Vertical Alignment is Woven into the TATEKS

Students’ first exposure to technology in school begins early, as early as they begin school. When parents send their five-year-olds into the kindergarten classroom, teachers lead them through the alphabet, sight words, numbers, and even the home keys. They cover it all not just because it's in the curriculum, but because it lays the all-around needed foundation for what those little minds will need to build upon in first grade, second grade, and on through their K-12 education. Just as with any other subject, the state's Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills provide appropriate developmental knowledge and skills for Texas students. Learning to identify characters in kindergarten leads to their analysis in secondary language arts classes. Similarly, learning fdsa and jkl; at age 5 makes it easier to build keyboarding accuracy and speed in junior high computer lab activities for science and social studies. In effectively designed curriculum, the TATEKS weave another thread of information and skill development into students' education.


As with any other set of TEKS, the Technology Applications TEKS for students in kindergarten through high school are designed to fit into several common categories. In K-8 TEKS, those categories address technology foundations, information acquisition, problem solving, and communication. Basically, the categories specify what students can do with technology and how they can best do what they do with it. In the early years, the categories address broad-based, basic skills that allow students to begin appropriately using technology as a tool and a resource. In the upper elementary years, those skills are more focused and require students to use technology with more specific purpose. In junior high, specificity and focus increase even more, challenging the maturing technology user to do more, understand more, use more tech tools, and look more critically at the products they and others create and base in digital environments. In high school, specific focus and purpose are so clearly defined that students can choose from eight different courses to master more advanced technology skills and earn credits toward a diploma.