State of Learning: Cisco Systems and BearingPoint Help Bridge the Education Divide

The Client

In 1998, the state supreme court passed the Students FIRST (Fair and Immediate Resources for Students Today) law which mandates that all students in Arizona's public schools receive equal educational opportunities, whether they live in the Tucson suburbs or on a remote Native American reservation. The task of making that lofty goal a reality fell on the Arizona School Facilities Board (ASFB).

The Challenge

The state of Arizona had a massive undertaking spanning Arizona's more than 1,200 public schools. The ASFB purchased more than 36,000 personal computers, bringing each district to a minimum ratio of one computer for every eight students. With these machines and high-speed Internet connections in place at the schools. They needed to create a network that would give students and teachers equal access to more than 250 educational software titles as well as student assessment systems, computer and Internet training, and help-desk technical support.

The Solution

The ASFB turned to BearingPoint, LearningStation and Ensynch to help build the Cox Education Network, a comprehensive collection of educational courseware and other learning and teaching resources delivered using a Web-based portal accessible by all students, teachers, and parents. Using the existing alliance with BearingPoint, Cisco systems was chosen to deliver leading edge networking products and expertise for the project and Qwest Communications to wire the network.

The Benefits

The Cox Education Network is deployed and operational at several hundred schools, and the ASFB expects to have every school connected by August 2002. The impact of computer-assisted learning will move our students forward and bring us closer to the other end of the digital divide, says Larry E. Wallen, superintendent of the Pi?n Unified School District No. 4, Najavo Nation, Arizona. Students and staff now have expanded opportunity to access learning provided to those in the more urban locations.