WESTMINSTER — Since its inception 16 years ago, Compass School's mission has been to provide real-world learning for its students. The school has a Community Service Winter Term; its junior class travels to the Dominican Republic in its Global Connections program; it holds all-school spring trips and Project Week that connect students to the world beyond the classroom walls.
“Next year, Compass will encourage even more connections by providing computers to assure every student has access to the technological world,” according to a press release from the school.
Compass School will join 25 other schools in the state and the Tarrant Institute of the University of Vermont to implement a one-to-one computer initiative. The goal is to improve equity by ensuring every student, regardless of family income, has access to computers.
The focus for Compass, according to Director Rick Gordon, is to further increase personalized learning for students.
“We have always been flexible in helping each student find pathways to success in school. Improved use of technology can help us do better with helping students be accountable for desired learning goals and providing structures for individualized learning opportunities.”
Although one-to-one is the common term for the move to assure access for all, it doesn't convey the intent imagined at Compass. “We prefer the idea of one-to-world,” according to science teacher Louise Hodson. “The idea is to connect students to the world, not have each student tied to a computer screen.”
Gordon, along with teachers Kellie Crowder and Ryan Hockertlotz, spent a week in June with more than 200 other Vermont educators at Vermont Technical College to plan for the one-to-one initiative.
“The great thing about our work,” Crowder said, “is the focus is not the technology but, rather, on student learning.”
Assistant Director Eric Rhomberg summed up the effort at Compass, “Whatever our views on technology, it is part of the lives of our students. We need to get better at using technology and guiding our students to use technology responsibly, wisely, and skillfully.”