The Texas STaR Chart

Educator Preparation and Development is the area of the Texas STaR Chart that interests me at this time. As I look at the Campus Statewide Summary by Key Area chart, I see that 74.2% of our school campuses fall in Developing Tech level of application of standards, and the concern I have with this statistic is that the Teaching and Learning area of the chart will not improve until the Educator Preparation and Development do.

The Target Tech level on the standards demands that the campus implements technology-supported learner-centered projects in a consistent manner. The Technology Applications TEKS are vertically aligned. The campus must have use of online resources 100% of the time. All teachers must meet the SBEC standards, and at least 30% of the budget is allocated for professional development.

Teachers without proper preparation will dabble in the world of technology, but they will never fully integrate it and fully utilize the technology to its fullest potential without further training. In our district, far too much time in our staff development is spent on the discussion the handbook, schedules, and various beginning of the school year issues, and not enough time is spent on building teacher’s skills in the art of teaching in general. One area that needs specific blocks of time is in the area of technology development of the staff and clearly delineating a system to address the needs of the students at various grade levels. Teachers need to report to one another and to the administration what specific technology skills they will address through their course on a yearly basis. The staff also must develop an assessment for the level of proficiency of the students in the use of technology in order to track their progress or lack thereof.