This is the story of how 2013 Superintendent of the Year, Mark Edwards, led the Mooresville, N.C. Graded School District in its goal of creating a vibrant new learning environment for teachers and students and achieving outstanding academic results through an innovative digital conversion initiative that provided every student and teacher with a laptop, despite a very modest resource base. Every Child, Every Day gives readers a look at the visionary success factors that worked together to produce positive results–a culture of caring, digital resources, a relentless focus on data, leadership at all levels, and student-centered learning–and shows how their interplay drove, and can drive, academic improvement in virtually any school district. New funding strategies that address the budget issue combine with step-by-step replication tips to provide valuable inspiration and guidelines to help every school succeed on the digital conversion path to student achievement.
Dr. Mark Edwards has served as a school principal; Superintendent of Henrico County, Virginia; Dean of the College of Education at the University of North Alabama; and Vice President for Business Development at Harcourt Assessment. During his tenure in Henrico County, the district deployed 26,000 laptops to students in grades 6-12 as part of a groundbreaking Teaching and Learning Initiative. The initiative received national attention as a benchmark for one-to-one computing and was recognized with numerous awards.