Building on the successful implementation of digital resources and assessment services, Florida’s Santa Rosa County School District aims to further integrate digital content into the curriculum. To achieve this goal, the district is working with Discovery Education to augment their use of Discovery Education’s digital content and assessment services with customized professional development and curriculum alignment services.

Over the past five years, Santa Rosa County School District and Discovery Education have partnered to provide educators with digital resources and assessment services to engage students in learning and drive academic achievement.

“All children deserve an education that will prepare them for the 21st century, and to become productive members of our community,” said Tim Wyrosdick, superintendent of Santa Rosa County School District. “In addition to outstanding digital content, Discovery Education is equipping teachers with even more tools and resources and helping to evolve our curriculum to meet the changing needs of 21st century learners.”

At the foundation of the expanded relationship is digital content from Discovery Education streaming PLUS and Discovery Education Science. Aligned to Florida academic standards and assessments, Discovery Education streaming PLUS content is searchable by keyword, content area and grade level. Discovery Education Science offers standards-based virtual labs, simulations, video clips, and reading passages, encourages student exploration and stimulates critical thinking. In addition, for three years the district has been employing Discovery Education Assessment services to monitor progress toward academic goals and inform instruction.

To further leverage these digital resources, Santa Rosa County School District is turning to Discovery Education for curriculum alignment services. During the next four years, Discovery Education will work with the district to embed digital content from Discovery Education streaming Plus and Discovery Education Science into curriculum guides for math, science, English-Language Arts, and the Common Core State Standards. By embedding Discovery Education content directly into curriculum guides, educators will be able to click and launch digital assets aligned to Florida’s standards as well as Common Core State Standards to differentiate instruction and engage students with different learning styles.

In addition to providing digital content, assessment and curriculum alignment services, Discovery Education will implement a professional development program that will teach Santa Rosa County School District educators how to integrate digital media effectively into their everyday teaching. The professional development program will be jump-started with immersive sessions to provide participants with necessary technical skills to use the digital resources and corresponding technologies in their classroom instruction.

Follow-up professional development will support and mentor educators from Santa Rosa County School District as they continue to develop cross-curricular lessons that include digital content for use in large groups and differentiated instruction. Throughout the implementation, Discovery Education will provide consistent evaluation of the program, which will both shape the continued implementation of the program as well as the next steps for the district.

Discovery Education will continue to support educators from Santa Rosa County School District with its professional learning community, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). Through the DEN, educators have access to a wide range of technology training as well as a resource library of teacher-generated projects and tools.