About NGS

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The New Generation System (NGS) is a web-based interstate information network that communicates demographic, educational and health data on migrant students to educators throughout the nation. It is the vision of the NGS consortium that the NGS system will revolutionize the process of educating migrant students as well as communicating their needs.

The establishment of the New Generation System began with a vision of what such a system should do for teachers, health providers, families, and administrators in creating an optimum educational environment for migrant students. With a far-reaching vision, the NGS National Advisory Committee determined it is possible to create a system that addresses the immediate need of record/text data transfer, yet lays the foundation for a new system that addresses the need to communicate relevant and authentic information on students in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

The NGS system is designed to capture educational and health data on migrant students. The system allows educators to record the movement of migrant students through the educational process by producing on-line records of a student's educational progress and health profile. Educators can generate a student transfer document to facilitate academic placement as the student transfers schools. NGS also allows educators to generate various student-level, management and Office of Migrant Education performance reports.

Development efforts continue to bring the total NGS vision to fruition.

NGS Mission

The mission of NGS is to create a new generation system that collects, stores, communicates, and transfers migrant student demographic, education, and health information. This system:

lays the foundation for sharing the academic and health information of migrant students today and in the future;
considers educators, who are responsible for creating the optimum learning environment for students, as the primary clients;
increases the ease of use and value of the system for education and health providers; and
incorporates state-of-the-art technology on the basis of lower-costs and higher efficiency criteria.

The objective of the NGS system is to continue improving the design of the system using existing and future technologies that collect, store/maintain, communicate, and present education and health information for migratory children.

NGS Staff

The NGS Management Team is comprised of state directors of Migrant Education. The NGS Management Team governs the policies, size, and scope of NGS activities, taking into account input from the NGS Advisory Committee and NGS consortium states. This includes priorities for design, development, implementation and evaluation. Members of the Management Team advocate for the NGS and prepare the marketing strategies, provide direction to the fiscal agent to ensure that the financial requirements are met, and set participation standards. The Management Team Chairpersons work with NGS managers to review progress of work, identify needs, and ensure communication with consortium members and the Advisory Committee.

The NGS National Advisory Committee has membership from state, regional, and local levels. The Advisory Committee acts within the parameters of a plan including size, scope and priorities approved by the Management Team. The NGS Advisory Committee's major role is to communicate the program design, development and implementation needs of consortium states to the NGS Management Team. This includes, for example, technical assistance regarding the programmatic content of the system. Advisory Committee members provide recommendations to the Management Team as to the services to be offered through NGS, including technical assistance and training for member states. The Committee receives input from different perspectives, such as instructional staff, paraprofessionals, technicians, administrators, parents, students, and the community. The principle objective is to respond to user needs. Additionally, the advisory committee reviews emerging technologies to maintain the state-of-the-art system. The Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee is Brenda Pessin, Illinois.

Members of the Texas NGS Advisory Committee are Patricia Meyertholen and Rosie Garza, Texas Education Agency, Division of NCLB Program Coordination; Jorge Solis and Bob Garca, Region 1 Education Service Center (ESC); Marilyn Vieregge, Region 17 ESC; and Tomas Yanez, Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP). This committee tests NGS enhancements and meets on a regular basis to review, recommend, and design NGS enhancements and reports.

The NGS Development Team, is a group of technical experts from Northrop Grumman, located in Austin, Texas. Members of this team include:

The Development Team is guided by the direction of the NGS Management Team, NGS Advisory Committees, and NGS Staff.

Contact Information

For Technical Assistance with NGS, call 1-800-365-1873. For information on the NGS program or on how to obtain access right to the NGS system, contact Pat Meyertholen, Texas Education Agency, at the telephone number listed below.

Telephone: 512-463-9696
FAX: 512-305-9447
EDI: 512-474-4891
Postal address: Division of NCLB Program Coordination,
Texas Education Agency
1701 N. Congress Ave.
Austin, TX 78701

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Last Modified: 3/20/2007

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