This section of the Census of Technology Report analyzes this year’s data, compares the 2002 data with previous years’ data, and notes interesting trends or anomalies. All 524 Missouri school districts completed the Census of Technology in 2002. Predominantly, the 2002 COT data indicate continued improvement over the previous year(s). A copy of the survey, completed with aggregate data, is provided as Appendix A. 

Technology Planning
A school district’s long-range technology plan provides a road map for how the district will implement strategies that promote the district’s mission, advance its comprehensive school improvement plan (CSIP), and improve teaching and learning.  Items 1 and 3 asked if districts have technology plans and, if so, whether they are state approved or aligned with local school improvement plans. 

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education began approving technology plans in 1997 as a requirement for the E-rate program. Early district technology plans dealt mostly with hardware and equipment and did little to address integration, student learning, or technology professional development. Beginning in 1999, a state-approved technology plan became a requirement for participation in the technology acquisition (TAG) grant program and/or the MOREnet Technology Network Program. Districts were granted a one-year waiver to allow time for the development of new or substantially updated plans. As such, all but a few districts had state-approved plans by 2000. 

In 2001, with the passing of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the state developed a new state education technology strategic plan and a district technology planning web site and updated its scoring criteria to assist schools in developing plans that would promote effective teaching strategies and student achievement as well as adequate infrastructure. The new criteria were implemented in 2002 and districts were again given a one-year waiver to prepare. That waiver expires in June 30, 2003. As a result, the 2003 COT will not address district plans. 

Table 1 indicates the ebb and flow of district technology planning, 1997 through 2002.

Table 1

Figure 2 illustrates the components covered in district technology plans, 1998 through 2002.  By 2002, nearly all district plans covered hardware review standards and equipment maintenance, staff professional development, computer software, and curriculum integration.

Figure 2

            ________________________________________________________________

Item 2 asked districts to indicate who makes technology-related decisions for the district, in terms of technology acquisition and use. Figure 3 indicates a movement toward giving more decision-making responsibilities to instructional staff, less to chief financial officers and consultants, and involving a wider spectrum of stakeholders. While district superintendents continued to be involved at a high rate, an increasing number of curriculum staff, technical staff, classroom teachers, and parents play important roles in education technology planning. 

Figure 3

             ________________________________________________________________

Item 4 asked whether districts partner with business or higher education to help support technology initiatives. The number of districts that report having a technology partner has fluctuated the past four years, as indicated in Table 4. The reporting of the types of partners is more consistent. A district “technology” partner is most likely a college or university, then a technology-related business, followed by a local business that is not technology-related.

Table 4

Technology Professional Development
Five items of the District-level COT addressed training issues. Item 5 asked who is responsible for the technical maintenance and support in the district; item 6 asked districts to prioritize the training needs of those responsible; and items 7 and 8 address technology skills. Item 7 asked whether teachers are required to demonstrate technology skills for employment or continued employment, and item 8 asked about the technology skill level of district administrators. 

Table 5 indicates that districts are engaging more people to handle technical maintenance and/or support of hardware in the districts.  As more technology is acquired and more educators are using the technologies, it creates a need for greater technical support. Over 60 percent of the districts involve district staff and/or outside vendors to help with equipment maintenance and support. In 2002, districts predominantly used staff. The percentage using outside vendors dropped from 78 percent to 64 percent -- the lowest rate since 1998. 

Table 5

Table 6 lists the training priorities for the persons responsible for equipment maintenance and support. It is interesting to note that, while all the percentages dropped in 2002, classroom use of technology continued to be top priority. Curriculum and instruction integration have consistently been the top priorities for the majority of districts but now there is a 40 percent drop from these categories to the next highest categories, technology planning and networking.

Table 6

Items 7 through 9 deal with district technology standards and the estimated skill levels of current administrators. Item 7 was added to the 2002 COT to address district technology standards for students, teachers, and administrators. Approximately three in five districts have board-approved technology standards. Over 300 districts reported they have locally-developed standards, while 100 report adopting or adapting national standards such as those developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and International Technology Education Association (ITEA). Districts are most likely to have established standards for elementary students (307 districts), then middle/junior high students (283), followed by high school students (258). Districts are more likely to have standards established for teachers (237) than for administrators (223) or support services staff (210).  

While nearly half of the districts have board-approved technology standards for teachers, responses to item 8 indicate that only nine percent of districts require teachers to demonstrate technology skills for hiring and continued employment decisions. This rate has hovered at or near eight percent since 1998.  

