Elsa Cardenas

Case Study
Irving ISD, Mansfield ISD and Sherman ISD

The schools that I decided to investigate for my case study is my district which is Irving
ISD at Nimitz High School, Dawn Kerrs district Mansfield ISD and Rael Okeris district
Sherman ISD at Neblett Elementary School. I decided to do my case study on what technologies
do schools provide at each of these district from what I saw from there STaRR Chart.
At Irving ISD all teachers and high school students are given a laptop. Teachers can keep
their computer all year but students need to turn in their computers at the end of the school year.
The district is ran with Google Apps for Education and all students, faculty and staff have a
email account set up with them once they enter the district. The campus ITS offers many
professional development opportunities throughout the year that involve technology integration
into daily lesson plans. The district also offers easy access to receive technology resources but
do have block on internet sites to save bandwidth. Irving ISD is reasonable at giving permission
to users that request a specific site.
In Sherman ISD teachers are also provided with computers as well as projectors and
iPads. Sherman ISD offers professional development during the summer as we for those teachers
wanting to gain more knowledge of technology. Resources are not so easily available or easy to
receive when requested like it is in Irving ISD. The problem may be that the district is the one
that decides what resources are being used which may put a gap between the district and teacher
for easy access. The teacher interviewed at Neblett Elementary School is not to familiar about
the sites that are blocked in the district but they do know that this comes from Sherman ISD but
that they will also unblock a website if requested and it will be opened.
Mansfield ISD has a lot of software and resources for teacher to use such as Blackboard,
Web Advisor, Soft Chalk, YouTube, Intranet and Microsoft. There is a yearly training orientation

for all the teachers in the district called, Intranet Technology System. For the internet resources
the district bases a research from staff and students and with the data collected the district
decides what will be used, in a collective decision. The district also blocks websites and video
sites but the interviewee did not specify if the sites become unblocked.
For all three districts in the STaR Chart classified as Advanced Technology except for
Sherman ISD where Education Preparation and Development was scored as Developing
Technology. The similarities that each district has according to the STaR chart that each one
needs improvement with online professional development and online learning. Also,
Infrastructure for Technology was of the highest rating in Advanced technology. Some of the
differences form the StaR chart is the score in Educator Preparation and Development where
Sherman ISD scored the lowest at 15, Irving ISD at 16 and Mansfield ISD at 17.
There are also quite a few differences that the interviewees stated about their district were
that in regards to the district software offered to the teachers such as Mansfield ISD uses
Blackboard and Irving ISD used Engrade to create test, collect data and a layout of daily lesson
plans. In regards to the interviewees type of dependent or independent learner Mansfield ISD
Department Head of Technologies stated that most of their students are independent learners
because the majority is familiar with technology in contrast to the teachers in Irving ISD and
Sherman ISD which said that over all dependent learners with some depending on the class being
independent learners. Mr. Nkwolo from Irving ISD and the Department Head of Technologies
from Mansfield ISD have many resources available such as Cisco, A+, windows and
collaboration through emails, also the interviewees are innovators. In contrast, Mrs. Beth Weeks
of Sherman ISD stated that using technology in the school was a struggle, this may be because in
the district there are still in the Developing Technology key for the STaR chart. Overall I am glad

I investigated these three different district and gained perspectives from Elementary to High
School