Approximately 175 educators, entrepreneurs and other interested parties are coming to Pittsburgh beginning Sunday for the fall meeting of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools.

“(We) are looking forward to share with other school districts around the country the remarkable learning that is occurring at Elizabeth Forward,” Superintendent Bart Rocco said.

Elizabeth Forward is a co-host with Avonworth and South Fayette districts of the three-day event. They are three of 57 districts involved in the league. Fifty-six are in the United States and one, the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity in the Kaiserslautern District, is in Germany.

The league is a key initiative of Digital Promise, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) signed into law by President Bush in 2008 and initiated in late 2011 by President Obama.

Its aim is to advance breakthrough technology in education through national research partnerships, pilots of classroom tools and other activity.

In turn, a key initiative of Digital Promise is the League of Innovative Schools, which seeks to establish partnerships within a national coalition of schools, research institutions and leading technologists.

Elizabeth Forward was among eight districts in seven states named to the league in the fall of 2013.

“By sharing their leadership, challenges and breakthroughs, these eight exemplar districts will help educators across the country tackle the difficult work of improving the opportunity to learn for the nation's students,” said Karen Cator, a veteran of more than 30 years in public and private fields of education who was named Digital Promise CEO in April 2013.

Elizabeth Forward was added to the league around the same time that its students received iPads or iPad Minis in every district classroom under a continuing leasing agreement in which the district pays Apple no more than $550,000 a year for the devices.

“We're changing the culture of our district,” Rocco said as the school board approved the leasing agreement in June 2013. “It is a new way to approach education and learning. It will be a unique sharing and learning experience for both (teachers and students).”

South Fayette was added in the spring of 2014 and Avonworth joined in the fall of 2014. Today the league represents more than 3.2 million students.

Other Tri-State districts in the league are Reynoldsburg City near Columbus, Ohio, Mentor Public Schools near Cleveland and Bristol Township in suburban Philadelphia.

League director Sara Schapiro hailed “something special going on in Pittsburgh” as well as the dedication of those districts to collaboration, knowledge sharing and engaging students.

“We're excited to showcase the region as a hub of education innovation,” Schapiro said.

The theme of the meeting is the importance of establishing regional partnerships, with emphasis on the host districts' ties to such entities as Carnegie Mellon University, the Sprout Fund and regional businesses.

The showcase will continue beyond the Pittsburgh area meeting. Elizabeth Forward Assistant Superintendent Todd Keruskin will receive a Digital Innovation in Learning Award on Nov. 20 in Mountain View, Calif.

Keruskin will receive the 2015 DILA Learning Ninja Award for expanding the concept of the high school library “to harness vast resources of the Internet to support teachers and students.”

The library became a YOUMedia Center with the help of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center.

“Since the winter of 2012, we have been pushing our teachers with creating complex projects/project-based learning and the new (YOUMedia Center) has changed the entire high school,” Keruskin said. “The new space gives teachers the freedom for students to create video projects in the television studio or sound clips using the sound studio.”

Elizabeth Forward officials said the goal of each league meeting, held every six months, is to address shared priorities and set goals to be pursued during the coming year.

Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.

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