Innovative Practices to Increase Student Achievement Earns McKinley Institute of Technology (MIT) Top Honor from San Mateo County Office of Education

The San Mateo County Office of Education recently presented McKinley Institute of Technology (MIT) with its inaugural San Mateo County Office of Education Excellence in Education and Equity Award recognizing MIT for its Family Literacy Initiative. The award-winning program, the Family Literacy Initiative, is a one-to-one literacy initiative designed to address the technology access gap, often referred to as a digital divide, by providing students with access to various technology-based learning experiences both in the classroom and at home. MIT was honored with the County Office of Education’s inaugural award while also receiving the J. Russell Kent Award from the San Mateo School Boards Association.

In accepting both awards, MIT Principal Mr. Nick Fanourgiakis said, “We thank the San Mateo County Office of Education and the San Mateo County School Boards Association for recognizing our program. The results that we have seen in student achievement is due to our MIT teachers who have been flexible, collaborative, and willing to adjust their practices to meet the needs of our students. Our work is truly a school wide initiative with all members of the staff involved.”

The San Mateo County Office of Education recognized MIT for how the Family Literacy Initiative “closes the achievement and opportunity gaps in San Mateo County,” said San Mateo County Office of Education Superintendent Anne Campbell. The program “exemplifies team collaboration, focuses on equity, and positively impacts student achievement. MIT’s program is already beginning to move the needle on student achievement with improvements seen on both the California state assessment as well as high school placement assessments,” added Campbell. 

The project was designed to engage students, teachers, and families in using technology to support literacy achievement and to increase overall family engagement in the school. 

All 400 MIT students are provided with Chromebooks that they use at school in every subject area, including online reading and writing activities. Students attend a ten-day boot camp that teaches digital citizenship and digital media lessons to them before they receive their devices. Students can take devices home after school and families without access to WiFi at home are provided with “hotspots” that give them access to the Internet in their homes. Students participate in a literacy elective that allows access to personalized, independent reading resources. Students also have the opportunity to take a computer science course that allows them to complete three levels of coding before they graduate from the 8th grade.

“We are very proud of the work being done at MIT with the collaborative efforts of teachers, parents, and students,” said RCSD Superintendent Dr. John Baker speaking about the innovation at MIT. “We have seen the gains that students have made in their achievement and we attribute that to a collaboration between our teachers and our parents. While we are very well aware of the improvement we have seen in the last several years, it is always an honor when your colleagues agree and recognize the good work.”

A key component of the project is to provide technology training to parents to increase their engagement with the school and help them understand how to help their students use technology in learning. Parents attend an orientation program at the beginning of the year where they learn to support their students in digital homework assignments. Parents also have the opportunity to attend workshops throughout the year.

Thanks to financial support from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative for the project, MIT teachers receive training on how to use digital tools effectively in instruction and they are supported by an onsite instructional coach and a partnership with Digital Promise, a non-profit organization that provides onsite assistance and coaching for teachers and administrators.

The inaugural San Mateo County Office of Education Excellence in Education and Equity Award is the first award of its kind to recognize a team of educators to celebrate the collaborative work being done in San Mateo County in support of student learning.