Region and Above - Week 10

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

          To make sure the multitude of tasks are being provided effectively, Region 14 must utilize a variety of evaluation mechanisms to monitor the progress of the management guidelines in place.  These evaluation tools include “To monitor Region 14 policies and procedure we use the annual balanced score card summary that provides information to TEA relating to the programs provided by the service center, the Texas STaR chart as an evaluation of how teachers are utilizing technology and the effectiveness of its integration.  We also use the Texas ePlan system that monitors the technology plans of the districts within Region 14 and the state of Texas, and specify for Region 14 the Quality Management System that serves as a system to maintain the integrity of policies and procedures in place throughout Region 14.”  (SC, personal communication, 3-8-2012).  The Quality objectives are measured on a yearly basis using region school data to evaluate the effectiveness of objectives.  These objectives are consistent with the strategies used to evaluate the technology for Region 14.

Technology is now a major point of emphasis in all parts of education.   Therefore, it is a practice of the directors of Region 14 Education Service center to include technology training into as many professional development opportunities as possible.   This training is important when looking at how the quality objectives are integrated into the quality management system. “The Region XIV Education Service Center management ensures that effective and efficient communication is established. Management promotes awareness of the quality policy, disseminates progress on quality performance and customer satisfaction and changes in the Quality Management System at regularly scheduled Planning, Training and Collaboration (PTC) Meetings.”  (Quality manual, 2011-2012, P17)  The most frequent technology trainings occur on the day PTC meetings are held.  This allows the technology staff to offer technology specific trainings that may include a higher percentage of staff due to them being on-site for the PTC meeting.  The quality objectives are a major part of the training's that are presented to ensure the staff is familiar with the objectives and how they are measured.

All policies and procedures are located in the Region 14 Quality Management System.  This system serves as the basic operating procedure manual for the service center.  “We started the Quality Management System through a process requested through the state legislature to provide a system of oversight.  We contracted with the ISO 9000 quality management system to begin the process and now maintain the policies and procedures for operation through our own quality management system.” (JA, personal communication, 3-7-2012)  This system provides the structure and design to add, modify, or remove policies and procedures required for the operation of Region 14.

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.

A goal for the creation of a separate set of standards would be the decision to utilize the ISTE Technology Facilitation Standards.  After going through the MIST program and seeing the benefits of national standards I am interested in the use of the ISTE Technology Facilitation Standards because they are well documented, used nationwide, and will work hand in hand with the way the service center already interprets the technology professional development implementation.

Region 14 would need to complete a side by side analysis of how the ISTE Technology Facilitation Standards would integrate into our current system.  By looking at the standards in comparison with the Region 14 employee handbook, quality manual, local policy, and the job descriptions would allow for the administrative TEAM to analyze the current requirements in relation to the ISTE Technology Facilitation Standards.  This review would ease the mind of some to how seamless the process would be and examine the added benefits of having a plan that is not only beneficial to the service center but to aligning the center to national standards while maintaining the cutting edge technology methods currently being used throughout the region.

After the side by side comparison the actual implementation of the new Region 14 technology standard would need to be put into action. By integrating the new technology standards into the present documentation the current Region 14 employee handbook, quality manual, local policy, and the job descriptions would be able to reference the new standards to create a consistency across the service center to how the technology professional development is being interpreted.

References

JA, Region 14 Education Service Center, Quality Management Representative, Personal Communication, March 7, 2012

Region 14 Quality Manual, 2011-1012, Revision #11, Region 14 Education Service Center Quality management system

SC, Region 14 Education Service Center, Technology consultant/ E-Rate specialist, Personal Communication, March 8, 2012