Connecting Classrooms and Communities
How Seesaw Helps Wichita Public Schools
Fulfill Its Strategic Plan
District Snapshot
Building Connections in a Diverse Community
Wichita Public Schools (WPS) serves a diverse student body of more than 46,500 students – about 11 percent of all public school students in the state of Kansas – across 88 schools and program locations. In December 2023, WPS embarked on an ambitious, five-year strategic plan to “inspire every student to thrive and become future ready.”
But supporting every student can be a challenge in a district whose students were born in more than 100 countries, with more than 115 languages spoken in their homes and more than 80 percent living in “homes of poverty.” Further, about 20 percent of students receive English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services, and more than 18 percent of students receive special education services.
To support this diverse population of students, the district’s strategic plan embraces shared beliefs that will guide the district in foundational areas, including: student success, safety and belonging, family and community collaboration, visionary leadership, and common good. In addition, the district turned to technology as a means to address the various needs of students, teachers, and families.
Facing budget challenges and a growing roster of tech tools, it became critical for WPS leadership to consolidate its solutions into an efficient system that addresses its strategic objectives. Seesaw provides a streamlined solution that helps the district execute on its strategic plan while facilitating connections across the WPS community, maintaining best-in-class edtech resources, and navigating an uncertain fiscal environment.
Modernization, Consolidation, and Cost Reduction
The COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment for K-12 education, forcing districts to modernize rapidly in order to prevent disruptions to learning. Not surprisingly, the number of edtech tools tripled by the end of the 20212022 school year, according to a report by LearnPlatform. As the pandemic receded and the end of federal stimulus funding loomed, school systems across the country had to develop strategies for addressing the explosion of edtech tools that staff and students had come to rely on.
To address this challenge, WPS developed a strategic approach to evaluating their edtech investments to determine which tools they should allocate budget to. They sought to find ways to consolidate their resources to reduce costs, considering application usage data, teacher feedback, and unique capabilities that other tools couldn’t provide.
Like many districts, WPS started using Seesaw during the pandemic at a time when it was critical for teachers and administrators to stay connected with students and families. As district leaders evaluated the solution after the pandemic, they noted a number of Seesaw’s strengths, including its ability to give students a way to turn their work in when studying remotely or independently, along with the platform’s high level of data privacy and security. Moreover, the platform provides teachers one location – a onestop shop – to house all of their edtech tools and resources. No longer would teachers need to use a separate math tool, reading tool, science tool and so on, which ensured a positive, seamless experience for teachers, students, and families. Finally, Seesaw worked across WPS’s diverse device landscape, which was a critical factor for long-term scalability as the district continues to evaluate its hardware needs. Because Seesaw could address such a broad range of district needs within a safe and secure platform, the district’s edtech team prioritized the solution even while reducing the overall number of edtech solutions in use.
This strategic shift not only reduces financial and operational costs – and security risks – but also streamlines the parent and student experience, which the district believes will increase engagement and ultimately support their strategic objectives. In fact, Rob Dickson, Chief Information Officer of WPS, specifically advocated for keeping Seesaw because it serves multiple essential functions while providing family engagement that is superior to that of other tools.
The district is now making an intentional shift to further consolidate their learning management systems:
“We are being intentional that Seesaw will be our only learning management system for PK-5 next year. We’ve had access to Google Classroom for many years, but the secondary grade levels are moving into Canvas, and we are sunsetting Google Classroom entirely for the district.
Dyane Smokorowski, Coordinator of Digital Literacy
Innovative and Impactful Educational Experiences Across the Learning Loop
Seesaw also helps WPS leaders achieve their mission of helping students succeed through innovative and impactful learning experiences by facilitating connections between families and schools, students and teachers, and administrators and the classroom – which Seesaw calls the “Learning Loop.” The platform’s unique ability to facilitate these relationships improves learning experiences both within the classroom and at home, helping the district achieve the goals reflected in its strategic plan: enhancing safety and belonging and family and community collaboration, supporting student success, and fostering visionary leadership.
also quickly assess student progress with built-in formative assessment tools. Authentic student work samples provide deeper insights beyond test scores, while actionable data helps educators tailor instruction to support student growth.
Seesaw’s multimodal tools can build connections between students and teachers—and give all students a chance to shine. Students who may be nonspeaking, anxious, quiet, or not yet fluent in English can still use Seesaw to capture their ideas and share them with their teachers. With Seesaw, students can use voice memos, videos, and many other modes of expression to share their work. They can also use the tool as a way to ask teachers questions privately if they’re too nervous to ask in front of the rest of their class. Every student can have agency and a voice.
“Seesaw is valuable for all of those students who are not cookie cutter, who can’t just sit and do a worksheet all day. Seesaw gives them the chance to find their voices, to express themselves in so many different ways. And I think that’s exciting
The Administrator-Classroom Connection: Fostering Visionary Leadership
Right now, when principals seem to have more responsibilities than ever, Seesaw can give administrators visibility into what’s happening in classrooms. Amidst the myriad challenges currently facing school leaders— such as lagging student achievement outcomes post-Covid-19—elementary school principals must still attend to the day-to-day work of serving 483 students on average. This will require visionary leadership—a core value in WPS’s strategic plan that Seesaw can support.
Seesaw allows principals to catch up on what they may have missed during a busy day while strengthening their rapport with teachers, as well as students and their families. Family members often ask administrators for updates on how children are doing, so knowing more about each individual student is key. Without a platform like Seesaw, principals might miss out on making the core connections that can drive teacher effectiveness and student achievement.
Shonda Hayes, the principal of Little Early Childhood Center, says, “As the principal, Seesaw has made me much more connected to the classrooms, just because I can see everything that is posted for anybody. It makes me feel more connected. I don’t feel so bad if I can’t make it into a classroom or if I don’t see kids in person because I still feel connected.”
Candace Decker, Second Grade Teacher