STaR Chart starring West Rusk Junior High

Report includes purpose of Texas STaR and Campus Statewide Survey, WRJH's 3-year report, WRJH's strengths and weaknesses, and the push to learning communities.

STa R Chart West Rusk Junior High

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STaR Chart--Educator Preparation

Educator Preparation is one the key areas assessed by the Texas STaR Chart. Teachers are asked to assess themselves with regard to use and integration of technology in their classroom in six domains. The first domain is the type of professional development achieved in technology, while the second and the fourth domains are concerned with how often development occurs and the amount of technology training obtained, respectively. The third domain deals with educator capabilities regarding the SBEC’s Technology Applications Standards; the fifth domain deals with how much understanding educators have about the technology available to them and how educators use this technology. The last domain is mainly concerned with the type of professional development educators themselves receive in online learning opportunities and creating these opportunities for their students.

Once an educator has completed the STaR Chart, they then categorized themselves as either a “Early,” “Developing,” “Advanced,” or “Target” Techs based on the number of points they earned. The Early Tech has minimal interaction with technology while the Target Tech has fully integrated technology into their lessons on a regular basis. NCLB has mandated that technology standards be fully implemented by the completion of the 8th grade year, while Texas has mandated that technology is part of all enrichment curriculum used to enhance foundation courses. At West Rusk the middle school campus is still at the Developing Tech stage, which is where 74.2% of Texas educators fall as well. The good news for Texas is that only 5.4% of Texas educators are in the Early Tech stage, while 19.9% of Texas educators fall into the Advanced Tech stage.

Moving from the Developing Tech stage where so many Texas educators fall to the goal of becoming a Target Tech will take a full team effort. Educators will have to be willing to change to become more technological literate, they will have to be willing to take risks in the classroom, and most importantly, they will have to give away some of the control of the hands-on learning to their students in order to formulate and implement student-centered learning. Administrators also need to provide the necessary training, funding, time, and most important, support to their educators to ensure a more learning-based community that utilizes effectively its technology.

Pre-K Technology Applications Summary

Education experts determined that just because Pre-Kers are young is no reason to leave them out of the technology loop. As with their older counterparts, young children benefit from exposure to a variety of technologies, used not only to enhance Pre-K learning, but also to prepare the children for future technological learning, which is fast becoming more and more apart of their daily lives. The more familiar young children are with age-appropriate hardware and software, the more encouraged these young children will be to experiment with new technologies that will be developed during their lifetime.

The TEA has formulated a Technology Applications Domain for Pre-K. According to the goals established by the TEA, by the end of Pre-K young children should be able to open and navigate through age-appropriate software designed to develop and enhance early childhood learning; use and name a variety of computer peripherals, including a mouse, a keyboard, a voice/sound recorder, a touch screen, and a CD-ROM; and can also operate recorders and touch screens. By the end of Pre-K, young children will also expertly use age-appropriate software to create and express their own ideas and thoughts, as well as become familiar with information retrieval available through technology use.

A season-appropriate and fun task for children is to explore Christmas ‘Round the World. Children of all ages can be successful with this project. Although the final outcome depends on the students’ ages, students of all ages can utilize the Internet to research their chosen countries’ Christmas traditions, including finding geography information to pinpoint the locations of their countries. The children will also need to verify the validity and the reliability of their sources as is age-appropriate. The children then utilize a variety of technology devices and graphic/video sources to create a multimedia product showcasing the information found and present their product to their classmates. This activity encompasses several different technology TEKS as the children will need to be familiar with the hardware of the available computers, as well as the workings of the software and Internet sources they will be using.

Review of Texas' Long-Range Technology Plan

The goal of Vision 2020 is to provide teachers with access to current and relevant technology, as well as the training and time necessary to implement effectively the new technologies. Train students in K through 12 to master strategies designed “to acquire information, solve problems, and communicate using technology.” Most important, training and information acquisition must be something that becomes a “24/7" concept, allowing both educators and their students access to current technology whenever and wherever. State did mandate an increase in student technology funding to be paid from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF.) Presently, numerous school districts across the state are working to provide their students with a school-owned laptop to be used by each student not only in the school setting, but also outside of school.

Our global world is shrinking more and more due to extensive use of technology and nations’ borders are quickly disappearing. It is commonplace to communicate electronically with people on the other side of the world in an instance and businesses have to adjust accordingly. Additionally, our society is changing drastically, becoming not only longer living, but increasingly multiethnic and diverse. As adults we have to come rely heavily on technology, most of us have computers in our homes with some sort of internet and/or satellite connections. We cannot imagine our world to be any different from it is now, and we would miss our technology devices dearly.

