Summer-Fall 2001

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The Family Technology Resource Centers (FTRC) Program consists of 14 community technology centers operated by the DeKalb County School System (DCSS) in Atlanta, GA. The model program is an outreach and technology diffusion initiative developed and maintained by the DCSS to encourage the use and awareness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by under-served populations. Initiated in 1996, the program has been highly successful in sustaining program activities through active participation from an array of significant community stakeholders including members of the DeKalb County School Board, teachers, parents, community members, funders, and other community partners. DeKalb County's FTRC program has been recognized as a model community technology program in the United States. In October 1996, President Clinton applauded those families who transitioned from welfare to work after completing the FTRC's PC Skills, Jobs Training, and Employment Skills classes. In November 1998, President and Mrs. Clinton honored the FTRC at an official ceremony in the White House as an exemplary after school and community education program.

According to the 1990 U.S. Census, DeKalb County's median income in zip code 30316 where most of the FTRCs are located was $23,285, compared to a national median income of $35,894. In 1999, DeKalb County had the fastest growing poverty rate (15.7%) in Georgia. The DCSS is a 106,000-student school district with 122 schools – the second largest school system in the South, behind the Miami/Dade School District in Florida. More than half the students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and the student body is 86.5 percent minority population. With the underlying principle that education cannot exist in a closed social system since all students are citizens of the larger community, the goals of the FTRCs are to:

• provide equal access to computer training to all segments of the community;
• enhance parent knowledge of computing skills so they can help support their children's education and improve their own employment opportunities; and
• strengthen partnerships among key stakeholders including schools, parents, businesses, and community organizations.

To accomplish these goals, DCSS keeps school facilities and community centers open after traditional school hours to provide computer-based learning opportunities for all community members. Each center maintains records on its users, and student data is related to parental participation at the FTRCs,
Started with just one FTRC in 1996, the program has grown to include 14 centers distributed throughout the school system. All 14 FTRCs are available to DeKalb County students, their parents, senior citizens, and other interested residents, such as parents of private school students. The centers offer courses delivered through interactive multimedia technologies that allow each student to learn personal computer skills, job-related technical skills, basic and advanced literacy skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, and a variety of government regulations related to the workplace. The course offerings include:

• PC skills: lessons in using a PC, Microsoft Windows, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and presentation tools.
• Basic skills: lessons in reading, math, writing, science, history, and language arts.
• Technical and vocational skills: lessons in keyboarding, basic literacy, GED completion, and SAT/ACT preparation.

Each course offered through the FTRCs takes between eight and 10 hours to complete; an entire curriculum takes between 53 and 85 hours. FTRCs provide trainees with access to "training facilitators" who answer questions, assist participants, and track attendance and course completion. The centers also provide childcare to parents with children too young to participate in FTRC activities. Children under age seven are entertained with age-appropriate activities, and children over age seven participate in computer-related activities that augment classroom-based instruction.

The FTRCs grew out of preliminary results of a pilot program to train teachers to effectively use technology in the classroom established by DCSS in the early 1990s. Dr. Edward Bouie, Jr, initiated the program in three elementary schools in August 1995. The schools selected were specially categorized by the DCSS Superintendent as Special Instruction Program (SIP) schools having low-test scores and a downward trend. Initially the training program focused on four courses that addressed using a PC, Windows, and Microsoft Office products. Courses took place in after regular school hours until February 1996. An outside evaluation team from Clark Atlanta University found positive results for the effectiveness of the training program and courseware, results Bouie reported back to the Board, garnering their further support for the training program. The School Board decided to implement the teacher training program system-wide at a cost of 5.5 million dollars with the goal of training DCSS's 7,500 teachers and 1,500 staff.

In the vendor's contract with the DeKalb County School System for purchase of the pilot program software, ITC Learning offered a statement that if the pilot was successful and if the Board decided to further implement the training program, they would provide funding for a community outreach project. Bouie defined this role as the FTRC program and developed a vision for how it could be implemented in a 1995 concept paper, "Family Technology Resource Centers: Serving Parents, Students, and Community." In this paper, Bouie explained the reason for involving the community in K-12 education:
"Schools cannot live apart from the community in which they reside. Communities of learning are vital for the stability and growth of all citizens. Stable communities working together to advance individual's skills in a technology-rich andinformation-driven atmosphere will provide the cornerstone to a citizenry ready to participate in the global economy."

