Thank you for your interest in participating in the courses offered through North TIER. The North TIER
Partnership is a consortium of 13 school divisions in Northern Virginia and MHz Networks. The Partnership is the
recipient of a grant to provide professional development to teachers in the successful integration of technology
into instruction.
To do this, North TIER offers TIE-In Technology Integration Educator Institute. TIE-In provides Technology
Integration Educators with high quality professional development and other support to assist them as they work
with classroom teachers to develop technology-infused lessons, units and projects. Technology Integration
Educators may be professional Instructional Technologists and Resource Teachers or may be classroom
teachers who informally encourage and mentor colleagues.
The North TIER project is funded through an Enhancing Education through Technology Ed. Tech Subgrant of the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law 107-110.
As part of the requirements of the grant, we must evaluate the effectiveness of the project. The North TIER
contracted with the University of Virginia, Curry School of Education to conduct this evaluation. In order to
participate in these paid learning opportunities, you must agree to do the following things:
1.
Take the LoTI on-line assessment. This is a brief measurement of "teaching" styles with regards to
information technologies. It is a very useful tool for understanding the teaching preferences of our
teachers, and ultimately ascertaining if professional development has any impact on the LoTI
assessment. This will take you a half-hour to complete on-line. You will be contacted with information
about how to access this.
2.
Complete a pre-training survey for each course and another follow-up survey some time later.
These surveys help researchers understand what people anticipate from a learning experience, and
then later, what they are able to apply.
3.
Work with another teacher on developing a technology-infused lesson, unit or project. Provide
the University of Virginia with the name(s) of the colleague(s) who worked with you directly as a result
of the professional development opportunity.
4.
Have your colleague take the LoTi on-line assessment both before working with you, and
sometime later. We are interested in knowing how wide an audience is reached through a training
opportunity, and if others derived the same benefit. In other words, how does professional
development translate into field action?
5.
Attend a conference sponsored by North TIER. In the past conferences have been held in
Arlington and Fauquier counties. The University of Virginia would like to have a break out session
where some professional development participants can come together as a focus group and
brainstorm about professional development.
Several of the items in this assessment scheme are electronic, and require very little time commitment. Our fall
conference is interesting learning and networking opportunities. Your feedback provides valuable information
regarding the design of meaningful and productive professional development for everyone. We believe there is a
connection between advanced training and student performance. We are not measuring student performance
directly.
If you are participating in North TIER training, please acknowledge your agreement to follow through with the
assessment commitment by signing the attached form. Please return it to your division's North TIER
representative, indicated at the top of this memo.
We do sincerely appreciate your commitment to professional excellence and student success.
To:
All Participants in courses sponsored by North TIER
From:
Your North TIER Representative
Re:
Your involvement in North TIER courses
