TEA Update: Online Resources
for Teachers and Students
Kerry Ballast, Director of Educational Technology TCEA 2016 Convention
February 4, 2016
© 2016 by the Texas Education Agency Copyright © Notice
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For information contact
Agenda
• Online Resources for Teachers • Online Resources for Students • STaR Chart
• ePlan • E-rate
• Public School Network Capabilities Study • Project Share 2.0
• Contact Information
Professional Development Courses
• With the close of the Epsilen contract, professional development (PD)
courses were paused in fall 2015.
• In early spring 2016, enrollment in online courses will resume.
• The first courses to go live will be Science Safety Training for High School
and CTE 101.
• Watch for Fine Arts TEKS K–12 Overview and the nine CTE courses,
Professional Development Courses
What is currently available?
• Math TEKS
• ELPS Academies
• Write for Texas
Upon successful completion of a course, a teacher may generate a certificate that verifies completion of the course and the award of continuing professional education (CPE) credits.
ESTAR/MSTAR
• Universal Screener and Diagnostic Assessment
• ESTAR (grades 2–4) • MSTAR (grades 5–8)
• Fall, winter, and spring assessment windows
• Information and support at
TxAIR
• TEKS-aligned question repository
• Science and mathematics (grades 3–8)
• Biology
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Integrated Physics and Chemistry
• Algebra I and II
• Geometry
• Information and support at
OnTRACK Lessons
• TEKS-aligned supplementary lessons
• Grade 8 and English I and II
• Grades 7 and 8, Algebra I and II, and Geometry
• Grade 8, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics
• U.S. History and World Geography
• Available on the Project Share Gateway • Information and support at
OnTRACK Lessons
• Syllabi with links to lessons at
http://projectsharetexas.org/ node/93206
• Information and support at
Texas Education on iTunes U
• Closed captioned OnTRACK™
Kid2Kid Chemistry videos are
available.
Texas Education on iTunes U
TexQuest
• The Texas State Library and Archive Commission has established TexQuest, a
collection of digital resources for K–12 public and
open-enrollment charter schools.
Math and Reading Programs for Accelerated
Instruction (Texas Success)
• Online math and reading resources have been selected for the
following grade levels and courses:
•Reading, Grades 3–5 •Reading, Grades 6–8 •English I and II •Math, Grades 3–5 •Math, Grades 6–8 •Algebra I
• Successful bidders were announced in To the Administrator
Addressed correspondence dated December 11, 2015.
• Vendors will begin working with districts as contracts are
negotiated and finalized.
Texas STaR Chart
• Participation continues to be optional.
• The system remains available to all Texas public school districts and
open-enrollment charters.
• STaR Chart data will be used in the 2016 Progress Report on the
Long-Range Plan for Technology.
• For districts using other survey tools but that wish to be included in STaR
ePlan (Online Technology Plan)
• District technology plans continue to be required.
• The ePlan system is open for the 2015-2016 school year and is
located at https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi.
• ePlans continue to undergo a peer-review at the education service
center (ESC) level before moving to TEA for final review and approval.
• To date, Texas public schools and libraries have received
approximately 10% of all E-rate funding since the program began in 1998.
• That 10% amounts to $35+ billion in funding for telecommunications
and Internet access since the beginning of the program.
• E-Rate 2.0 offers the opportunity for more funding for WiFi
expansion and fiber ownership for school districts.
• The E-rate filing window is scheduled to open in January 2016. • The window is scheduled to close in March 2016.
• The filing window is dependent on the successful launch of USAC’s
new online system, E-rate Productivity Center, or EPC.
E-rate
• EPC accounts must be established for all applicants, consultants, and service providers.
• EPC Account Administrators must add all necessary users to their accounts and must assign individual user permission rights.
• Permissions may have to be updated as new forms are added to EPC.
• User passwords need to be reset every 60 days to stay current.
• Texas Education Code (TEC), §32.005
• Study to assess each district’s network capabilities and to determine if Internet and wide area network (WAN) connectivity targets are met
• Response rate of 89.8%
Public School Network Capabilities Study
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2016. All rights reserved 19
• Internet connection target
• Set at 100 Mbps per 1,000 students and staff
• Met by 26% of campuses
• WAN connection target
• Set at one Gbps per 1,000 students and staff
• Met by 62% of campuses
• Details and more information in final report
Public School Network Capabilities Study
INTERNET
DISTRICT
Campus 1
Project Share 1.0
Texas Gateway
Online Resources for the Classroom
• TEKS-aligned
• Designed for general instruction,
intervention, acceleration, and additional practice
Online Resources for the Teacher
• Professional development courses
• Personalized collections of resources
Texas Gateway
Search for content by • TEKS,
• keyword, • subject, • grade, • audience,
Texas Gateway
• The Texas Gateway is a public, open interface accessible by all Texas teachers, parents, and students.
• Teachers and parents may voluntarily sign up for
dashboards that allow them to save their favorite content and organize personal lists of
resources.
Texas Gateway
• Teachers enroll in professional development courses through a self-registration process.
• Once enrolled, teachers may easily track their progress and obtain certificates upon
Texas Gateway
• Easy-to-use application and voluntary teacher self-registration
minimize the need for platform adoption, account management, and system training and support at the district level.
• Localization options will be available for district content delivery and customization.
• Watch for a spring 2016 pilot for porting state-provided content to local, district-managed learning management systems (LMSs).
