By Ann Ware
Unlocking Excellence with Keys to Quality
Align Appropriate Technologies Within Your School’s Strategic Improvement Plan
T he leadership of today’s schools
supports both students’ academic success and their preparation for employment in a global
work environment. As stimulus funds
become available to U.S. school districts, it remains critical that we align
technology acquired with those funds
with system-, school-, and classroom-identified student academic outcomes.
In support of embedding technology solutions within the continuous
improvement planning process, ed
tech leaders acknowledge the need to
become actively engaged in the dialogue about research-based strategies
supporting student success. Those
strategies, valued by school leaders
across the United States, include:
• Balanced assessments for learning
with an emphasis on frequent
formative assessments
• The development of professional
learning communities that foster
teachers’ ability to regularly
collaborate together
• Personalization of learning
• Standards-based classrooms
• The effective use of data analysis
to inform teaching and learning
These strategies resonate with educational leadership organizations such
as the Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development (ASCD),
the National School Boards Association (NSBA), ISTE, and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
To align appropriate technology
solutions, it is increasingly important that technology leaders have
a common language with which
to communicate about the school
available within the Keys to Quality
resources during the 2009–10 school
year.
Aligning appropriate technology
tools and resources within the continuous improvement planning process
positions technology leaders to engage
in dialogue with system and school
leaders who are working toward the
common goal of student and school
success. Technology leaders can improve the process by considering several of the following action steps:
• Become familiar with the goals and
strategies in your schools’ improvement plan system
• Align and embed your technology
plan within your school system’s con-tinuous/strategic improvement plan
• Consider serving as an advocate
for the development of technology-infused professional learning as part
of the strategies that your schools
have identified within their improvement plans
• Participate in conferences that foster
research-based strategies, such as
ASCD, NSBA, and NECC, and that
provide opportunities to learn along
with peers
• Read and share publications such
as L&L and ASCD’s Educational
Leadership
• Consider becoming an active participant in your state’s technology
leadership organizations
• Consider mentoring or re mentoring or re que st-
ing mentorship from your state
To align appropriate technology solutions, it is increasingly important
that technology leaders have a common language with which to
communicateabouttheschoolimprovementplanning
process and proven, research-based strategies.
improvement planning process and
proven, research-based strategies.
The research-based resources within
the Georgia Department of Education’s (GaDOE) Keys to Quality: Unlocking Excellence through Georgia
School Standards provide a platform
upon which technology leaders can
build such a common language.
The Keys to Quality describe what
Georgia’s schools need to know and be
able to do in the same way that Georgia Performance Standards describe
what Georgia’s students need to know
and be able to do. The Keys to Quality
set of resources, which Georgia has
provided to every school in the state,
defines targets using rubrics and resources to assist educators with ways
to “take their school improvement
temperature” periodically to monitor
the effectiveness of their school improvement plans.
In the same vein, the Keys to Quality provide technology leaders with
a common language about research-based strategies that school leaders
value in the pursuit of student and
school success. The Keys to Quality
rubrics define the optimum target
as “fully operational.” The areas of
instruction, assessment, curriculum,
and professional learning serve as
examples of where users can easily
infuse and align appropriate technologies and 21st-century skills. The GaDOE plans to make ISTE’s NETS for
students, teachers, and administrators
