Success Stories

Engaging Students

I read an article once that quoted a student as saying that he 'powered down' when he went to school because his school wasn't online. Rialto has worked hard to create an environment that allows our students to stay 'powered-up' when they come to school, so they can learn in an environment that is natural and engaging to them, with a level of excitement that they expect.

Getting our students online was easy—we were more concerned about our teachers.

We searched for a tool that was designed from a teacher's perspective and would be user friendly to teachers at all levels of technical skill. We found eChalk to be more than we ever expected. Today, our teachers voluntarily create their online class pages... so that students and parents can see homework assignments, information about tests, and study guides. Our students are able to email their teachers with questions and submit their homework online, which is something students today expect.

All of this is great, and eChalk made it possible because it's so easy for our teachers. Even our most technology-challenged teachers discover that eChalk is exciting and easy to use. Today, many of our teachers are online, and we've accomplished this without mandates.

So we've been successful because we've created an environment that engages our students with an online world that's very sophisticated, but still so easy that our teachers choose to use it.

Noelle Kreider
Technology Specialist
Rialto Unified School District
Rialto, CA 

Building Community Support

Like many schools in our area, we're faced with the challenge of declining student enrollments, which makes attracting new students highly competitive. As superintendent, and a former principal, I want to be sure that our district makes a great first impression, especially since we know that if we can get a prospective student to walk through our doors, we've got her (or him). eChalk provides us with the very best opportunity to make a great first impression with our Web presence, so that prospective students and their families can see not only our improving test scores, but also that we are well organized, professional, and user friendly.

Another measure of our success is our ability to integrate our community members into school life through student-led activities. eChalk has allowed us to improve our community outreach by making information about our school activities available to our local community and giving them the opportunity to participate in all that we do.

eChalk is now part of how we do business.

Dr. Diane Kempley
Superintendent
Redding School District
Redding, CA

Evolving with Our District

Here in our district, we really like the way eChalk is constantly updating their system to meet our district's changing goals. Five years ago, we were looking at online solutions for email and Web hosting for the district, schools, and classes, with our main goal being improving communication. We picked eChalk because it's complete, safe, looks professional, and has Web publishing and email in one integrated application. From the beginning, we've been continuously impressed by the eChalk team's ability to respond to our needs. They really listen to us and include the features we need in each new release, which makes the application far more effective. Now as we look to the future, our district can confidently create a technology plan that includes eChalk. This fall, for example, we'll be rolling out our first exclusively online class, in which teachers will use eChalk to provide students with daily course content and homework submission capabilities and allow them to collaborate remotely in a safe and secure environment.

Nancy Toll
Director of Instructional Technology
School District of Hudson
Hudson, WI

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