The Census of Technology (COT) is designed to assess Missouri’s continuing investment in K-12 education technologies and to help guide forward efforts. It provides important data for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to share with state and national decision-makers to increase public awareness and advance public policy and support for education technology. It provides local school districts with data to help identify needs and develop strategies to facilitate school improvement processes and compare district progress with statewide data. The COT is aligned with the 2002-2006 Missouri Education Technology Strategic Plan (METSP) and is a primary data source for measuring progress toward meeting the state goals and objectives. A cross reference of the 2004 COT items and the METSP goals and objectives is provided as an appendix to this report.

A technology survey has been collected annually since 1997. Prior to 2001, DESE contracted with the University of Missouri‘s Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis to administer the project. In 2001, the census was incorporated into the April cycle of DESE's online core data collection system. The 2001 COT was the first to be completed by all districts; data collected prior to 2001 were adjusted to estimate the entire population.

The COT has two parts (district-level and school building-level forms) and is to be completed based on an annual census date of March 1.

The District Census assesses the levels of planning and training for the district as a whole and concentrates on hardware, software, and levels of connectivity for the administrative buildings and offices. Completed by district-level administrators and/or technology specialists, the District Census includes information for all Missouri school districts (524).
The Building Census assesses planning and training needs for individual school buildings and focuses on hardware and levels of Internet connectivity in computer labs, libraries, and classrooms. Completed by building-level administrators or technology contacts, the Building COT collects data from preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, junior high schools, high schools, area career centers, and the majority of charter schools (those in operation at least one full year prior to the Census date). Exempted buildings include juvenile centers, special education cooperatives, buildings where attendance is reported at another building (such as a gifted center), or other buildings with no enrollment data.

This 2004 Census of Technology Report arranges the 2004 data for both the district and building levels according to the following areas: technology planning, technology professional development, hardware and support, Internet connectivity-distance learning, technology usage, and technology funding. Where feasible and appropriate, this report presents and compares information from previous years. Aggregated responses for the district and building census forms are provided in the Appendix section of this report.

This report is one of several documents that examine the use and effectiveness of education technologies in Missouri. Other evaluation information can be found in the Missouri Education Technology Strategic Plan reports, eMINTS Program research reports, annual technology program reports, project descriptions, and annual evaluation narratives – all of which may be accessed from the Instructional Technology website at /divimprove/instrtech.

For additional information regarding the Census of Technology, contact the Instructional Technology section by telephone at 573-751-8247or email at instrtech@dese.mo.gov.