Hear directly from teachers, principals and administrators how BYOC has changed their approach to curriculum and improved communication, lesson planning and assessment district-wide.
When current Anaconda School District #10 Superintendent and Curriculum Director, Dr. Gerry Nolan, made the transition from his previous position to Anaconda School District # 10 he knew there would be at least one thing he would be bringing with him, BuildYourOwnCurriculum (BYOC). In his previous position at Fremont County School District #2 in Wyoming, Dr. Nolan had used BYOC with great success and he sought to recreate that success here in the Anaconda School District #10.
Enrolling just over 3,000 students, West De Pere is a small district in northeastern Wisconsin. After learning their current curriculum management system would no longer be offered, West De Pere Curriculum Director Amy LaPierre began to research other options. She selected BYOC based on positive recommendations from other schools and its easy-to-use, instructional design. One year into their five-year implementation plan, the staff is extremely pleased with integrating BYOC at a comfortable pace, focusing on a few departments at a time.
A new school district to lower Maine, RSU #73 was created through the consolidation of two existing districts. Using the consolidation as an opportunity to improve and refresh the district, Superintendent Dr. Robert Wall pursued new curriculum management options to update their current paper system. BYOC’s comprehensive features for collaboration, improvement, and assessment—rolled in an easy-to-use format—are helping the district to become the dynamic and innovative school they aspire to be.
Conecuh School District in southern Alabama enrolls over 1,700 students in six different buildings. Like many districts in Alabama, the staff was working tirelessly to embrace the Alabama State Department of Education’s PLAN 2020 and State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice’s Five Absolutes. Curriculum Coordinator Mary Ann Danford and the superintendent were excited to discover BYOC offers capabilities to create “living curriculum” and analytics to help them comply with new standards and regulations.
Upon the release of the Kansas State Department of Education’s Kansas College and Career Ready Standards (KCCRS), Director of Learning Services Kellie Puderbaugh knew they needed an innovative solution to tackle the complex and time-consuming task of realigning existing curriculum to new standards. The implementation of BYOC relieved pressure on teachers and allowed the entire staff to easily update curriculum to comply with new standards.
Basehor-Linwood School district enrolls approximately 2,265 students in northeastern Kansas. As a district consisting of 100 teachers to over 2,000 students, Assistant Superintendent Mike Boyd knew the district needed an efficient method for updating curriculum to new Common Core Standards. The implementation of BYOC was an “awakening experience” for the entire staff, as they discovered it was easy-to-use, flexible and customized to their unique needs.
With no established curriculum formats or models to follow, Hancock Place School District needed to develop curriculum on their own, making district-wide organization and alignment difficult. Realizing the key to quality curriculum involves in-depth, time-consuming discussion and collaboration, the administrators decided to implement BYOC to accommodate that process. Now, after years of using BYOC, the staff agrees—from service, to professional development, to the tool itself—“BYOC has it all.”
Serving as BYOC’s brightest example, Little Chute Area School District, located in northeastern Wisconsin, was among the first to sign up for the software after its creation. Prior to BYOC, they used a secondary school collection tool, plus an in-house solution for mid-level primary grades. However, neither program back- or forward-mapped. Curriculum Director Jennifer McDermot found BYOC to be a comprehensive and easy solution to map their curriculum across all grades. After years using BYOC, the staff is especially pleased with customer service and support. “On a scale of one to 10,” McDermot concludes, “I’d say School Software Group is a 12.”
Pattonville R-III School District is a mid-size district located in Saint Ann, Missouri. Like many schools, Pattonville had a legacy system for curriculum including hard copy guides and binders that made updates, communication and alignment a challenge. Short on staff and also seeking a more efficient method to organize and analyze curriculum, Coordinator for Assessment and Library Services David Miller decided on BYOC. Not only was BYOC the most affordable option of the many tools they considered, it was also, as Miller describes, “head and shoulders above other options” when referring to the features and benefits included.
CESA 6 in Wisconsin, the Show-me Curriculum Administrators Association (SMCAA) in Missouri and Greenbush Southeast Kansas Education Service Center are three service agencies that tested various curriculum management systems and found BYOC to be the ideal solution. All three service agencies discovered the benefits of BYOC—and the partnership with School Software Group—allowed them to bring effective and proven solutions to their member districts. Through our business partnership with AESA, we are bale to reach additional agencies nationwide.
