Blue Valley School District
Overland Park, Kansas
Bob Moore, Chief Information Officer
Sue Denny, Executive Director of Student Services

Blue Valley Launches Pilot IntelliTools Classroom
Project for New School

Blue Valley School District is an award-winning K-12 district located in Overland Park, KS, a suburb of Kansas City.

Sue Denny, Executive Director of Student Services at Blue Valley, partnered with Blue Valley’s Chief Information Officer, Bob Moore, in selecting IntelliTools Classroom Suite to focus on improving literacy skills to meet AYP and district curriculum standards in a pilot project.

They chose a newly opened school, Cedar Hills Elementary, as the pilot IntelliTools Classroom Suite site.

Focus on Writing Skills Improvement
Cedar Hills teachers decided to work on language arts for the project with a specific focus on improving writing skills. Cedar Hills was just implementing a new reading curriculum and was in the second year of implementing a math curriculum.

The pilot project, involving 12 teachers in K-5 classrooms, had two goals:

1. Use IntelliTools Classroom Suite to teach Language Arts to state standards
2. Assess the effectiveness of the technology in teaching and Learning

Cedar Hills targeted specific writing skills:

• Punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure
• Sequencing and complete sentences
• Spelling, phonics, and phonemic awareness
• Word choice, words, and phrases
• Paragraphs and stories

Skills Improvement across Grade Levels
At the end of the eight-week pilot program, teachers reported increased skills, especially in the areas of understanding sentence components and being able to write in complete sentences.

Kindergarten and grade 1 teachers found that using IntelliTools Classroom Suite explore activities with the whole class and an interactive whiteboard worked particularly well. Students collaborated and helped each other learn in the whole class interactive experience.

Teachers of older students reported that the students enjoyed using the tool and making their own activities to present to the class.

“The school opened in September and we have just finished our first year. I am pleased with the progress, and we will be expanding the use of IntelliTools Classroom Suite to other teachers in the school,” notes Steve Marsh, Cedar Hills Principal, who adds, “The teachers from Phase 1 will be mentoring our Phase 2 teachers.”