How were the demonstration sites selected?
A letter of invitation was sent to all school divisions on August 25, 2000 in the form of a State Superintendent’s memo, (Informational Memo #159). School divisions were able to nominate one high school to serve as a demonstration site. Of a possible 132 school divisions, a total of 57 school divisions sent nomination letters to the Virginia Department of Education. In order to conduct a fair selection of demonstration sites, the Virginia Department of Education formed an independent committee to assist in the site selection process. Committee members were chosen who possessed knowledge of technology and had no connections with the specific school divisions. The Virginia Department of Education devised a rating system with which the committee rated the high schools and their school divisions based on a number of different factors. First, a broad geographic representation was desired, so it was decided that a minimum of one high school from each of the eight regions should be included.
