The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and its Texas state affiliate chapter, The Texas K-12 CTO Council, are honored to support the work of current and aspiring superintendents and district leadership teams in leading all aspects of digital learning transformations.
Last month we focused on the strategies necessary for leading digital learning with an emphasis on succeeding with 1:1 implementations. CoSN’s Leadership for Digital Learning Critical Issues Guide provides – in a concise, single-page format – an itemized check list for each of the main systems (both human and technological) that need to be properly established when implementing 1:1 technology for learning initiatives.
This month we turn our attention to how and why school district leadership teams collaborate on the implementation of online assessments within a school district system. As an ever-increasing number of school districts launch online assessments as part of their standard practice, school leaders are learning that the challenges associated with implementing and leveraging online assessments to drive student learning are far more complex than simply adding technology. Today technology is an essential tool for planning, creating, delivering, and evaluating successful instruction. Online assessments are becoming routine within many school settings and are used not solely for summative or high stakes testing, but also for formative measures of learning as well. It takes a coordinated leadership team effort among multiple district level departments to execute online assessments successfully. The CoSN Critical Focus Area: Issue One Pager on Online Assessment offers nine key recommendations for leveraging online assessment capability and capacity.
CoSN, in partnership with edWeb.net, hosts The EmpowerED Superintendent monthly webinar series on topics that are essential for all educators engaged in leading digital transformations. The focus of the February 10, 2020, webinar (4 p.m. CT) is “Online Assessment: An Effective, Coordinated, District Leadership Team Approach.” Three members of Pennsylvania’s Hampton Township School District leadership team (Dr. Michael Loughead, Superintendent; Dr. Jacquelyn Removcik, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment; Dr. Ed McKaveney, Director of Technology) share how they collaborate and effectively coordinate their work in order to successfully lead the implementation of online assessments as well as the strategic use of the resulting student learning data within all schools in their district. Learn more and register for this free webinar as well as access recordings of previously broadcast CoSN/edWeb webinars at https://home.edweb.net/supers/.
If your school or district would like more information about joining CoSN or getting more involved with CoSN and/or Texas K-12 CTO Council, please contact Dr. Alice Owen, Executive Director, Texas K-12 CTO Council at exdir@texask12ctocouncil.org or call 855.458.9286.
