Tyler, Texas — Superintendents, and state representatives from all over Texas gathered Tuesday at the "New Vision" Education Summit at UT-Tyler to discuss future plans for the education system.

The visioning institute, has a plan that they say is a "work in progress" to improve Texas schools in many ways. Keith Bryant, Superintendent Bullard ISD, says, "we want to move more toward a 21st century education, with computerized instruction, collaborative activities in the classroom, communication among students."

Many superintendents feel that current State and Federal standards for schools are not working on a local level.

Their initiatives are geared more toward a State/Local partnership, rather than practices mandated  exclusively by the State.

Right now the assessment of school districts is based solely on a grade of a standardized test, the STAAR Test administered by the State of Texas. The grade of each school distinct and student is based on the lowest grade of the test results. and to this group of "new vision" educators, they say it's just not fair.

They have a series of meeting and speaking engagements set up to gather ideas and devise a a plan to present to the Texas legislature, all in an effort to modernize the school system.

Their transformation initiatives focus on the following:

• The New Digital Learning Environment
• The New Learning Standards
• Assessments for Learning
• Accountability for Learning
• Organizational Transformation
• A more balanced and reinvigorated State/Local partnership