Leadership Matters - February 2013

Dr. Voltz’s 2013 education predictions

and local school districts will continue to receive less state funding. Unless the local taxpayers

Schools, especially middle and high schools, will be using Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) much more in FY14. It is very difficult for schools to

Dr. Richard Voltz, Assoc. Director of Professional Development

be able to afford and also predict which device to buy for each student. Many school communities have the majority of students who already possess a smart device provided by parents. Schools will learn to utilize these devices in the school technology infrastructure that allows for filtering of content to comply with federal and state regulations. Students who do not own devices will be allowed to use school purchased devices. The use of BYOD and other technologies will lead to technology purchases of textbooks and related materials with the savings from not purchasing textbooks to be put into buying devices for those students who do not have devices and allowing the district to ramp up the infrastructure of the buildings for students to access information and content via the web. Teachers will join together in a shared environment such as has been done with Wikipedia, Firefox and the like to write their own textbooks and related materials. Included in these instructional materials will be lessons available online for students 24/7 similar to Kahn Academy but the lessons will be written, produced and directed by the teachers themselves. You can view my podcast of Mrs. Tignor, Eureka Middle School math teacher to get a feel of what this will entail by clicking here . Building level administrators will make many more teacher observations and recording of evidence as Illinois transitions into this new teacher evaluation paradigm. This will lead to a much better conversation between teachers and administrators about what is happening in the classroom and which in turn will increase instructional practices and student achievement. As Illinois advances into this reform-mandated performance-based teacher evaluation system relationships between teacher unions and management will be more contentious than ever unless both sides can agree to solve these problems together, in collaboration with the mutual intent of improving instruction. Student/teacher class size will increase considerably over the next one to five years. Illinois’ budget problems will not be solved in the short term

agree to increase property taxes services for students in Pre-K through 12 will continue to decline. To go along with the previous item, administrator to teacher/student ratios will continue to increase as well. This will occur at the same time as the demand on building level administration increases due to the new mandated teacher performance evaluation systems. Many veteran administrators will retire as soon as they can because they will feel that the position’s responsibilities will be impossible to meet. The number of applicants for both teaching and administrative positions will increase. You may wonder how this can happen when the job seems harder than ever. There are two reasons this is predicted to happen, the first is that there will be fewer teaching and administrative positions to apply for because of the budgetary problems. The second is that there will also be less white-collar positions for college graduates to be employed and many college graduates will see education as a viable career path. Districts will even see increased applicants for administrative positions because even though the job will seem harder, school administration is a very well paid career. Illinois high schools will start to offer more online courses for a variety of reasons. Online courses will be less expensive to offer than on campus courses, it will allow the high school to expand its curriculum, it will meet the needs of students because of the 24/7 access and also student learning changes, it will allow students to make up credits, and it will be an economic engine for those districts who can figure out how to offer online courses before private entities lock up the entire market as is happening in other states. There will a negative professional educator reaction to the implementation of the Common Core. I cannot understand how the Common Core has been able to change the very essence of local control of curriculum with almost no opposition. It seems to me ISBE has just been able to declare “Common Core” for all without a debate at all from local school districts. Do Illinois educators even know what is in

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