Students in Opelika Discover Learning Can Be Fun

As recently as five years ago, the dropout rate for schools in
Opelika, Alabama, was almost 30 percent-the state average.
"For those who dropped out, more than half got menial jobs, and
many ended up in prison or on welfare rolls," suggests Opelika
School Superintendent Dr. Phil Raley.

But thanks to a revolutionary new approach to teaching and an
infusion of classroom technology, the picture in Opelika is
dramatically different.  "We now see a discernible difference
in the attitudes of our students, our teachers and parents, and
our dropout rate is at or below 10 percent," Dr. Raley adds.

Opelika (population 25,000) is largely a blue-collar industrial
town, east of Montgomery. The district has eight schools with
4,500 students: 49 percent black, 49 percent white and two
percent Asian. Over the years, voters in the district have
shown a willingness to support education, and the city and
county governments have responded with school budgets that were
more than adequate. But low test scores and a high drop-out
rate were continually troublesome.

Focusing on the Drop-Out Rate In the late 1980's,
Superintendent Raley and his staff refocused their efforts
through a new set of objectives: to increase student motivation
to succeed, improve parental involvement in the learning
process and reinvigorate teachers.  "We also decided to
concentrate on making learning exciting again and keeping kids
in school", Dr. Raley says.

One school, West Forest Intermediate School, led the way.
Standard classrooms with rows of desks facing the teacher were
replaced by clusters of students in computer learning groups.

A New Approach to Learning Traditional textbooks-save math-gave
way to contemporary books. New learning concepts were
adopted-based on teamwork and group learning, with teachers
planning lessons together, students tutoring one another and
parents acting as policy makers, classroom aids and at-home
tutors In addition, West Forest extended the length of the
school day.  A special, 7 a.m. enrichment program called "Blast
Off," was designed for children of working parents. A similar
afternoon program, called "Odyssey," provided such after-class
programs as art, music, athletics an club activities until 5:30
p.m.  

Such innovative concepts were formulated into a plan that earned West Forest a $750,000, RJR Nabisco Foundation Next Century Schools AwardQonly one of 42 such grants awarded over a threePyear period. At the same time, Dr. Raley and his staff began seriously evaluating classroom technology. The district had a few computer labs that supported what Dr. Raley refers to as RpullPoutS instruction.

Eliminating the "Pull-Out" Approach" "When teachers send
students down the hall to a computer lab, or when students are
pulled out of class for special needs instruction, you're
asking for failure," Dr. Raley says.

In 1991 West Forest became the first school in the district to
implement classroom technology with IBM's Teaching and Learning
with Computers methodology and courseware such as Writing to
Read, Writing to Write and basic math.  This added dimension of
technology kindled a fire storm of excitement that swept up
students, teachers, parents and administrators, Dr. Raley
recalls.

Previously, West Forest students had recorded the worst
Stanford Achievement Test records among Opelika elementary
schools. A year later, West Forest had made significant
improvement. Also, suspensions dropped dramatically, and there
were significant increases in student attendance.

Replicating Success in the System Based on those kinds of
results, a decision was made to replicate the West Forest
approach in other Opelika schools.  What is emerging at Opelika
is a sophisticated program of networked classroom technology,
providing a rich variety of courseware for students at all
levels.

Included are EduQuest's interactive videodisc programs,
Columbus:  Encounter, Discovery and Beyond, and Illuminated
Books and Manuscripts.  Opelika also is moving toward equipping
every classroom with networked technology and currently has
four computers in grades K-5, supporting such programs as
Writing to Read, Writing to Write, and math, science and
language programs.  In the sixth, seventh and eighth grades,
there are from one to six computers in every classroom,
supporting various language, science and math courseware.

And in the high school, there are from one to eight systems in
every class supporting interactive physics and chemistry,
geometry, a variety of writing, language and math programs,
LinkWay Live!, desktop publishing and many others.

"A key to our success," Dr. Raley explains, "has been the
emphasis we put on teacher training. And training will continue
to be a high priority in the future."

Center of Nationwide Attention Not only are the Opelika schools
opening eyes in the community and surrounding areas of Alabama,
there's growing interest across the country, with schools in
more than 30 states scheduled for visits to Opelika this year.
Opelika schools also were featured nationally in a recent
article in Parade Magazine.

Looking at the progress his district has made, Dr. Raley says
Opelika is holding its own in terms of the test scores. But the
thing they're most proud of is the dramatic reduction in
drop-outs.

Dr. Raley adds that Opelika leads the state of Alabama in
technology (more than 1,200 classroom systems), "but we're not
yet where we want to be," he adds.

Reprinted with permission from Insight, a publication of IBM
EduQuest.

 IBM, Writing to Read and Writing to Write are
registered trademarks and EduQuest, Columbus Encounter,
Discovery and Beyond and Illuminated Books and Manuscripts and
LinkWay Live! are trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation.
.