Wesley's Titanium:Documents: Websites:TTU Wesley…:SBEC Commissioner addres… Page 1 of 2
Friday, February 8, 2002 Printed: 12:02:25 PM

Address by the Texas Commissioner of Education
2-8-2002
Commissioner Nelson

The "no child left behind" bill signed by the President looks a lot like Texas
- areas of the country not involved with accountablity previously are in for a
rude awakening

Got to attend a celebration in Constitution Hall in Washington a couple of
weeks ago with the President, focusing on the 'no child left behind' law
- had special dinner at Mount Vernon
- next day spend 5-6 hours discussing the impacts of the new law

Nothing gets your attention about how important this task of improving
education is than standing on the porch of Mt Vernon and looking at the Potomac

4 implications of the new law I will discuss
- Commissioner is amazed at the size of this crowd

1- Education programs as technology programs
- many of education programs like 'reading first' (new part of title 1) allow
participants to purchase technology materials to accomplish program goals
- going to have to show from a programmatic point that you have the capacity to
teach each and every child to read

2- strong committment in the new act for professional development
- to insure teachers understand how to integrate technology effectively
- we have got to do a better job at providing teachers with skills and better
access to training

3- Lots of flexibility
- interstate distance learning projects
- interest free loans
- law is rife with flexiblity

4- focus on 'evidence based education'
- funding strategies proven to work through scientific studies
- words 'scientifically based research' appear in the new bill 111 times
- committment to measure what works, focus on measuring, look at conditions
needed for effective technology use

If there is anywhere in America that can get it right, it is right here in
Lubbock

More discussion about future role of technology in Texas Schools
- technology will continue to grow in importance
- he is the first commissioner to successfully use email
(Dr Moses is now very technologically adept)
- had expected only 900,000 new technology jobs in the US (only qualified
applicants for less than half of those positions)

Another area to focus on is online content
- strong place for a live human being to work with students
- I believe we can meld the two together
- also in the area of professional development
- I am convinced some of that has GOT to be in person

We will also see more online assessments
- he serves on an advisory council that looked at pilot program of online
assessment
- how soon to implement? TX schools aren't ready, don't have the computers and
infrastructure

- Challenge to all of us: by the end of the decade, we should use technology to
do assessments (TAAS)
-- this would address some of the criticisms that we spend too much time
assessing
-- could allow for better diagnostics

Wesley's Titanium:Documents: Websites:TTU Wesley…:SBEC Commissioner addres… Page 2 of 2
Friday, February 8, 2002 Printed: 12:02:25 PM

-- security issues with the systems (viruses, etc) - TEA spread viruses in one
case to every school district in the state

Recent terroristic threat against TX schools
- he was in ESC20 when he received pager alert
- by early afternoon we had sent an email to every superintendent in the state
(only had that capability for 2-3 months)
-- learned a lot from that experience, identifiedsome email problems
-- have RFP out now to help notify people statewide

Need to protect the data and improve the quality of the data
- had to reduce the ratings of soms schools this year because the quality of
the data had gone down

Finally, about 'closing the gap'
- talk about it with student test scores
- is going to compare Texas with California
- CA is trying very hard to get back on track with its

Because NAPE results from 92 96 and 2000, in all years our 4th and 8th graders
exceeded California's in each year, we also increased the margin each year
(except African American which stayed a consistent 10 point difference)

This is significant, we are continuting to close the gap with these test scores
- we need to do this with technology
- public schools are the only place in many circumstances where economically
disadvantaged students have access to technology
- this means we have to 'do this right'
- a lot is riding on this

We need to do more to teach them to use computers to solve problems
- not just to use computer