The Weak Link

The Educator Preparation and Development area of the Texas Long Range Plan basically states that in order to successfully equip students for the 21st Century teachers need to be current with the knowledge and skills and strategies integrating technology into the teaching and learning taking place in their classrooms. As teachers, to meet this goal, we are dependent on the leadership as well as the infrastructure. I believe if teachers are aware of the “vision”, have effective training and support, and time during professional development to work on applying what was learned we will meet this goal. However, on the two campuses where I have worked I have failed to see the majority of the teachers able to seamlessly integrate technology into the learning process. Why is this? On my current campus the data shows a drop from 18 points (07/08) to 14 points (08/09) in the area of Educator Preparation and Development. The drop in 4 points was specifically due to four out of the six focus areas dropping from a score of 3 (Advanced Tech) down to 2 (Developing Tech). These four focus areas are in Content of Professional Development, Models of Professional Development, and Capabilities of Educators and Level of Understanding patterns of Use. The other two focus areas stayed the same. I am curious as to why this has happened – what does it mean? Is it because teachers in 08/09 received less professional development and support than in 07/08? Or maybe is it that they feel that they now possess a clearer understanding and vision of where they should be and see that the weakness is in lack of effective development? These are answers that I feel would be advantageous for campus and district leaders to pursue. It would seem that the best possible way to understand the drop in data would be to seek out feedback from the teachers, perhaps in some type of forum.