The Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020 was designed because our public education system recognized the importance in bringing our schools into the 21st century along with our ever changing world for the success of our students. The Progress Report on the plan was then designed to track the state's development and growth from September 2006 to August 2008. The progress report also covers the programs that were put into effect between September 2006 and August, the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) and the Texas Virtual Schools Network (TxVSN).
The TIP is to provides teachers and students the opportunity to integrate technology into all aspects of teaching and learning, according to the TEA. The program appears to be beneficial, allowing the effects of campus technology immersion on student learning and teacher proficiency in our public schools to be measured. The TxVSN was created to give students more options in their course selection by allowing distance learning classes, which provide students with courses that they would otherwise not have had access to.
The progress report shows findings from the Texas STaR Charts that are mandated by the state to evaluate a campus; progress in meeting the goals of the Long-Range for Technology. It appears that there is a steady increase in the number of schools that are in the Advanced Key Star Classification in all four Summary Areas of the chart, which is reassuring. The biggest rise is in the Infrastructure for Technology area. It would make sense for this to be due to the fact that many of the resources needed to grow with our learners are becoming more readily available.
The report shows that while we are moving ahead, but we still will never reach the end as long as technology keeps advancing. We will never reach the mountain because it keeps growing, but we still need to keep climbing lest we are left behind.
Texas Education Agency. (2008). Progress Report on the Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020. Austin: Texas Education Agency