These four Kansas City schools each get $2.3M in tech, iPads for all, to close a gap

Four Kansas City Public Schools received grants worth about $2.3 million each as part of a national effort to bridge technological gaps in urban schools.

Two high schools — Central and Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts — and two middle schools — Central and Foreign Language Academy — are among 31 schools nationwide benefiting in the latest round of the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program.

The district celebrated the program with an event on Monday, the first day of school.

“The best thing about technology is it doesn’t care about age, race, nationality, anything like that,” says Stephanie Kimbrough, digital technology mentor at Paseo. “The best thing is that it’s there and if you want to learn, it will be there for you.”

Every student at the four schools receives an Apple iPad and 30 gigabytes of data per month from Verizon. A technology coach at each school is helping bring new methods to the classrooms.

The program began in 2014 to target schools in urban and rural areas that face poor internet. Though schools in St. Louis and Wichita previously joined the program, the four KCPS schools are the first in the KC area.

Schools are chosen from factors such as socioeconomic circumstance, graduation rate and teacher retention.

“It’s not just doing your problems on a piece of paper or a workbook,” says Joe Jarrett, KCPS director of digital learning. “It’s going to that next level of not only just consuming it but they’re also able to actually show you what they learned and get their creative processes into play.”

As is standard practice in schools, the iPads come equipped with precautions.

“We have web filters that keep students away from bad things and management software where they’re not just watching YouTube all day,” Jarrett says. “Teachers could send them to apps or make them stay in certain apps. We got cards built in to ensure safety, privacy and security.”

For educators like Kimbrough, the new challenge in the classroom will be teaching students how to use the device effectively and responsibly.

“One of the things that we have to do as educators and as good parents will be to make sure that we’re using it for the right purposes and sometimes when you don’t know the reason for a thing, abuse is inevitable,” says Kimbrough, who has taught at Paseo for 13 years. “What we’re going to try to do is make sure that we understand that this is not just something for entertainment but it’s also for information and learning.”

For district officials like Jarrett, the pandemic was the biggest realization of the technological divide. When classes switched to digital learning, some families needed help ensuring their children had the online resources and equipment.

“I think this will really move the needle with anybody who may have been kind of behind before that,” he says.

The district hopes to add additional schools in subsequent years into the program.

At Paseo’s celebration, crowds of parents and students filled the cafeteria on Monday to receive their iPads for the school year. Faculty, district representatives and members of the Verizon team spoke about the program and their excitement at adding KCPS to the nationwide initiative.

“During the pandemic we were able to issue either a laptop or a tablet,” says Scott Jones, chief technology officer for KCPS. “The difference between this and that is the hotspots and the main complaint we heard are that students ran out of data.”

Jones says that upgrading to an iPad operating system is a “game changer” and that in three years the district plans on converting all devices to Apple products.

“These devices are state of the art, new, user friendly and very reliable,” says Jones, who has held his position since January. “We’re going to be rolling out even more technology, and we have a very aggressive three-year technology plan.”

Kimbrough feels that Paseo will have an added layer of benefit with the devices, given the performing arts focus of the school. Students can use applications for music production, photography, videography, editing and design.

While she understands some teachers may be apprehensive about adding a possible distraction into the classroom, it will be the job of educators to challenge students in new ways.

“When it comes to professional development, I’m going to maximize usage of this device,” says Kimbrough. “It’s a wonderful tool, but nothing will replace a teacher. What this can do is change what teaching looks like, and it’s our job as teachers to rewrite the narrative.”