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Jerry Yin
McMennamy
Capstone 6th period
1 November 2016
TechNOlogy: FBISD Edition
Recently, many school districts around the nation have been implementing plans to
integrate technology into the classroom and everyday lesson plans. Chromebooks, iPads, and
laptop carts are bought as portable electronic devices students can easily access and use.
Specifically, the Fort Bend Independent School District has been one of the more progressive
school districts in terms of implementation, and has experienced its fair share of successes and
failures.
First and foremost, the iAchieve Plan which aimed to provide iPads to schools with
underprivileged students in low-income areas was a fantasy that failed to get off the ground. The
Superintendent at the time, Dr. Timothy S. Jenney, wanted to improve science education for 2nd
to 8th graders around the district by purchasing iPads for each science classroom. This plan was
aimed at increasing lesson diversity and boosting test scores for low-income children in poorer
neighborhoods. The iAchieve set aside $18.2 million to purchase 6,300 iPads equipped with
rubber padding, charging stations, and educational material software (Dolan). Launched in the
spring of 2012, the plan was scrapped only 18 months later in the fall of 2013. Many causes
including unrealistic goals, insufficient planning and project management, and a lack of
consistency with FBISD curriculum development standards led to the downfall of this shortlived plan (Michels). With such a complex project, the district set an overly aggressive timeline
for the pilot testing and implementation of iAchieve. The pilot testing in various 4th, 5th, and 8th

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grade classrooms only lasted about one month which is too short to gauge the actual importance
of the newly acquired iPads. The district jumped the gun, and what was supposed to be
revolutionary now does not exist. Furthermore, the district used poor judgement when they
selected their outside contractor to run the project. Fort Bend ultimately chose Curriculum
Ventures which only had two employees, one of which had only started one successful business
out of seven attempted (Kuffner). The other was the companys director, Bonnie Loque, who
gave Dr. Jenney the idea of Character Links back in 2007. This idea brought Dr. Jenney into the
national spotlight as he was credited with discovering the program, and all the schools in his
district were designated as National Schools of Character (Kuffner). Although Loque did not
demonstrate any qualifications or competency in the field of technology, he won the bid out of
four bidders. The Louisiana-based company registered with the state of Texas on the same day it
placed a bid on the iAchieve contract. After the plan failed, the entire Digital Learning
Department in Fort Bend was told to delete their files that had any relationship to the iAchieve
and for the most part, it is a taboo subject to talk about. This pioneering reform in the field of
tech-ed met its untimely demise.
However, one positive that resulted from this project is that all the iPad carts that were
bought already were eventually redistributed to other schools around the district, and this
redistribution of iPad carts led to a need for schoolwide Wi-Fi. It also caused a shortage of
portable electronic devices, so schools such as Clements High School purchased Chromebook
carts, a more inexpensive option. Each school received only about two or three iPad carts which
is not enough to satisfy the many teachers on each campus. The redistribution came as a result of
complaints that only science teachers in primary education in low-income neighborhoods were
the only ones allowed to use iPads in the classroom (McCullum). Although the iAchieve Plan

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officially ceased in the fall of 2013, the district decided to reach into its pocket again and fund
for the 2014 bond program, which called for Wi-Fi to be added to every school. It also was more
specific in its goals this time and set aside money to focus on the development of career and
technical education. Overall, $75 million was spent on Wi-Fi, data center modification and
virtualization, WAN/LAN development, and adding communication warehouses to each campus
(Technology). After one plan that failed because it jumped the gun, the district right away
began another with ambitious goals. The introduction of Wi-Fi into each classroom set off a
domino effect beginning with the increased usage of social media during the school day. Schools
combatted this problem by restricting certain websites that can be reached through the Wi-Fi.
However, students found a way around this using various vpns and proxy servers, thus rendering
website blocking useless. Currently, some high schools around the district such as Clements have
done away with the limitations, allowing students to surf the web freely. While useful at times,
Wi-Fi as a result of the 2014 bond program costed a lot of money and led to certain negative
consequences as well.
Finally, students were not the only ones who benefitted from integration programs, as
teachers benefitted as well. Teachers received new laptops in the summer of 2015 to replace their
old, traditional desktop computers. FBISD Digital Learning Specialist Sherri McCullum notes
that laptops are often more readily available than desktops due to its portability and are more
efficient than their iPad counterparts as the mechanical keyboard allows for quicker typing and
more keyboard shortcut options. In turn, these factors lead to an increase in the overall
productivity of teachers and ultimately an enhanced learning experience for students. Many
teachers also received new projectors in their classroom, a small upgrade from old, outdated
ones. However, some projector screens were installed incorrectly, and a handful of teachers

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began the school year with crooked screens. Thus, certain upgrades meant to be an aid turned out
to be a distraction for a period of time. Furthermore, the district also enacted a Microsoft 365
rollout for both students and teachers. Students received an email account and access to many
important software such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint. Teachers also had access
to One Drive, which allowed for 1 TB of information to be stored for easy access and sharing
(McCullum). But the effectiveness of these reforms are questionable as students already have
their own email accounts, and teachers use Google Drive, their class website, or a hard drive to
save all their data. In fact, recently in about 2013, the district made Google accounts for teachers
to encourage the use of Chrome materials (McMennamy). Thus, the Microsoft 365 rollout might
not have been as efficacious as hoped. While these smaller yet noticeable upgrades are generally
regarded as a more proactive and reasonable use of the districts money, the district again may be
spending money where money cannot produce a promising change. Many students are simply
not aware of this rollout, while other students simply refuse to use it.
In conclusion, Fort Bend ISD needs to take more time to evaluate the consequences of
implementation programs before enacting them. Unpreparedness as a result of hasty decisionmaking tends to lead to failure. Although every technology-related action proposed by the district
has enormous potential, certain plans look better on paper than in reality. The district may want
to consider the costs and benefits of every program before pouring money into it.

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Works Cited
Dolan, Betsy. "Clements H.S. Students Speak out against Fort Bend ISD's IPad Plan." Fort
Bend Southwest Star Newspaper. Fort Bend Star, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.
Kuffner, Charles. "More on the Fort Bend ISD IPad Failure." Off the Kuff. N.p., 17 Nov. 2013.
Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
McCullum, Sherri. "October Mentor Meeting." Personal interview. 27 Oct. 2016.
McMennamy, Glenys. Timed Writing Conference. Personal interview. 17 Nov. 2016.
Michels, Patrick. "The High Cost of IPad-mania in Public Schools." Texas Observer. N.p., 5
Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
"Technology Master Plan Proposal." FBISD Technology Infrastructure Master Plan
Proposal (2008): 201-07. Fort Bend Independent School District, 02 June 2014. Web. 26
Oct. 2016.