Realizing his need for assistance in implementing the program, Bouie brought on board Dr. Mindy DiSalvo, who in April, 1996, began writing a proposal to the Georgia Partnership in Education (GPEE), an organization that brings business, education and government to the table to advocate for educational improvement in Georgia; the proposal for $75,000 was successfully funded. In June, the FTRC received its first funding and began plans for program implementation. They decided to place the first center at Gresham Park Elementary School, as Wendolyn Norris, the school principal, was highly motivated and excited about the program's possibilities.

In August and September of 1996, Bouie, DiSalvo, and Norris finalized the logistics of running an FTRC at an elementary school. Using previous research on adult learners that showed adult learners learn differently from K-12 students and need to study a subject at least four hours per week, they developed course schedules. They established all of the rules and guidelines and decided to set up a Local Advisory Board for each center, so that each site could make its own decisions based on its particular community's needs, values, and interests. Realizing the need for large amounts of staff time, Norris proposed that the only fee for participation would be that each FTRC user volunteer 30 hours back to the center or school – an idea that has become a significant catalyst for furthering other school goals at all 14 existing FTRCs. Norris interviewed potential staff for the center, with an emphasis on hiring local people from the community the center serves.

In the five years since the FTRC program began at Gresham Park Elementary School, the school has realized an increase in parental involvement from five percent in 1995 to 88 percent in 2000 and of the approximately 500 students at the school, 167 are involved in the FTRC in some way.
The vendor's commitment to fund a community outreach program in its proposal to the DeKalb County School System resulted in $250,000 used to fund the payroll for staff at three new centers, opened in 1997 after successful implementation of the first program at Gresham Park in the prior year. Following the School Board's requirement that no school funds be used for FTRC staff, the FTRCs continued to leverage all available school resources as DCSS opened additional centers in the following years.

Each center maintains records on its users, and student data is related to parental participation in the FTRCs. In
the five years since program implementation, the DeKalb County School System reports for each school with an FTRC

· school-wide Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) and National Percentile Rank (NPR) increased
· increased individual student achievement using Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) total reading and total math scores
· improved school attendance (including decreased tardiness)
· decreased student discipline referrals
· increased parental involvement at school activities and functions
· increased parental support in home-school partnership contracts
· increased parental involvement in homework
· increased home-school contact
· expanded partnerships between schools and businesses
· expanded services offered at school during non-traditional hours
· expanded hours spent on-task learning for K-12 students
· improved job status (raises and promotions) for parents, and
· employment for those previously unemployed.

The FTRCs have to date trained more than 12,500 participants (7,500 teachers, 3,000 community members, 2,000 others) over five years. The FTRCs maintain usage at 100 percent of their capacity, and currently have a waiting list of over 2,000 community members.

Employers have continuously reported that the "job ready" applicants who have graduated from the program are successful. Four FTRC business partners have recognized the skills of the FTRC graduates and have hired them. One metropolitan Atlanta employer has hired over 20 FTRC graduates and has offered to pay for the CompTIA+ Certification Exam (a novice-level certification for computer technicians) for FTRC graduates, and when they pass, employ them. Fortune 500 companies, major hospitals and health centers, school districts, and government agencies in Atlanta have also hired graduates. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the FTRC program is the graduation ceremony celebrating the participants and their families each quarter. For many of the participants, this is the first time they have ever graduated from an educational program. Graduation programs have grown from the first class of 18 in February, 1997, to over 500 graduates this April.

Key factors influencing the program's success and conclusions include:

• Ongoing reinforcement (rather than a "one-shot") effort in formulating a plan for any participant to be welcomed back to the centers on an ongoing basis for continual learning opportunities.
• Realistic Identification of Nature and Needs of Target Constituencies Mentoring and Training by Peers.
• Leverage Existing School Resources
• Community Buy-in and Strategic Partnership

Although the impetus for the FTRC program came from leadership within the school system, program administrators focus on grassroots involvement at a variety of levels: requiring participants to volunteer 30 hours back to the FTRCs; hiring qualified FTRC graduates as trainers for other community members; and establishing local Advisory Boards at each site. The successful outreach of public schools into the community for purposes other than the traditional educational objectives reflects a partnership of school and community, drawing upon the resources (training and technology) of the public system to achieve synergistic benefits beyond the traditional orientation of the educational system toward in class-student learning. In the case presented here it appears that the impetus for program development was the result of a combination of an environment "suitable" for change, participation of various stakeholders, and the ability of key change agents both internally and externally to draw upon resources to "leverage" a policy initiative.