Visionary Leadership Sustains Technology Gains
Meanwhile, school leaders report that district technology leaders have by far the most influential voice in district technology decisions. Ninetythree percent of survey respondents report that district technology leaders have high levels of influence, compared to the superintendents (75 percent) and assistant superintendents (50 percent), the only other groups cited by as many as half of the respondents.
However, in high-tech districts and in districts where technology budgets are increasing, school leaders report that a wide variety of people are heavily involved in decision making as well. School leaders in high-tech districts are significantly more likely than low-tech districts to report that school boards (56 percent in high-tech districts compared to 45 percent in low-tech districts), classroom teachers (34 percent to 22 percent), the community (20 percent to 11 percent) and parents (20 percent to 8 percent) have high degrees of influence over technology decisions.
Further, school leaders in districts whose technology budgets have increased are significantly more likely than those in districts whose technology budgets have decreased to report high levels of influence on the part of superintendents (83 percent to 64 percent), assistant superintendents (57 percent in districts with increasing budgets compared to 40 percent in districts with decreasing budgets), school boards (60 percent to 36 percent), curriculum directors (54 percent to 42 percent) and assessment directors (28 percent to 18 percent).
These survey results strongly indicate that it takes school and community support, broad consensus and a shared vision to sustain funding for technology in schools. Yet more than a third of the school leaders surveyed from large districts (37 percent) report problems with district leadership viewing technology as an add-on rather than as essential to instruction. Nearly half of these school leaders from large districts (45 percent) also say a lack of technology understanding on the part of other district leaders they deal with poses a significant challenge.
In that light, it may not be surprising that school leaders surveyed widely identify leadership and vision (85 percent) as well as communication skills (51 percent) as key attributes for their profession. School leaders in high-tech districts (61 percent) and in districts whose technology budgets are increasing (58 percent) are especially likely to cite communications skills as paramount.
Indeed, school leaders view technical skills as far less important. Many more school leaders cite planning and budgeting skills (48 percent) and team building and staffing skills (39 percent) as key attributes than cite any form of technical proficiency. School leaders in large districts (48 percent) and poor districts (54 percent) are especially likely to see team-building and staffing skills as critical to the success of district technology leaders. Only about one in four (27 percent) identify education and training as key to success for district technology leaders. Only one in five (20 percent) cites systems management skills and only one in seven (14 percent) cites information management skills.