No Bluff to His Cutting-Edge Innovations

School Administrator, Sept, 1997 by Jay P. Goldman

Lest there be any doubt that visionary leadership can flourish in tiny, out-of-the-way school communities, one need look no further than Bob Rogers, superintendent of a 330-student district in the west-central Illinois farm town of Bluffs.

Actually, many superintendent colleagues look his way now when they need to visualize how a district with limited human and financial resources can integrate technology into the academic lives of its students.

As he begins his 20th year as the lead administrator in the Scott-Morgan Community Unit School District, located 50 miles west of Springfield, Rogers finds himself increasingly called upon as a model of innovative leadership and a regular recipient of accolades. Even students recognize his craftsmanship.

Molly Davies, a 1997 graduate who served as president of the National Honor Society, a club that Rogers advised, cites the superintendent's role in starting a multimedia program and his gentle guidance helping students build and manage the school district's presence on the World Wide Web (http://bluffs. scott.kl2.il.us/bluffs). Even his hustling for the requisite funding hasn't escaped her eye. "He likes to stay one step ahead of the times," she says.

Beginning in 1st grade, where students learn keyboarding skills, the Scott-Morgan district uses technologies to expose students to interdisciplinary learning opportunities. Every classroom has computers networked to each other and to the Internet through a T1 line, and every teacher has e-mail capacity.

Students take calculus via the Internet and Japanese, advanced writing and marine biology through satellite links. Those in senior English dispensed with the traditional oral and written reports on "Macbeth" this spring in favor of multimedia presentations.

Rogers, who has presented on various subjects at three AASA conferences in recent years, teaches a non-credit course on using the Internet to research family genealogy and a community college class for adults on surfing the Internet. Earlier this year, he conducted a full-day workshop on using technology for 15 school secretaries from around the region sponsored by the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

Walter Warfield, who directs IASA, likes to make an example of Rogers' cutting-edge efforts. "Bob has been providing this type of leadership for the rest of us long before such risk taking was in the spotlight. He hasn't waited for the money for technology. He has found it. He hasn't waited for the good ideas. He has developed them. He hasn't waited for the high tide of acceptability."

During the past year, Rogers hosted 380 fellow educators, parents and board members from other communities anxious to see for themselves how technology can be integrated effectively into the curriculum. He uses such occasions to caution people about the unstinting claims of technology's payoff.

"Outsiders will say, 'So are your test scores increasing?"' notes Rogers. "I'll tell them that it's too early since most teachers haven't utilized technology in the curriculum for very long. In Illinois, about a third of the schools have Internet access and most were just connected year ago."

Rogers says this year's professional development activities will focus on engaged learning to help teachers facilitate interdisciplinary learning for Individuals and small groups of student. He predicts, "We're two years away from achievement results."

To pay for the satellite transmissions and the technology use, the superintendent formed an educational foundation, a fund-raising arm of the such school district. Using three tiers of participation, the Partners in Education Program raised $20,000 in 1996-97. The money covered monthly Internet hookup charges, new dot-matrix p inters for every classroom and upgrades to computer memory.

In return, the largest company donors--those contributing $5,000 or more-receive signage in the school gym, recognition on the superintendent's stationery, free space for their home pages on the school district's file server and computer training for their employees.

This unique arrangement is attracting notice.

"One thing I learned from Bob's approach to business-education partnerships ... is you don't go in a d say, 'We want to partner,' but "Here's what you're going to get out of it," says Cheryl Lemke, former technology director for the Illinois State Board of Education.

"I've learned from him w at a visionary leader can really do for school district," she adds.

Jay Goldman is the editor of The School Administrator. E-mail: jgoldman@ asa.arg

BIO STATS:

BOB ROGERS

Currently: superintendent, Scott-Morgan Community District, Bluffs, Ill.

Age: 54

Best Career Advice: My mother told me, "Be kind to the people you meet on the way up the ladder because you will surely meet them on the way down."

Best Professional Day: speaking at President Clinton's National Rural Conference on America, Ames, Iowa, 1995

Books at Bedside: Using Microsoft Office 97 Special Edition and Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte