Dell today announced that Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will deploy more than 8,000 Dell Chromebook 11 laptops to provide each of its 3rd-12th-grade classes with connected devices.
“We began this initiative with an ambitious goal – give all students access to a reliable wireless device,” says Dr. Gary Yee, Superintendent, OUSD. “Thanks to the affordability and manageability of Dell Chromebooks, we have been able to realize this vision and give every student, in every school access to a computer.”
The district-wide adoption of Dell Chromebooks will ensure that all students have equal access to technology and the internet, a goal of President Obama’s ConnectED initiative calling for expanding digital learning opportunities.
To ensure its students are prepared for the new testing environment required by California state standards, OUSD turned to Dell to develop a turnkey solution that maximized access to digital learning opportunities. Dell Chromebooks are verified to meet Smarter Balanced and PARCC assessment requirements with software from AIR and Pearson Testnav8 and Dell’s team of education advisors worked closely with the district to ensure the implementation supported their learning goals.
“Dell took care of all the logistics and really made this a plug-and-play solution. With their expertise, our team is able to get more devices into the hands of our students so they feel prepared to meet Common Core standards.” said Dr. Gary Yee, Superintendent, OUSD.
The 8,000 Chromebooks will be deployed at each of Oakland’s 83 campuses and securely housed in charging carts equipped with access points that extend wireless connectivity to the devices. With Dell Deployment Services, the Chromebooks will arrive at each campus, fully-setup on the OUSD Google Apps for Education domain, asset-tagged to ensure security and laser etched with the OUSD logo. The Dell team will do a complete onsite test of the laptops, including wireless access. The district’s Information Technology Services Department will then remotely manage the devices including pushing updates, pushing or removing applications and enforcing safe-browsing policies.
