Progress Report of the Long Range Plan

Progress reports serve as an update towards an intended goal, yet giving both room and time for improvement. The Progress Report on the Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020 demonstrates this definition precisely. There are components of the plan that prove much growth and success while other parts remain target areas of weakness and strong promising increase. If I could give the Teaching & Learning area a grade, it would earn a B plus because it maintains a strong sense of Development which means though its not at a high Target Tech level, majority of schools are on-board and willing to be developed. However, to remain at a level where teachers are using technology to direct instruction, shows that the technology use is still within the teachers’ control. This is NOT the intended goal of the Long Range Plan. The Plan is that the students use the technology to communicate and foster instruction. The area entitled Educator Preparation and Development would earn a C minus. There were some drops at the Target level (even though added elements to STaR may be the reason for this), and there were also fewer campuses meeting their levels and unable to obtain growth from year to year. If this area is to see colossal gains, I agree with the article in that “a need for training and education of teachers, administrators, and others in the school community in the best and most up-to-date practices of educational technology” (TEA, 2008, pg 109). As far as progress in the leadership, administration and instructional support area goes, I give it an A. I am impressed to see how much support is coming from the “top”. It is much needed if there is to be a capacity for change. The Advanced Tech had a significant increase, which I think accounted for the decrease in the Developing Tech. If leadership is moving from Development to Advanced then we can expect hope in the faculty getting on board and moving from level to level. Finally, the Infrastructure for Technology would also receive an A because there were significant gains n Target and Advance Tech with a large decrease in Developing Tech. Again, this is promising because the backbone for making the Long Range Plan effective is proving to be able to support its vision.