When Sarasota School Superintendent Gary Norris announced the district’s ambitious plan called Next Generation Learning in spring 2005, the need for radical change in the delivery of technology was clear. Through an unprecedented collaborative partnership, the school district and the Center for Maximum Public Performance (CMPP) created a strategic plan for Next Generation Technology and are proceeding to implement the plan using an innovative approach to resource sharing and leadership. What is Next Generation Learning? It is a vision of education that adapts to today’s reality and tomorrow’s needs. It acknowledges changes in our economy, our workplace, our world. It embraces the next generation, with its diverse face, digital upbringing and independent thinking. It treats every child as an individual, every educator as a professional, and every parent as a customer. It requires total community support, while holding the school district accountable to taxpayers. It represents a new direction, a new hope, a commitment to the success of every child and a promising future for an effective, efficient organization. Superintendent Norris identified the following as the “greatest challenges” for Sarasota County Public Schools: Closing the achievement gap, especially with low socio-economic and minority students. Improving graduation and dropout rates. Enhancing career and technical education programs so students graduate with skills necessary for the 21st Century workforce. Providing necessary resources in facilities, technology, competitive teacher salaries and quality programs for a growing and diverse student population. Keeping students and staff safe and secure. Establishing a sustainable funding source that responds to a public demand for accountability as well as organizational efficiency and effectiveness. To address these challenges, the Next Generation Learning strategy outlines a vision for change in four key areas: quality, people, resources and safety. Download the Next Generation Learning white paper.  To support the strategy, the school district and CMPP formed a strategic partnership with Sarasota County government to share technology leadership and infrastructure. The strategy for this collaboration is called “Next Generation Technology.” What is Next Generation Technology? It is agile. It adapts to the fluid, changing demands of Next Generation Learning. It embraces and leverages the rapid evolution of technology in our community and culture. It supports every child equally, without regard to ethnic background, sex, economic status or the neighborhood where they live. It is a key factor in a high efficiency, high performance, highly individualized educational system. The following principles guide the leadership team as it reviews and enhances tactics to advance information technology in our schools: Provide Equal Access to Technology - We must level the opportunities for learning for all children across all schools. We need to eliminate disparate investments in technology available to our students from school to school. We need to refocus the variable funds from parent organizations and grant funding away from additional computers and software toward collaborative libraries of materials that help teachers. Build Sustainable Capacity - We must create sustainable solutions that do more with the resources our community has. Instead of focusing on traditional, turf-based constraints, we must view technology resources as community assets to be used by all public service organizations. Strengthen Tools for Learning We must provide technologies that our teachers, students and parents can depend on for high performance, equipping students for a technology-driven age. Empower Our Teachers - We must focus our investments on tools that integrate seamlessly into the art of teaching. We must invest in training our teachers, empowering them with tools that engage both student and teacher in this new model of instruction. Our success will derive only 35 percent from technology and 65 percent from focusing on our team. Next Generation Technology is designed to address the following challenges: Bridge the digital divide. Make technology available anytime, anywhere, across all of our schools and in the homes of our students. Make technology an aid and enabler that our teachers and administrators want to use. Integrate technologies into our curriculum to advance learning and help ensure our students are prepared for college or the workforce. Provide learning technologies to help parents participate more actively in their children’s education. Move our technology team from reacting to problems and sudden needs to proactive planning in collaboration with educators. Working with the CMPP, Dr. Norris articulated a vision for addressing the challenges through the same key areas identified in Next Generation Learning. The goal is to create “fully capable schools” through five-year change cycles. Details on the vision and strategy are available for download in the Next Generation Technology white paper. Implementation began in spring 2005 with assignment of the Sarasota County government CIO to lead the school district technology team. Integration of the team and key infrastructure issues are top priorities. The CMPP will provide updates as work progresses.