Item 9 asked districts to estimate technology skills levels of administrators in the district offices. In 1998, about 67 percent of district-office administrators were estimated to have intermediate and advance technology skills. The percentage rate has increased yearly, with districts reporting an 87 percent rate in 2002. On the flip side, the percentage of administrators rated as beginners has decreased yearly. The contrast between the decreasing percent of “beginners” and the increasing percent of “advanced” is illustrated in Figure 7.

Figure 7

_________________________________________________________________

Hardware and Support
Items 10 through 15 ask district administrators to estimate the number of persons responsible for technical support, list the kinds of computers located in the administrative offices, and estimate the number of computers likely to be purchased in coming years – for both administrative offices and school buildings. 

Item 10 asked items about technology staffing. Since 1999, districts have been consistently reporting an average of 2.0 district-level staff and a little over 2.0 building-level staff responsible for hardware maintenance and support. It isn’t likely that all districts have these same numbers; rather, these averages level the districts with little or no technology staffs and those districts with one or more technology staff person in each building. In 2002, districts reported 1.88 district-level FTE and 1.63 school FTE.  

Table 8 notes an annual increase in the overall numbers of computers and kinds of computers housed in administrative offices. The proportion of high-end machines also increased each year, as did the proportion of PCs to Apple/Mac computers. While the number of Apple/Mac machines increased in 2002, the proportion of all machines has dropped. Windows is the predominant operating system for PC/PC-compatible machines, followed by Novell. Of the Apple/Mac computers, 82 percent have operating systems of OS 9.0 or higher.

Table 8

District estimates of how many computers will be purchased in coming years continue the trends noted above. Districts expect to purchase increasing numbers of machines for the administrative offices, as well as computers, interactive whiteboards, and projectors for school buildings. 

Internet Connectivity and Distance Learning
Items 16 through 21 ask about the administrative office’s capacity to interact with others through Internet, networking, and distance learning technologies. Table 9 shows the steady increase in the percentage of administrative offices connected to the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and that are equipped for two-way videoconferencing. There was a noted increase in the number of offices connected to WAN from 2001 to 2002. 

Table 9

Technology Usage  
Items 22 through 32 deal with district-wide technology use. Item 22 asked districts whether technology is incorporated in district curriculum guides and academic standards. In 2002, 89 percent of the districts responded that technology was addressed in curriculum guides, as compared to 88 percent in 2001, 81 percent in 2000, 73 percent in 1999, and 63 percent in 1998. Over 60 percent of the core content areas have technology incorporated. 

Item 22 also asked if districts had technology proficiency requirements for students to pass to the next level. Only 15 percent of districts in 2002 indicated they had such a requirement, which is slightly lower but still consistent with the three previous years, with percents that ranged from 16 to18 percent. 

Figure 10 indicates information available on the district web sites. There has been a steady increase in almost every information category over the last four years. Increasingly, more districts are maintaining their own web sites and posting a higher quantity and greater diversity of information. Asked for the first time in 2002, about one in four districts reported posting classroom curriculum and homework information. 

Figure 10

              ________________________________________________________________

Items 24 and 25 asked districts to estimate the staff responsible for the training and support of teachers in integrating technology into curriculum and instruction. Approximately three in four districts employ a technology director or coordinator. In keeping with past statistics, districts averaged approximately two district-level staff. This year, districts estimate almost two full-time building-level staff. 

Responses to item 26 indicated that over 7,100 administrators, 61,00 teachers, and nearly 50,000 students were provided email accounts in 2002. Except for the administrator category, the 2002 numbers are higher than data reported in 2001.

Figure 11 shows a steady increase in the percentage rate of 6^th grade students estimated to be computer literate, as asked by item 27. Computer literacy, in this case, means the student is able to perform basic computer operations.  

Figure 11

Responses to item 28 are reported in Table 12. Data indicate a steady increase in the percentage of districts installing their own email, web, and proxy servers, and firewalls. In 2002, Groupwise, Mercury, Pegasus, and MS Exchange or Outlook were the predominant email server; Apache, MS FrontPage, Enterprise, and IIS the most used web servers; and, Border Manager the primary firewall.  

Table 12

Technology Funding  
Items 33 through 36 asked districts about their technology budgets and expenditures. From 1999 to 2002, districts have reported technology expenditures totaling $60 to 64 million. Table 13 indicates total projected and actual expenditures for major budget items, for fiscal years 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Table 13