EDLD 5306 Blog #1 Technology Assessments

    Assessing an educator’s technology leadership, knowledge, and skills is imperative as the nation and the world progresses in technological advances.

    The STaR Chart was developed around Texas’ Long-Range Plan for Technology (2006-2020) so it is centered on the goals that the state of Texas has implemented for school and districts.

    The Texas Teacher STaR Chart can be helpful because it gives teachers questions to ask themselves so that they may reflect on what they are doing right, what they need to improve on, and where their professional development may need to lead them in the future.

     Assessing the knowledge and skills of students is crucial in determining where the needs of the students lie. This can help the educator determine what skill or tool the student needs to develop to ensure that they will be ready to join the workforce and are college ready.

     The STaR chart is beneficial because it can provide detailed school data assessments regarding technology, funding, classroom technology needs, and information needed to provide documentation for certain grants, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Title II, Part D formula, and discretionary funds. (Texas Education Agency [TEA], n.d.)

     The cons of the technology assessment is that it needs to be certain and accurate data. Therefore there needs to be 100% participation from teachers, schools and districts. Also some questions may be subjective as they are geared more to core classroom content and not other content areas such as physical education and fine arts thus manufacturing distorted data.

Texas Education Agency. STaR Chart. Texas STaR chart history. Retrieved
from http://starchart.epsilen.com/history.html