Texas vs National Ed-Tech Standards

June 3, 2008 Education, Leadership

In Texas, one of the new NCLB Reporting requirements includes what to do
about assessing campus administrators. TEA’s letter said they would rely
on the ISTE Technology Standards for School Administrators
(TSSA). One colleague writes:

If you mean the Tech standards they are going to use for the November
report, TASA is going to put that together using the NETS-A from 2002
(due to be updated in 2009). You
can find them .

One response stated:

I think the "Refresh" of the NETS-A (administrator) starts at NECC 08,
meaning they will begin the process of the rewrite of them. The NETS-A
will then be out in 2009. The NETS-T (teacher) will be announced at NECC
08.

I remember this being stated in a conversation with a staff member from
ISTE…I recall I was trying to get an advance copy so I could blog
about it <grin> PRIOR to the NECC 2008 conference. Instead, I found out
that the process BEGINS with the NECC 2008 conference.

This was especially frustrating because every leadership pundit I listen
to says that it is critical to start with leaders first. Of course, it’s
easy to figure out what ISTE had in mind by putting children first,
though. Another question that comes to mind is how the national
education technology standards for students, teachers, and
administrators will be reflected, if not directly appropriated, into the
TEA documents.

As wonderful as the SBEC Technology Comptencies for All Educators are,
which reflect the 8th grade technology applications expectations,
couldn’t we sing with one voice if we all adhered to the national
standards that involve so many more stakeholders? Just thinking "aloud."
I’d love to read other opinions.