Cheshire Middle School Students to Get Chromebooks

The Cheshire Board of Education will use a $202,575 technology grant funds from the State Department of Education to purchase laptop computers for 7th and 8th grade students to support our work in transitioning to the Common Core State Standards and SMARTER Balanced (SBAC) assessments.  

This grant was part more than $24 million technology grant requests awarded last month to support more computers and increased Internet bandwidth aligned with efforts to transition to the Common Core State  Standards  and technology‐based  SMARTER  Balanced  assessments.    

The  State  Department  of Education received 128 applications in July 2013. Governor Malloy stated that all submitted applications will  receive  some funding  because  the  new  SMARTER  Balanced  assessment  system  will require increased computer access and upgraded technology.  

Cheshire Public Schools submitted the technology grant application to support increased student access to learning resources via a personal learning device. The new SBAC testing will require more class time in our existing computer labs. With lab time scheduled for SBAC assessments, students will have limited access to our labs as a learning and instructional resource.

All seventh and eighth grade students will receive Chromebooks to use throughout the school day in order to access the learning resources, Google Drive, and the Internet as needed in every class. Students at Dodd will no longer need to go to the computer lab for access; they will have technology at their fingertips.

Teachers will be able to plan and implement lessons which utilize online resources in a one‐to‐one computing environment and through the Google Drive system. The funding is anticipated to be in place for the computers by the end of next month, when a new Chromebook is expected to be released that is made specifically for students.