Stories with Data and Data with Stories

Abstract

As many school districts approach a 20th-year anniversary of microcomputers in their classrooms, they are facing loud calls for proof of results from the investments of time and money made in technology during that period. Jane Oates, education advisor for Senator Edward Kennedy, stated in two different speeches this fall that what is needed (by Congress and the federal government) are not just and not just data, but stories with data and data with stories. In response to these local calls for proof and in reaction to statements such as those from Ms. Oates, educators are searching for tools and instruments to measure and document the impact of technology, particularly microcomputers, on teaching and learning. Measuring Sticks Exist Several groups have introduced within the last year measuring sticks of the impact of technology in education. The Milken Exchange has developed the Seven Dimensions for judging progress in implementing technology (www.milkenexchange.org). They continue to collaborate with state technology leaders and educational groups to further develop the dimensions and related tools. Currently, they are completing a Professional Development tool (www.milken exchange.org/pdc). Also, for the past two years they have documented in their annual report, Counts, the status of the efforts by states to implement technology. This report establishes the accomplishments of each state as well as provides comparisons of the states in various categories. The CEO Forum's School Technology and Readiness (STaR) chart (www.ceoforum.org) is another tool in use in schools and is a part of several state initiatives. The self-assessment quiz that guides respondents to label themselves as either a low tech, mid tech, high tech, or target tech school establishes a means of tracking progress in six categories. In other instruments, rubrics guide the user in pinpointing the current status in various areas from the use of technology by students and teachers to the involvement of the community in the technology program. One such instrument that has a strong set of rubrics addressing student engagement with technology is from the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NCRTEC). Their online instrument, entitled Learning with Technology Profile Tool, is found at www.ncrtec.org. These tracking tools probably represent just the first set of offerings, as discussions at technology meetings increasingly call for means of documenting technology progress. One State's Effort In the late fall of 1997, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Instructional Technology Division adopted the CEO Forum's STaR Chart as a tool for school districts to use in tracking the implementation of their local instructional technology plans. With permission from the CEO Forum office, the state agency added a row to the bottom of the chart. This row consisted of the Target Tech School standards for North Carolina schools. These standards, from the North Carolina Instructional Technology Plan, were closely aligned to those in the Target Tech row of the STaR Chart. These modified charts were distributed to school districts as part of a package of tools for tracking technology implementation. School districts were encouraged to use the North Carolina version of the STaR chart with the accompanying self-assessment quiz as part of their efforts to revise their local instructional technology plans. When the revised plans were submitted to the state office in June 1998, approximately one-third of the 117 school districts had followed the recommendation and used the STaR Chart. Some had every school complete the self-assessment quiz in order to stake out where that school was at the end of the first two years of the local plan implementation. Most of those districts indicated their plans to continue collecting this data yearly. Other districts reported using the STaR chart to determine areas to focus on in the revised technology plan. …