Evaluation of EETT

Commentary

I've just finished perusing "Evaluation of the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program: Final Report" and the results are pretty depressing.

While there was some acknowledgment that the program is helping high-poverty schools catchup to low-poverty schools in terms of tech adoption, there is not much else encouraging in the report.

- 20 percent of teachers indicated that this [required] professional development
did not include any of the seven research-suggested characteristics.

- Only 27 states (52 percent) had minimum technology competency
standards for teachers [a reporting requirement of EETT funding] in
2006-07, and states were generally not collecting data regarding the
GPRA measure of the percentage of teachers meeting state technology
standards

- Another GPRA (Government Performance and Results Act of 1993)
requirement is that states report the percentage of districts
receiving EETT that have "effectively and fully integrated
technology." As reported on the 2007 state survey, most states either
had not ****EVEN*** adopted a definition of effective integration of
technology or did not measure the percentage of districts meeting the
statewide definition.

Lastly...
One of the GPRA measures for the EETT program is "the percentage of
students who meet state technology standards by the end of the eighth
grade." For the ***ONLY*** 12 states that reported data, the average
percentage of students meeting technology literacy standards was 64
percent.

I think the most damning comment comes in the conclusion,

"In terms of the EETT objective, the lack of agreed-on definitions [by the states] and solid assessment strategies makes it difficult to assess the program on a national level."

So, if you were a legislator, does this sound like a successful
program to you?

I'm just saying...

Executive Summary--Evaluation of the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program: Final Report. (2009, May 5). . Reports, . Retrieved June 30, 2009, from http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/netts/finalreport.html.