Module 9

Reflect on the work you did to collect information for the SBAC testing requirements. What stood out to you as key discoveries?

The work that I did to collect the information for the SBAC testing may be different from other students in the cohort.  My main difficulty all semester is gaining access to knowledgeable personnel at the district office.  If I were to start this assignment over again, I would choose to look at the district I work in, this way I know exactly whom to contact.  Luckily, I went to the CUE conference and ran into the person I wanted to speak with on the last day.  We had a good conversation and he admitted that my emails had been ignored due to a triage of importance.  He asked me to remind him on Monday of this week of the questions I needed answering and mention in the subject line that we met at CUE.

Some of the key discoveries was the advanced thought process of a back-up plan.  I know that this sounds judgemental, but I don’t have much faith in my local district.  Our community doesn’t have much faith in it either.  I know that the brand new school board and new Superintendent are working hard to restore the communities trust, but they have a long way to go.  I truly like that they did a load test and, while it worked, still had a back up plan of installing more AP’s for a “just in case” scenerio.  I mentioned this to my neighbors who, like me, were surprised and pleased with the forward thinking of the Informational Technology Department and School Board.

The more I look at the district through the lense of Enterprise Architecture and other tools we have learned this semester, the more I can see that the new leadership is working hard to take a district in chaos, identify the problems, and then provide solutions.  By analyzing my local district I am seeing the “big picture” of how this course, 630, and 600 work together to provide school improvement.