2008 LRPT Progress Report Reflection

I was actually impressed to see some of the progress that was made during the short time span of September 2006 to August 2008. Although, if the state expects to accomplish everything outlined in the plan, then even more progress is going to have to be made at a faster rate. The report highlights two different programs that were implemented by state legislation, the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) and the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). The report also provides data analysis of each of the four original key areas in the LRPT: Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation and Development, Leadership, Administration, and Technical Support, and Infrastructure for Technology.
TIP seemed to be a very successful program and in my opinion has started to address the number one need of America’s students today…a laptop. In all of the survey’s that were conducted and presented in the report, students of all grade-levels overwhelmingly agreed that they need laptops in order to learn in the 21st century. I couldn’t agree more as I look at how quickly everything is moving into the “digital world”. Our students will need to develop computer literacy/learning before they graduate so that they are prepared for the universities and careers they will be entering into.
The TxVSN directly fulfills a large portion of the “Teaching and Learning” area of the LRPT, that addresses online learning, differentiation, and equity. This key area of the plan is still in the Development Tech stage, which isn’t suprising. The only key area in the report that has moved beyond the Development stage is the “Leadership, Administration, and Technical Support” area. Even this area is still split between Development and Advanced. I would hope that the state is looking at the lowest scoring district’s on the STaR Chart and is working on supporting them financially as long as with legislative programs such as TIP. I believe it is important to work from the bottom up and to make sure that those 20% of kids who don’t have access to a computer get access as quickly as possible. That in itself will hugely impact the next progress report.

To access the 2008 LRPT Progress Report use the link below.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5082&menu_id=2147483665