SchoolLetters
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Letters
Prof Heffernan of WPI and his colleagues often have to collect letters from schools to document the fact that real schools want to participate in the grant activities we propose. This page assembles some of the letters of support/commitment/interest that we have accumulated in the past year or two. Below you will find letters from leaders of three state departments of education, over three dozen schools, and leaders of other organization that can support our efforts. If your school is using assistment but does not have a letter of support listed you should send one to td@wpi.edu, as schools that make our job easier in secure funding are the one that we first turn to when we get funding.
Maine
We have wide spread use in Maine by over 1000 student every night.
Maine Department of Education Officials
- Commissioner of Education, Stephen Bowen: supporting sustainability.
- Former Commissioner of Education, Angela Faherty: supporting sustainment.
- Head of Maine Mathematics, Michele Mailhot: impressed by how easy it is to add questions.
- Learning Technology Policy Director, Jeff Mao: commits to putting software we build for offline use onto all 70,000 laptops in the state.
Letters from Schools
Regional Superintendents' Associations
Regional Associations of superidentns is a great way to reach a large number of schools.
- The Penquis Superintendent’s Association representing 23 superintendents interested in participating.
- Washington County Consortium for School Improvement representing 17 schools interested in participating. Maine has a lot of K-8 schools that are often called "Elementary" schools but dont let that confuse you. The seventeen schools listed have 7th graders.
- Washington County Superintendents
- Maine Indian Education has three schools for native American that are included in the above letter, but also wrote their own letter.
- Hancock County Superintendent's Association representing 5 superintendents with 19 schools.
- The Mid-Coast Superintendent's Association representing 13 superintendents with 23 schools.
Individual Letters from District and School Leaders
- Brunswick, ME Letter from Principal of Brunswick Junior High.
- MSAD 3 Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- MSAD 3 Letter from Coordinator for the Improvement of Student Achievement.
- MSAD 49 Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- MSAD 60Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- RSU 4 Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- RSU 4 Letter 2 from Math Coach
- RSU 9 Letter from the Superintendent to IES
- RSU 16 Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- RSU 18 Letter from Assistant Superintendent
- RSU 23 Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
- SAD 61 This is a letter from Lake Middle Principal in SAD 61.
- Lake District School Updated Letter from the new principal at SAD 61
- Auburn ME Letter from the Superintendent of Schools and the school committee chair
- Falmouth ME Letter from the Principal
- Falmouth School District Letter from the Principal to IES
- LewistonME Letter from the Superintendent of Schools
Leaders of Important Organizations (i.e., associatons of princiapls and teachers)
- The Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Maine (AOTMIM) Shawn Towle President: Supports the randomized controlled experiment of schools.
- Maine Principal’s Association, Gus LeBlanc President: wants to share ASSISTments with other principals.
- Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine, Crystal Priest, ACTEM President: Offers her connections to help develop training opportunities for ASSISTments.
- GEAR UP Maine, Kathryn Markovchick Director: This organization works with 49 schools for disadvantaged students in 18 districts and want to bring ASSISTments to their schools.
Massachusetts
We have wide spread support across the state of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Department of Education Officials
- Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,Mitchell Chester, who shares his interest in what he has learned about ASSISTments.
- Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Bob Bickerton, who says ASSISTments is one of the six systems the state is considering for their Race to the Top program.
- Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, Tim Murray: Supports ASSISTments expansion.
Massachusetts School Leaders
- Nadya Higgins Executive Director of the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals’ Association.
- Michael Connelly Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators' Association.
Letters from Massachusetts Schools
- Agawam Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Ashland Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Bellingham Letter from Superintendent of Schools and Director of Curriculum.
- Douglas Letter from Superintendent of Schools and Director of Curriculum.
- Dover Sherborn Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Grafton Letter from Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
- HampshireRegional Letter from Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
- Leominster Elementary School Letters from Sky View Middle Principal, Kathleen Ciccolini
- Mendon-Upton Letter from Superintendent of Schools and Director of Curriculum.
- Millbury Letter from Director of Curriculum.
- Nashoba Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Natick Letter from Principal of Middle School.
- Northbridge Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Northborough-Southborough Letter from Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
- Oxford Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Peabody Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Rockland Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Saugus Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Shrewsbury Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Wilmington Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Wareham Letter from Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
- Wayland Letter from Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
- Webster Letter from Superintendent of Schools.
- Worcester Letter from Superintendent's Office
North Carolina
We just begin to scale up in NC. We are training two dozen principals in data driven leadership. on Nov 14-15th 2011 at NC State.
New Jersey
We are just putting on our first training in New Jersey. Currently only North Arlington Schools and Princeton Univeristy are using ASSISTments in New Jersey.
Arkansas
We just begun planning for Arkansas.
Arkansas Department of Education Officials
- Letter from the Commissioner saying he wants to partner with ASSISTments
- Assistant Commissioner for Research and Technology Broadman
Important Organization Leaders
Letters from Arkansas Schools
- Letter from the Pocahontas Superintendent saying he wants to partner with ASSISTments
- Letter from the Greenbrier School District Deputy Superintendent saying he wants to partner with ASSISTments
- Letter from the Quitman High School principal saying he wants to partner with ASSISTments
- Letter from the Bigelow High School principal saying he wants to partner with ASSISTments
Letters from Real Users Telling Their Own Stories
- Eric Simoneau of Boston Latin in the Boston Public Schools. He teachers every day with ASSISTment and got his own NSF grant to create materials for teaching statistics.
- Laura L. Reynolds of Lawrence Jr. High, Fairfiled ME: Reflects on how ASSISTments in unlike other “new things” in that it is powerful and helps ease the work load, not add to it, so it is sustainable.
- Tammy Thibodeau of Lewiston High School: Tells of her initial skepticism and shares a detailed experience of use and of how she likes that she can extend and manage the content herself.
- Office of the Superintendent in Worcester, Gale Nigrosh Development Specialist for Higher Education Partnerships, WPS Superintendent’s Office: WPI’s hometown: this district has been working with Heffernan for 9 years.
- Oak Middle School in Shrewsbury, Christopher Starczewski, Principal: His school uses ASSISTments now and as a teacher in Worcester he used ASSISTments in its first year (2003).
- Grafton Public Schools, Lou Boutiette, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Grants and Assessment: Is committed to start a local laptop program to compliment the one in Maine.
- Courtney Mulcahy of Oak Middle School, Shrewsbury MA: Explains how she uses ASSISTmnts for nightly homework, mastery learning, parent notification and essay critique, she can not imagine going back the the old way of doing things.
An Advisory Board of National Experts to Help this Grant Succeed
- Mary Lindquist: Past President of the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics and one of the key drivers (and authors) of the NCTM standards.
- Ken Koedinger: CMU Director, Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center and Co-developer of the ASSISTments system, will advise on the research project and the development of the system.
- Amy Morse: Trained over 20 coaches in Boston and has written a book on training math coaches.
- Jim Pellegrino: Cognitive psychologist and editor of the National Research Council’s Knowing what Student Know book.
- National Association of Elementary School Principals. Possibly one of our most important partners in scale up ASSISTments is work we are doing in collaboration with National groups like the Gates Grant we have with Gail Connelly, executive director of the National Association of Elementary school Principals.
