I want to give you all information and updates on a pilot project that we are undertaking at Central Middle School.  We are working with the California Emerging Technology Fund, School to Home and Smart Riverside to provide Netbooks to all 7^th grade students at Central.  These Netbooks will travel between home and school and provide digital access to many families that currently have none.  School2Home is a comprehensive program that will eventually help more than 500 low-performing middle schools and up to 400,000 students and families across California benefit from cost-effective technology-based strategies that reduce the educational achievement gap and Digital Divide. In April School to Home will begin beta testing at two middle school campuses, Central Middle School (RUSD) and Stevenson Middle School (LAUSD), School2Home will provide students, teachers and parents with broadband-connected laptops, technology training, and rich online educational resources. As the name implies, School2Home recognizes the equal importance of the school and home environments as places for learning, and works to enrich student opportunity by creating stronger connections between the two. Its large scale, evidence-based approach, and public-private partnership make it an unprecedented effort, both in California and nationally. This initiative is spearheaded by the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and The Children’s Partnership (TCP).  We are proud to be a part of this program and hope that next year we will be able to expand our participation to at least two other middle schools (Currently given their criterion these schools would be University and Sierra but I will keep you posted as we progress) 

School2Home has three major goals:

·         Increase digital literacy and educational performance among targeted middle school students.

·         Improve their 21st Century skills so they can contribute to a more competitive workforce upon graduation.

·         Strengthen the involvement of parents in the education of their child through the use of home-based digital technologies, and, in turn, expand the adoption of broadband technology.

RUSD was selected based on our reputation where instructional technology is concerned, our relationship with SmartRiverside and the fact that we had middle schools in program improvement.  Central was selected because of the proliferation of existing classroom technology, the high level of socioeconomically disadvantaged/ELL students, their program improvement status, their overall student population and Pablo and his staff’s willingness to participate.  We look forward to implementation and will keep you posted as we progress. Let me know if you have questions or concerns.  For more information on School2Home go to http://cetfund.org/node/363