The San Francisco Unified School District began its Vision 2025 initiative in the 2013-2014 school year and will continue it by imagining what a 2025 graduate might look like and what kinds of needs he or she will have in not only San Francisco, but also in the national and global community.

"Superintendent Richard Carranza of San Francisco Unified School District and the board of education considered, for instance, that graduates will need to develop and manage their local, global, and digital identities, and be comfortable separating and switching between the three," according to eSchoolNews.

In relationship to their vision for 2025, the SFUSD has taken on some big endeavors to help facilitate their goals. One such endeavor is the School and Family Early-Digital Literacy project which uses iPads to engage teachings of Common Core math and language arts and focuses on a home-to-school tech initiative.

Through the initiative, parents of first graders in four underserved elementary schools within the district were given an iPad and a 10 session course on how to use the device to help children learn at home.

The goal of this particular initiative was to get first graders ready for the assessments that come with second grade and also to try out different home-to-school tech initiatives, something the SFUSD believes will be an integral part of learning in the future. It also seeks to benefit lowest-performing schools and level the playing field in education.

"The Early-Digital Literacy pilot is one step toward the vast vision. The district is also poised to introduce a required computer science curriculum, which by 2025 will be in place for all students preK-12," said eSchoolNews.

Other important components to the SFUSD's 2025 vision is to ensure students understand their role in global society and will feel a responsibility on a local, national, and global level.

The vision also seeks to transform classrooms into hands-on "learning labs" where instruction is student-centered. It envisions all schools within the district to "serve as vibrant community hubs that promote learning, health, well-being, collaboration, and resilience within San Francisco's neighborhoods," according to the district's site.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/29/2015