Our students are expert multitaskers, able to text and converse on a cell phone, while simultaneously googling information on their mobile internet. When asked about computer usage, most students responded that they enjoy any learning that involves computers, stating that this learning is more fun than standard learning. The 21st Century Learner will have to be trained for jobs that may not even exist yet, thus these learners must learn how to learn. Educators can no longer prepare students for jobs existing now, as these jobs will most likely be replaced or refined by technology still to come.

Teachers primarily use computers in their classroom to for professional development, research, or communication with colleagues and parents. However, teachers also cited a need for more technology training, with an emphasis on integration in the classroom. Another need is an onsite trainer adept in the school’s technology with the ability to provide one-one-one education and technological help. Additionally teachers declared that fast and reliable Internet capability is highly desired, along with after-school at-home access for students.


Schools must continue to create and implement student-centered learning. Students must believe that “learning for learning’s sake” is highly desirable and obtainable. Teachers must learn to become facilitators of knowledge and skills, keeping in mind that we are training our students to learn on their own as today’s jobs and careers will probably become obsolete in the near future. Schools must be innovative and provide online and distance learning opportunities via technology designed to allow students access to the global community.

Teachers must be aggressive and not intimidated by new technology. They must continuously seek out and learn about the newest technology and effective ways to implement technology into the classroom to enhance student learning; online training and distance learning are useful tools, as are local service centers. School districts must not only provide professional technological training for their staffs, but also ensure that onsite help is handy, since often educators receive the training but have little to no access to on-campus help during the implementation process.

School leaders must assess what training and development is needed on their respective campuses via educator surveys. Once the needs are determined, professional training and education must be provided either on-site or via the local service center. It is also essential that a multi-level strategy is used, as every staff will possess members whose technological skills and experience range from little-to-none to very advanced. School leaders must also ensure adequate funding of this development is in place and provide not only onsite help via a campus “trainer” for staff members, but also sufficient time for educators to implement and effectively use the new technologies and strategies.

Effective and funded infrastructures are essential to the 21st Century Learner. This infrastructure must include a reliable system of funding, including rural areas, especially considering the loss of TIF funds in recent years. Also needed is high-speed and reliable Internet connection, including one that is available to students and faculty anytime, anywhere. Last, but certainly not least, people are needed to ensure that implementation of the technology is accurate, effective, and as easy as possible.

The Study of Needs pinpointed several goals to pursue, as well as a variety of issues to clarify to ensure that TEA’s long-range technology plan is successful. These goals include developing a dependable funding model, which is an interesting thought since the Texas Legislature cannot agree on Texas school funding. Another goal is to ensure leadership and support via TEA, Region Service Centers, and the district’s administrators. Effective strategies formulated and agreed upon by a district’s administration and campus leaders to measure how students are progressing on the required technology proficiencies set for by the technology plan. Finally, telecommunications discounts allowing for purchase of new technologies by school districts need to continue, as do software compatibility or the creation of more shared technology like OpenOffice.

Becoming familiar with the state’s long-term technology plans allow instructional leaders to play a larger role in the implementation and facilitation of new technology at their respective campuses. This familiarity will also act as a catalyst to spur on instructional leaders to seek out innovation and new professional development opportunities, which will allow for easier and more effective implementation of new technology, thus ensuring the creation of learning communities with student-centered learning.

Technology Assessments

The Technology Applications Inventory, created by TEA, assessed the expertise possessed by a teacher in four different domains, including foundations, information acquisition, problem solving, and communications. According to my survey results, I am quite adept using technology for myself and in my classroom and facilitating technology for my students to enhance their learning. However, I do need more training in delineating between vector and bitmapped graphic files (or a quick lesson in its terminology, as it is possible I know how to do this, but the terms throw me.) Additionally, I know I need more training and experience in technical writing practices.

A similar survey, created by the State Educational Technology Directors Association, dealt with how adept teachers are in dealing with the various levels of available levels of technology and whether or not data is being collected to determine if technology is affecting students positively and preparing the students to successfully interact in the future with technology the students will encounter post graduation.

I feel comfortable with the level of interaction I have with the technology in my classroom, as well as the experiences my students have with the technology. Student interaction includes using available software to produce presentations, print products, and the like; using the Internet for a variety of purposes, not limited to research; and using digital tools like scanners and other peripheral devices to enhance learning. I also feel comfortable that my students could handle using and creating spreadsheets, databases, emails, PowerPoint, graphic peripherals, and electronic information sources, however, as I do not know a great deal about multimedia/video editing and/or authoring tools, and other sophisticated subject-specific software, I would not feel comfortable teaching the use of these technologies without further training in their uses. My students could benefit more by communicating and collaborating with others both inside and outside the school walls, within the local community, and evenly globally to solve real-world and societal problems; this task would require me to obtain more training on the proper technology to facilitate this type of learning.