MILE Guide Online Assessment

Upon completing the MILE Guide Online Assessment, my district is considered to be at the transitional stage in all three sections: Learning and Teaching, Leading and Managing, and Partnering.
One of the recommendations my district was given was to develop priorities for 21st Century Skills. One of the critical factors that are necessary here is to create a group of people that already do some of this and have some skills so that a program can be created for the district. A barrier to this is the time factor. Because I work in a smaller district, it is a struggle to find people willing to do this that already have some of the skills. In my district, some people are really involved while others do nothing. Those that would be needed to meet this recommendation are already maxed out on ideas and time; therefore, we are stretching our staff even thinner than usual. The biggest support that we could provide to our teachers would be to provide time in which teachers can work and an assignment that needs to be completed to determine practice. Other support that would be needed would be to have laptops available with wireless connections in all the classrooms. This would enable teachers to take that step forward with technology. Learners would need support that would require all teachers to become versed in technology. If the technology is not up-to-par, all other preparation would be wasted.
The second recommendation was to make sure that all technological advances and assessments are aligned in regard to the 21st Century Skills. The main critical factor here would be having the 21st Century Skills available to every teacher so that alignment could be checked. In my district, we would have to talk about what those skills mean for our classes and provide examples to every teacher to help out. We would also have to provide multiple training on every aspect of the available technology as some faculty members can’t even turn their computers on and off. This lack of knowledge is the biggest downfall my district has as it slows everyone down, and not just those that don’t want to participate. The biggest practice that would have to change would be the method of assessment. The majority of the tests that are given are paper-and-pencil which are not how business assess their employees. Inquiry-based learning in all classes would be a welcome change as students demonstrate their thinking process while finding their answer.

Thanks,
Laura