Private School- Mike Morrow

Week 10 Step 7

1.     How do your proposed strategies (Week 8 Step 6) meet the required standards as your Week 6 Step 4 stated?

2.     Review the reading materials in Technology domain to propose using other standards which are not adopted by your studied school. Explain why those new standards should be considered for your studied school. 

I developed my plan based primarily upon the Principles of Good Practice for Technology Use from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS, 2012).  I also considered the Texas Education Agency’s School Technology and Readiness (STaR chart) teacher tool for self-assessment (2006); as well as the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers (NETS-T) (ISTE, 2008), for Administrators (NETS-A) (ISTE, 2009) and for Technology Facilitators (ISTE, 2001).  

This week I began with Question 2, and constructed a matrix to map the alignment from the NAIS PGPs, to NETS-A, NETS-S, NETS-TF, and my assessment of The John Cooper School’s measurement against these standards (A-n is NETS-A standard, T-n is NETS-T standards, TF-n is NETS Technology Facilitator standards).  The completed chart follows below.  In my opinion, this group of standards aligns well with one another.  The NAIS PGPs offer the logical grouping of Leadership, Teaching and Learning, Professional Development, and Infrastructure, and concise descriptions of good practices.  The TEA STaR chart also uses these same for categories for self-assessment.  The ISTE NETS can be mapped in similar categories, and provide more detailed descriptions of expected practices and behaviors.   

NAIS Principles of Good Practice for Use of Technology	Match to NETS Stnds			JCS compared to NAIS Principles			Plan element:
Leadership			Meets Standard	Needs Improvement	Exceeds Standard		Objective /Step
1. The school regularly evaluates its use of technology to support its mission, goals, and program.	A-1b			No documentation of plan or review			M1.1, T3.3/S2
2. School heads, curriculum leaders, and professional development leaders are actively involved in the development, implementation, and evaluation of technology integration goals.	A-1a			No articulated direction from the leadership team			M1.1/S2, S4
3. School leadership articulates the rationale for educational use of technology and builds widespread consensus for its adoption.	A-1b			Lacks documentation of educational technology goals			M1.1/S4, T3.2/S2
4. School leadership incorporates technology considerations into strategic planning and creates a sustainable financial model for school technology commitments.	A-2c		X
5. The staff member responsible for the technology program contributes leadership to the school’s administrative team.	TF-VIII		X				M1.1/S4
6. The school provides faculty, staff, and students with equitable access to technology.	A-5a			Limited classroom access to computers (shared lab/carts)			T3.1, T3.2
7. The school recognizes that advancing technology integration often requires significant support for risk taking, time for faculty planning, and adjustment in the allocation of instructional time.	A-3		X				M2.2
Teaching and Learning
1. Educators research, evaluate, and employ technology to support curricular goals and to meet the range of learning styles, abilities, and life experiences of their students.	T-1, T-2		X
2. Educators appreciate and recognize that technology can create learning opportunities for students that would not otherwise be possible, fundamentally transforming the nature of the relationship between teacher and learner.	T-3		X
3. Educators embrace technologies that promote project-based, student-centered learning, the acquisition of problem-solving skills, and the development of media and information literacy.	T-2, T-3			Student access to computers is constrained (shared lab/carts)			M2.1, T2.3, T3.1/S1,S2
4. The school educates students, teachers, and parents about the safe, healthy, ethical, legal, and appropriate use of technology resources.	T-4				X
Professional Development
1. The school recognizes that the single most important factor in technology integration is the teacher.	A-4c		X				M1.1/S1, M2.1, F2.4
2. Educators seek out opportunities to learn technology and implement research-based best practices for technology use within their discipline.	T-5		X				M2.1, F2.4
3. The school includes technology integration as an essential component of its professional development, provides the necessary time and resources for it, and ensures that educators acquire and demonstrate essential technology skills and proficiencies.	A-4a			No Technology Professional Development plan for Faculty			M2.1, F2.4, T3.3/S1
Infrastructure and Administrative Operations
1. The school uses technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative operations.	TF-VII		X
2. The school has adequate technology staffing and infrastructure appropriate for its size and operations.	A-4				X
3. The school maintains and protects its data, network, and hardware.			X
4. The school provides timely support for computers and the people who use them.					X

  

I also looked at the Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan (U.S. Department of Education, 2010).  The NETP groups its recommendations by Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure, and Productivity.  The other standards incorporate productivity practices within each of their other categories.  Assessment is only addressed as a separate category within the NETS-TF standards.  However, for the purposes of this plan, Assessment will not be individually addressed since utilizing technology for better assessment as the NETP recommends depends upon first improving student access to the technology. 

I have also mapped the results of my School Profile and Needs Assessment against the NAIS PGP as show in the above table.  If a practice at the school is neither meeting, nor exceeding the standard, then I have described the main issue that the school needs to address in order to improve in that standard. 

Finally, I mapped the Measurable Objectives from my plan (M- management, F- financial, T- technology) and Steps (/S if especially relevant) to the NAIS PGPs. 

The result of the table shows that my plan elements align well with the NAIS practices that need some measure of improvement.  Additional plan elements address other practices that will need to be supported as the plan improvements are enacted. 

I was then prepared to map my plan strategies against the practices and standards (Question 1).  However, the Management and Funding strategies I developed for Week 8 were focused heavily on the Leadership issues (being Management strategies) or providing the funding to support the Leadership improvements.  Thus, the strategies did not appear to align well with the standards or with the plan elements.  Therefore, I am providing six new strategies that better align to the needed improvements and concisely highlight the plan elements: 

1.     School administrators will adopt and maintain a “Digital-Age Instruction” Technology Plan.

2.     School administrators will form a “Digital-Age Instruction” Steering Committee with the responsibility for overseeing the transition of the school’s Teaching & Learning, Professional Development, and Infrastructure practices to Digital-age methods.

3.     The school will utilize a “wedge” approach to transition faculty, classrooms, and students to a one-to-one ratio of mobile digital devices to students over a period of several years, beginning with a focused pilot project.

4.     The school will provide a Teaching and Learning Facilitator to serve on the Steering Committee and to assist faculty with the transition to digital-age instruction.

5.     The Steering Committee will publish recent accomplishments and upcoming plans regarding the “wedge” transition to faculty and staff each semester.

6.     The faculty will annually self-assess their fluency with and usage of technology for Teaching & Learning.  (The self-assessment tool can be modeled after the TEA STaR chart).

References:

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). ISTE.NETS-T: Advanced digital age teaching. Retrieved February 25, 2012, from International Society for Technology in Education: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

International Society for Technology in Education. (2001). Technology Facilitation Standards. Retrieved April 2011, from ISTE.NETS-TF: http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/2001_Technology_Facilitation_Standards_Doc.sflb.ashx

International Society for Technology in Education. (2009). The national educational technology standards (NETS-A) and performance indicators for administrators. Retrieved January 6, 2012, from ISTE.NETS: http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Administrators_2009_EN.sflb.ashx

NAIS. (2012). Principles of Good Practice. Retrieved February 20, 2012, from National Association of INdependent Schools: http://www.nais.org/files/PDFs/NAIS_PGP2011_5jan12.pdf

Texas Education Agency. (2006). STaR Chart. Retrieved February 25, 2012, from Texas Education Agency: http://starchart.epsilen.com/

U.S. Department of Education. (2010). National education technology plan 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from Ed.gov: http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010