huge amount of time, and in many instances, the expertise of already-busy special education teachers. Technology, said Pandolfo, is aiding the process.

"This year for the K-5 group, we were focusing on the use of technology to support SRBI," she said. "There are a lot of Internet sources that target specific skills and the types of interventions that will develop them."

A prime example, said Pandolfo, is Destination Reading, an assessment and intervention tool that provides students with supplementary reading exercises on the computer and automatically tracks their progress.

Most of the programs are free; a few, like Destination Reading, come a small cost.

But it's the SRBI Wiki, a website which really serves the purpose of an online filing cabinet, that Pandolfo says is at the heart of the program. All schools have access to the website, which provides teachers the opportunity to continually update and share information. 

 "I think our biggest support is our SRBI Wiki. It's at the core of our process, our sharing and our communication with one another."

Perhaps the greatest challenge the future brings is funding. Maintaining programs and technology systems incurs huge district costs.

Budget season saw the board wrestle with a difficult proposition to cut the entire $218,000 technology budget for the coming year. That cut has since been reduced to $33,000—a decision made in the interest of supporting the district's touted technology plan, and one greatly appreciated by Pandolfo and district faculty.

"We appreciate the support that we've received from the board and the community for our technology resources," Pandolfo said. "They do in a very intricate way support the learning that goes on in the classroom."