For Immediate Release

CONTACT

Tracy S. Weeks, Ph.D.
Executive Director
SETDA
202-715-6636 x700
[email protected]

SETDA Announces Utah’s Mountain Heights Academy
2017 Student Voices Award Winner

Students will present details about their personalized learning experiences to over 250 state and national education leaders and policy makers in October 2017

June 28, 2017 (Washington, D.C.) – SETDA, the principal membership association representing U.S. state and territorial digital learning leaders, announced Mountain Heights Academy located in West Jordan, Utah as the 2017 Student Voices Award Winner. SETDA recognized Mountain Heights Academy for leveraging technology to dramatically improve educational experiences and achievement for their students. Students at Mountain Heights have the opportunity for personalized, student-centered learning, empowering learners to succeed. Mountain Heights is the first secondary school worldwide to develop its own curriculum as open educational resource content. World class teachers create courses, invite students to participate in the design process, teach using the courses and publicly release the content to benefit students across the globe.

In addition to this honor, SETDA awarded Mountain Heights Academy the Elsie Brumback Scholarship, which supports sending a delegation of students & staff to present during the Education Forum at the annual SETDA Leadership Summit in October.

For the past ten years, SETDA has honored one school annually across the USA; this is the first time a Utah school has received the award. Four finalists were selected from a large slate of innovative programs from across the country including:

• Wilder School District #133, Idaho
• Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium & Keweenaw, Michigan
• Mountain Heights Academy, Utah
• Sheridan County School District #2, Wyoming

“Congratulations to Mountain Heights Academy for winning the Elise Brumback scholarship,“ shared Sydnee Dickson, Ed.D., Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction. “Many Utah students have benefited from the excellent personalized opportunities provided for them at Mountain Heights and now they can share this information with the world through this recognition. The school’s inclusion of students in course selection and development and, their utilization of open education resources, demonstrate unique approaches that enhance student learning and prepare them to be ready to makes choices for their future,” Dickson added.

“SETDA is proud to celebrate school and student successes,” stated Dr. Tracy Weeks, Executive Director, SETDA. “We look forward to Mountain Height’s participation at the Education Forum and to learn directly from the students how personalized learning opportunities have positively impacted their education.”

“Our team is incredibly honored to be recognized by SETDA. We look forward to sharing our approach to education – leveraging technology’s promise for student success – at the Education Forum. As students become more involved in the creation and selection of content, they join their teachers as instructional designers, which in turn facilitates those critical thinking skills we all hope our students achieve,” said DeLaina Tonks, Director, Mountain Heights Academy.

Learn more about Student Voices award and past winners here: https://www.setda.org/about/awards/.

About SETDA

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), founded in 2001, is the national non-profit association representing the interests of U.S. state and territorial educational technology leadership. SETDA’s mission is to build and increase the capacity of state and national leaders to improve education through technology policy and practice. For more information on our Private Sector Partner program, visit: www.setda.org/partners/#!/emerging-private-sector-partners.