Teacher Tech Training Need Study

Thirty-nine percent of teachers need greater training to effectively use education technology, but administrators assert that tight budgets and competing priorities are preventing them from making such investments, according to a recent survey. The research also found that teachers want to use more technology in the classroom and expect the use of cloud-based lesson delivery, virtual reality and other tech to increase over the next five years. Administrators identify connectivity and hardware issues as other major reasons for why more technology is not getting adopted in schools and districts, and communications with teachers is also barrier. When it comes to educators in the classroom, 77 percent of teachers who use different ed tech tools are not involved in the budgetary decision-making process.
The state of technology. (2019). Alpharetta, GA: Promethean.
https://www.prometheanworld.com/state-of-technology-report/?utm_source=Wire&utm_medium=Press%20Release&utm_campaign=NA%202019%20State%20of%20Technology%20Report

Digitalization is Changing the Economy and Workforce

This report discusses how digitalization is vastly expanding the potential of the American economy, and generating opportunities for many. However, it is stated that the construction of an inclusive labor market as digitalization proceeds won’t happen by itself. Instead, it will require significant improvements in digital education and training, both to broaden the high-skill talent pipeline and ensure that underrepresented groups can connect to an increasingly digital economy. In addition, it is going to be important for workers to get better at being “what we are that computers aren’t.”

Key findings include:

-       Though digitalization is an ongoing trend, the U.S. economy has digitalized rapidly over the last decade.

-       The degree and pace of digitalization vary widely across occupations and industries.

-       Digitalization is associated with increased pay for many workers and reduced risk of automation, but it is also helping to “hollow out” job creation and wages by favoring occupations at the high and low ends of the pay scale while disfavoring those in the middle.

-       The extent of digitalization also varies widely across places and is strongly associated with variations in regional economic performance.

-       Digitalization is changing the skills needed to access economic opportunity while creating new race- and gender-based access challenges.

Muro, M., Liu, S., Whiton, J., & Kulkarni, S. (2017). Digitalization and the American workforce. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/mpp_2017nov15_digitalization_full_report.pdf

Title I Schools – Online Professional Training

This study reflects the comparative Title I gains for math and reading scores for teachers participating in an online, on-demand professional development program school-wide versus nonparticipating Title I in their respective districts as benchmarks. The advantage of participation was verified for both reading performance and mathematics performance in terms of significantly better end states and year-to-year increases in the proportion of students classified as proficient or advanced on standardized tests. The leave little argument that online, on-demand professional development merits broader utilization and evaluation throughout the variety of school settings within which teacher continue to effort selflessly to help their students grow and maximize their potentials. These findings establish a data-driven recommendation that this approach is worthy of strong consideration.

Shaha, S., Glassett, K., Copas, A., Ellsworth, H. (2015). Title I schools: The student-based impact of online, on-demand professional development on educators. Contemporary issues in education research – 4th Quarter 2015, 8(4), 227-234.

Involvement by States in Principal Preparation

This survey is a first-of-its-kind effort to capture the current state of affairs in state principal preparation, licensure policy, principal tenure, and data collection on the output of these policies. This report explores how states are using their authority to increase the supply of effective principals focused on raising student achievement. The findings are based on self-reported data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This report includes state policy recommendations to drive needed reforms and gives the educational community new insights on promising efforts by states to improve the supply of high-quality principals. This report, supplemented by the individual state snapshots and the state database, details the findings. It is hoped that these will be used to drive needed reforms and give state policymakers new insights on what their peers are doing to improve the supply of high quality leaders.

Briggs, K., Cheney, G. R., Davis, J., & Moll, K. A. (2013). Operating in the dark: What outdated state policies and data gaps mean for effective school leadership. Dallas, TX: George W. Bush Institute. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560209.pdf