The State Leadership Center (SLC) is proposing a collaborative venture with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in an effort to foster the use of research and to support state policies and programs aiming to advance systemic educational reform and improvement. Working with a team of state educational technology directors and a team of highly-qualified researchers, the SLC will prepare five commissioned papers on various aspects on what is known about preparing teachers to use modern telecommunications technologies for achieving standards-based educational reform. The authors of these papers will have the opportunity to discuss their findings in panel discussions during the State Educational Technology Leadership Conference in Washington, DC in January. Following the conference, the papers will be published along with an overview and distributed widely to state educational policymakers and program administrators.
The SLC presently works will all states involved in the processes of changing and upgrading performance standards for teachers. Recent reports from states indicate that virtually all states are attempting to broaden and deepen the disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of teachers, improving their ability to deliver more challenging and difficult courses of instruction, particularly, courses in science, mathematics, and technology that are available to all students. Recent reviews of the states' five-year plans [developed in response to the Goals 2000 and Technology Literacy Challenge Fund requirements] attest to the fact that states recognize the integration of technology as a critical element for achieving higher performance standards. However, state officials need better and research-based information on what is being learned about effective statewide practices and investment strategies. State policymakers want to know what legislative mandates, regulatory requirements and administrative directives are most likely to stimulate institutional reform and renewal. As advanced telecommunications infrastructures emerge and as virtually all schools and classrooms are "wired," state officials increasingly are directing their attention to human resource issues.
By concentrating on policies and programs relating to teachers, the SLC is responding to one of the most pressing concerns of states: ensuring the quality of the next generation of classroom teachers. This initiative will help state officials to learn and share information on how a state, region or school system can develop collaborative and constructive relationships with institutions of higher education or other partners to ensure that teachers will operate effectively in new and different learning environments. The researchers involved in this project are expected to analyze, review and report on the information needs of state education policymakers and administrators, thereby, helping the SLC in providing states with technical assistance. The researchers are also expected to provide NSF and other agencies supporting education-related with recommendations for expanding the application of research for advancing and sustaining statewide systemic educational reforms.
The proposed research papers will be reviewed and discussed during the national conference of state officials in January 1999 and subsequent in a forum arranged by NSF and SLC. The purposes of the two meetings are: to help states in aligning new teacher technology standards with new content and performance standards for students; to help NSF and the SLC in determining the information needs of state education officials and the means to assure that states benefit from the body of research developed by NSF and other agencies supporting education-related R&D.
