Unlikely Underdog Nabs Tech Award

Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 8/11/2004

The Independent School District in Irving, TX, doesn't seem like it would be the most technologically advanced in the nation--after all, 60 percent of its students receive free or reduced lunch and all of its schools qualify for Title I funds.

So how did this unlikely underdog win the first Sylvia Charp Award for tech excellence? A lot of credit goes to the district's media specialists. Thanks to voters who have passed bond measures to fund the district's ambitious technology program, it's been able to provide all 9,000 students in four high schools with wireless laptops.

The district also boasts one of the state's largest collections of subscription data-bases. And there are plans in the works to give all K-8 students laptops so that they and their teachers can link to resources on the school network. Caroline Kienzle, the district's director of learning resources, and her staff are now working overtime to make textbooks available online. The hard work has paid off--she and the district's librarians were winners of the 2000 School Library Media Program of the Year award from the American Association of School Librarians. The Charp Award, presented by the International Society for Technology in Education, is just more icing on the cake.