McAllen Independent School District’s technology plan consists of four main goals:
The first goal is to meet the instructional needs of teachers and the learning needs of the students. The strategy to implement this goal is to develop a plan that evaluates teachers and administrators technology standards and provide training on SBEC technology standards.
The second goal is to provide training of staff in using technology to teach and learn through professional development. The strategy to implement this goal is to develop a professional development growth and incentive plan for teachers and administrators to address integrating technology into the classroom.
The third goal is to merge technology into our school districts community. The strategy to implement this is by establishing a grade reporting system for the district and expanding access of district data through the internet (Web Hosting Service, Skyward Attendance and Gradebook, and AEIS-IT TAKS Data) and offering online access to student data.
The fourth goal is to establish, maintain and update our infrastructure for technology in all district schools. The strategy to implement this is to develop a schedule and budget for purchase of new hardware and software.
To implement these goals, each year our District Instructional Technology Director Carmen Garcia schedules professional development for the district’s teachers. She is allocated a budget ($55,000) to ensure that staff is up to date on current technologies. This past year the district purchased iPads for the majority of its students, which has required a major staff development program be implemented for the teachers to learn how to use iPads to deliver instruction in the classroom to students.
The technology staff (responsible for telecommunication services, hardware, software and other technology services) continually assess the technology plan using the results from the Texas teacher and Campus Star Charts, District/Campus hardware inventories and District Professional Development Statistics to ensure improved student learning and by establishing, maintaining and updating an infrastructure in district campuses.
This year our district’s beginning technology budget was $6,587,224.00. Because our district has some old and outdated equipment and has not reached some of its goals of student to technology ratios, I do not believe that our budget is sufficient to acquire and support the non-discount element of our plan but with the present state of Texas school finance was the best that the district could do this year.
MISD Technology Plan is a continuous evaluation process that enables the district to monitor progress toward the specified goals and does make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities as they arise. The plan does require continuous adjustments. Responses to new developments in technology, adjustments in educational funding and operating revenues or expenses, and changing needs in our environment will drive annual revisions of our Technology Plan each year. Each campus has a technology committee to annually monitor the impact of the campus technology plan, which will align the campus plan to the district’s plan.
The district’s technology plan is evaluated on student achievement and targeted goals. This information is reported yearly in the Annual Reports for each campus. The district technology committee updates the district plan annually and campus technology plans are updated bi-annually by campus technology committees. The district technology committee meets quarterly. In an effort to keep our community informed, the District Technology Plan is made available on the district website.
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