Executive Summary

	Executive Summary Losing Ground in Technogy Spending Positive Attitudes Mitigate Budget Threats Recommendations Acknowledgements Digital Leadership Divide Report (PDF)

A new survey of key decision makers in K-12 public schools reveals large and growing disparities in funding for school technology. These disturbing disparities signal a widening digital divide between the technology haves and have-nots in 21st century. Stagnant or declining technology budgets in many school districts threaten the real progress that schools have made over the past decade to improve their technology infrastructure, access and effectiveness for administrators, teachers and students.

Yet, with visionary educational leadership and strong community support, some school districts are bolstering their technology plans and budgets, according to findings from a nationwide, online survey of 455 technology decision makers in school districts.

With generous support from AT&T, Educational Testing Service and Microsoft, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conducted the survey with Grunwald Associates, a leading market research firm specializing in technology. The survey is the first of a planned series of CoSN-Grunwald Associates surveys to monitor schools' technology spending and trends.

Positive Attitudes Spur Investments

Positive attitudes and strong commitment to technology are deciding factors in technology budgeting, the survey reveals. Schools that are committed to deepening the impact of technology are finding ways to raise or repurpose funds to maintain or increase their level of support for technology, even in difficult budgeting cycles. But schools that are less committed to using technology are falling behind - cutting budgets, reducing staff and forgoing the professional development that would enable educators to use technology more effectively.

We also explored the perceived benefits to technology use in schools - and discovered a surprising, widespread optimism that technology has the potential to make a profound difference in education. This sentiment is especially strong among the school leaders who already have witnessed the benefits of technology firsthand - those whose schools use technology the most.

A Window of Opportunity

Currently, the survey reveals, schools are making excellent use of technology for administrative purposes, deploying networks and systems to become more efficient and productive. Where schools seem to lag, though, is in integrating technology into the classroom to improve teaching and learning. However, school leaders - especially those whose districts already use technology the most - seem poised for technology to take education to this next level of reengineering the classroom experience to meet 21st century expectations.

This is a window of opportunity for schools. Professional development is seen as the key to transforming teaching and learning, school leaders affirmed in the survey, as well as to using the data captured by technology to make better educational decisions. The good news is that school budgets may not be the biggest barrier to implementing comprehensive professional development. Instead, visionary leadership and community and parental support and seem to drive change in the most technology-intensive schools. All schools can use the lessons learned from high-tech districts to build public support and participation in technology decision-making. The survey findings led us to recommend these approaches for schools to improve their use of technology to benefit students, teachers and administrators:

• Move from automating administrative practices to transforming teaching and learning.
• Invest in technology leadership.
• Create new professional development initiatives.
• Recruit the active support of parents and the community.

About the Survey

In March 2004, CoSN and Grunwald Associates conducted an online survey with 455 school district decision makers for technology, such as superintendents, assistant superintendents, directors of instructional technology, chief technology officers and administrators of management information systems. All of these decision makers:

• Work full-time as educators at the central administration for a district, and
• Influence decisions about instructional software, applications, hardware and other technology infrastructure.

Survey data were weighted by the districts' geographic location and size to ensure a representative sample.

Is there a particular project that has been postponed or cancelled due to technology budget cuts?

Here are some responses to this question.

• "The upgrade program has been canceled."
  
  
• "Our hardware replacement cycle has been significantly impacted. We are now replacing computers on a seven- to eight-year cycle rather than the five-year cycle we prefer."
  
  
• "Professional development training for teachers"
  
  
• "Online tutoring"
  
  
• "Our keyboarding program for 4th grade students"
  
  
• "Our Instructional Technology Specialist positions have been cut from 27 positions in 2000 to 9 positions in 2003. We have 107 schools."
  
  
• "Purchasing new desktop and laptop computers"
  
  
• "A student/staff/community portal project"
  
  
• "Our computers are old and were to be refreshed several years ago. It has not happened."
  
  
• "Wireless laptops/computers in the classroom for core instruction"
  
  
• "Design and implementation of a more cost effective and efficient telephone system. Significant progress in integration of technology into the curriculum."
  
  
• "We are starting no new initiatives whatsoever because of this."
  
  
• "Purchase of 250 new computers"
  
  
• "A distance learning initiative"
  
  
• "Yes. Parent access to student information system. Establishment of a hardware replacement cycle. Reduced training classes for teachers, administrators and support staff."
  
  
• "We are in maintenance mode. New projects requiring large capital outlays are not being considered."
  
  
• "Improving the bandwidth on the wide area network and bandwidth in LANs in 42 schools."
  
  

This Report is Made Possible with Generous Support From: