Educator Preparation and Development

The Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020 has been developed to improve the implementation of technology within public education. Educator Preparation and Development is one of four standards that are evaluated yearly through the STaR Chart survey, conducted by individual school districts. The educator preparation and development standard is based on the process of providing educators with the proper training to implement newly developed technologies into their curriculum. Teachers are put through programs that model current technologies and are given professional development opportunities to educate themselves on how to better serve the 21st century learner. The advancement of technology has been extraordinary over the past few years and the leaders of education understand that these advancements must be incorporated into education. From the national level down to the local school district, it is evident that technology is major factor in the education of today's students. At China Spring ISD, our administration has put an emphasis on technology over the past few years. This can be seen by our STaR Chart survey results in which our faculty has determined that our Infrastructure Standard is at the advanced level. It is evident that the district is determined to serve the technological needs of their students, but we seem to be lacking in the process of getting our educators up to date on the current technologies and how to implement them into their instruction. I suggest that more time must allocated to professional development activities that provide teachers opportunities to become more familiar with these tools, so that they can integrate them into their curriculum.