One area of the Texas Long Range Plan I would like to discuss is Educator Preparation and Development. It is vital for all educators to be skilled and prepared for the 21st Century.

The progress in the local area is somewhat scattered. Some campuses are fortunate to have support from their administration in which technology is considered an important component in education. Then there are others, who are met with funding and administrative support issues. Another factor in preventing progress is a lack of local professional development in technology. The more informative professional development conferences are generally outside of the local region and due to a lack of funding, educators are not able to attend. So the majority of educators are lacking information regarding changes. Granted it is not so sever, but it does hinder the teaching environment.

The trend in the local area has changed somewhat. Technology has been brought to the forefront in education, but changes have not been implemented as frequent as they should. As mentioned before, locally some campuses are meeting the plan requirements, while others are at a bare minimum, if at all.

If we are to keep up to par with state and national progress, we need improvement in the area and more support coming from the local educational system. How do they do this? Offer more professional development locally or set aside funding to send a group of educators to gain some training and become a "Trainer of Trainers" for their campus or district.