It is great to be a part of the chief technology officer mentor kickoff!
This is a program that really goes hand-in-hand with the providing our students the highest quality education possible.
To put this perspective for you, over the last year and a half, I have focused a lot of my time and energy highlighting the single most significant issue education in our state faces: the achievement gap that exists between white students and students of color, as well as gaps with English learners, poor students, and students with disabilities.
While student test scores have steadily risen over the last five years, there are certain subgroups that don't manage to perform at the level of their peers.
Now, it is my firm belief that all children are capable of learning at the same high level – that's why a couple of months ago, in my State of Education Address, I proposed a number of recommendations for closing the achievement gap.
They include:
- Increased access to high-quality preschool for all children;
- An examination of race and culture in the classroom;
- A re-evaluation and re-implementation of our high standards; and
- The employment of a district-to-district partnership to highlight best practices.
- But the two proposals I'm going to discuss right now are right up your alley:
- Expanding student data collection system; and
- Brokers of Expertise
We are working to build a statewide data system that provides all the information we need to make the best possible decisions to serve each individual student in California.
While have a basic system in place, we must keep working to expand it to provide information that will tell us which practices and materials are the most effective, where and how we should intervene, and how we might improve instruction, one child at a time.
I also feel it is important to instill in our education system a culture based on information, so I'm sponsoring legislation this year to build on our existing programs and provide more professional development in the use of data.
The other exciting proposal we've got in the mix called "Brokers of Expertise."
For too long, school districts across the state have been left to solve problems on their own with no central resource to guide them and no mechanism to collaborate with other educators across the state when success is achieved.
But this program will provide a new level of connection and cohesion across the levels and regions of our education system.
All schools in California, regardless of their performance levels, will benefit from increased knowledge about how to close the achievement gap and raise all student achievement levels.
These proposals represent a new way of doing things for educators across the state, but it's all a part of my plan to make both CDE and local education agencies, continuous learning systems.
And I feel that really ties into your work as education technology professionals and your participation in this mentorship program.
No matter how accomplished or experienced one is, there's always more to learn, always a new or better way of doing things.
With the frequency of technological innovations, you know all too well how often you need to learn something new and adapt to change.
And this program will certainly put you on the path toward becoming life-long learners.
But the major point I'd like to leave you with is a message that I've been expressing to educators up and down the state for some time now, and that's the new 3R's in education:
- Rigor in the classroom;
- Relevance to the real world; and
- Relationships that create a positive learning environment.
I use these three points to describe to educators the ideal, most effective setting for learning to occur.
And I think it's accurate to say that these three ideas characterize the CTO mentor program, as well.
The CTO mentor program offers you: a rich and challenging curriculum; an explanation of how what you learn applies to real-world scenarios you'll encounter daily; and it allows you to build bonds with your mentors…the kinds of bonds that foster a thriving learning environment.
With that, I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors and I hope you enjoy your first weekend in the CTO mentor program.
Your participation in this program is a testament to your hunger for learning and your desire to serve the districts, schools, and the students of California to the highest possible degree.
