Agenda Item
a. Modern Classroom Project Training & Support Agreement (Not to exceed $150,000)
Summary: Presented by: Champion Michelle Dillard, Chief of Schools, Division of Schools & Leadership
Request: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the contract with The Modern Classrooms Project to provide professional learning and mentorship to DeKalb County School District (DCSD) teachers for an amount not to exceed $150,000.
Why: To further build our instructional staff's capacity and meet our students' unique needs in the classroom, the district seeks to partner with the Modern Classroom Project. The partnership will allow for up to 100 DCSD teachers to engage in a year-long professional learning and mentorship program to improve their instructional practice. The participating teachers will then be able to serve as model classrooms to further expand practices within their building and the district.
Details: The goal of The Modern Classroom Project is to empower educators to build classrooms that respond to every student’s needs. The Modern Classroom Project provides professional learning and mentoring so teachers can build self-paced, mastery-based instructional units leveraging technology to foster responsive, authentic learning based on student needs.
Expected outcomes include:
Teacher Impact:
• Teachers eliminate lectures by creating instructional videos
• Teachers replace one-size-fits-all pacing with flexible structures
• Teachers to assess students on mastery and not completion of tasks
• Teachers have more structure to support Independent Learning Days
Student Impact:
• Students to learn at their own pace with teacher support and guidance
• Students have the time they need to learn while always being challenged
• Students can progress to more advanced material when they are ready
• Students have access to review or make-up lessons as needed
Financial impact: The cost of the Modern Classroom Project will not exceed $150,000 to be paid from 100.1000.530000.00011.7150.9990.8010.020.0000
Contact: Mrs. Michelle Dillard, Chief of Schools, Division of Schools & Leadership, (678) 676-0542
Effective: Upon Board Approval
Status: Approved by the Office of Legal Affairs
Sole Source Letter
January 1, 2024
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is to confirm that The Modern Classrooms Project’s online training courses and
virtual support models are sole source products, sold and distributed exclusively by The Modern
Classrooms Project. Our training is blended, self-paced, and mastery-based and certified to
receive microcredentials, CEUs, and/or graduate credit by Digital Promise, George Mason
University, and Colorado State University Pueblo.
Our unique Virtual Mentorship Program is a combination of asynchronous videos and tutorials
that participants watch in addition to structured assignments, live sessions, and check-ins with
participants’ mentors. Each of our mentors is a practicing educator. As educators move through
our instructional content, they connect with their mentor and other educators in their cohort
for a unique, blended experience. Our mentor pool represents instructors from across the
country, and our ability to pair classroom teachers with classroom teachers is unique to our
blended approach and allows for educators to learn from peers.
The Modern Classrooms Project’s content and tutorials are the intellectual property of the
Modern Classrooms Project. No other organization offers this model of training while teaching
educators how to implement a blended, self-paced, mastery-based model. We hold the
exclusive copyright to all of our training materials, and do not license or otherwise authorize any
other party to distribute these materials without our consent.
There are no other products or services practically available that offer the same purpose or
function, nor are there other entities, agents, or dealers who are authorized to represent this
product.
The Modern Classrooms Project is the sole provider of the above-named products, and has the
exclusive right to market, distribute, and set the prices of all of its product offerings.
For further information, please feel free to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Robert Barnett
Chief Program Officer
The Modern Classrooms Project
robert.barnett@modernclassrooms.org