DOWNEY – At Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, it was announced that five Downey Unified elementary schools have been selected as Apple Distinguished Schools.

This international designation has been awarded to Gauldin, Imperial, Lewis, Old River and Rio San Gabriel elementary schools. Each recipient was selected for their unique and innovative implementation of Apple technologies that fostered tech-rich environments that ultimately enhance students’ learning opportunities.

An Apple Distinguished School is described as a hub of innovation, leadership and educational excellence. Being awarded this recognition signifies these five recipients use technology to connect students to the world, fuel creativity, deepen collaboration and make learning personal for each student.

There are currently 546 such schools in the world—ranging from elementary to college level—with 31 of them in California. Downey Unified adds to this list by having five schools within one school district selected for this global designation.

“We are very proud and excited about this recognition, for not one, but five of our elementary schools. Our teachers, Instructional Technology team and administrators have worked cohesively and pushed themselves to showcase our students’ creative use of technology in all subjects,” shared Jennifer Robbins, Director of Elementary Education. “Each school’s written and video application for this recognition reflects how our teachers have introduced technology, through the use of iPads and educational online applications, to help students gain the confidence and skills necessary to present their learning in new and creative ways.”

The selection of five Downey Unified schools as Apple Distinguished Schools highlights the campuses’ success in creating innovative and compelling learning environments that engage students, providing tangible proof of academic achievement.

“If 5th graders have a U.S. state presentation, they can plan to use a green screen and appear in the state’s capital while they present to their peers or use an app to create a new webpage,” said Marnie Luevano, Elementary Instructional Technology Coach, as she explained how students utilize technology within the classrooms. “Our department is here to support our teachers and students in having a ‘voice and choice’ in how they arrive to and present their findings. Technology offers different paths to the same educational goals of research, writing, problem solving, public speaking and much more.”

The road to becoming an Apple Distinguished School includes significant upgrades to digital technology access and implementation before the school can even receive an invitation to apply. First, schools must have an established 1:1 (one-to-one) Apple device program for two or more years. This was accomplished in Downey Unified when they began with the 21st Century Learning Communities initiative in 2015-16 when the district began providing an iPad to each elementary and middle school student.

Other criteria to apply includes having 75% or more completion of the Apple Teacher training by the school’s leadership and educators, and documentation of positive results of the integration of Apple Apps and numerous other digital resources into curriculum to create opportunities for student learning.

“For our school to be recognized, is incredibly validating. This is a great accomplishment for our entire school community,” shared Gauldin Elementary Principal, Sylvia Estrella. “Utilizing various applications, our Instructional Technology Coaches and teachers have led the charge in encouraging our students to become innovators in their own learning. Our [Apple Distinguished School] application shows how our students put together engaging presentations, such as writing and creating their own visual autobiographies, fairy tales, experimenting with virtual reality to discover different places around the world, creating their own music with Garage Band and learning coding and solving math problems with apps such as Minecraft EDU. There is no question that this infusion of technology into our learning strategies instills the type of curiosity that leads to creative thinking in our students in a way that empowers them to see themselves as capable learners. Our classrooms are limitless in learning, thanks to these efforts.”

During each schools’ three-year designation as an Apple Distinguished School, each campus is expected to continuously improve and grow their integration of technology into curriculum. In Downey Unified, it was announced that this includes expanding their Student Tech Squads, Robotics and coding programs as well as student created podcasts and app design challenges.

School leaders at each campus plan to share their stories and successes with other educators, both inside and outside the district, through hosted school visits in collaboration with the Apple Education team. These events will be each school’s opportunity to show how they use digital content and technology to create powerful teaching and learning experiences for their students and, in the process, inspiring more educators to do the same.

The district shared that the remaining eight Downey Unified elementary schools will continue their technology efforts toward the Apple Distinguished School recognition over the next two years.

The five Downey Unified elementary schools recognized will be receiving a plaque and banner in the near future to signify this distinguished honor. Additionally, this important milestone will be celebrated with potentially an in-person or Zoom event to further announce this news to the school community in the coming months.