Page 18 - Leadership Matters February 2013_3140b78f.pub

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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
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
and local school
districts will continue
to receive less state
funding. Unless the
local taxpayers
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
(Continued on page 22)
Dr. Voltz’s 2013
education predictions
Dr. Richard Voltz,
Assoc. Director
of Professional
Development