There has been some question regarding a memo published by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Below is my take on it, along with recommendations to school districts…it is, of course, MY opinion and interpretation.

In the TEA memo, there is an expressed need to collect information for the 2008-2009 school year. This is confusing because we just collected this data back at the beginning of Fall, 2008. However, in Fall 2008, we were collecting that data for the 2007-2008 school year, not the 2008-2009 year. Since this is the inaugural launch of the NCLB data collection effort, we end up doing the data collection twice in the first year.

Or, to put it a different way:

1. The data collected–Sections 1-3–in Fall, 2008 were for the 2007-2008 school year.
2. The data to be collected in Spring 2009 are for the 2008-2009 school year.
3. This Spring 2009 data is to be collected during a date range of April 13-June 30, 2009 and includes the following:
• Section 1 – Internet Connectivity
• Section 2 – Student Proficiencies (Students leaving 8th grade at the end of 2008-2009 school year)
• Section 3 – School Administrator Proficiencies
4. All sections have to be collected anew for the 2008-2009 school year. The data we collected in Fall, 2008 is irrelevant to this year.
5. Next school year–2009-2010–we will only have to do the data collection ONCE. We’re only doing it twice this year because 2007-2008 letter to Superintendents came out so LATE in May, 2008 that many districts couldn’t get the assessments done in time.

Here’s what I recommend school districts do:

• Section 1: Internet Connectivity – Forward this information to their CTO/CIO and encourage him/her to fill it in before the deadline as done last time.
• Section 2: Student Proficiencies – Administer the 8th Grade Tech Literacy Assessment using the same tool you used in Fall, 2008 to your 8th graders. For example, InfoSource Learning’s SimpleAssessment is one possibility. Assessment administration ends May 15th (although districts actually have until June 30th to turn in the data).
  Read about it online.
• Section 3 – School Administrator Proficiencies – This one caught me by surprise because it’s only been a school year since the last data collection, and was NOT on my radar. So, contact principals with the expectation that they complete the assessment.
  Read draft content for a letter and tutorial.

Any other thoughts?

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