January 2004 — Features
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The Impact of Standards-Based Technology Professional Development
In an effort to meet local, state and federal demands for education reform, school leaders are scrambling to identify effective strategies for delivering and reporting on technology professional development and how it impacts school reform. School leaders nationwide are critically evaluating their return on investment as it relates to technology professional development. A vast array of programs, benchmarks and professional development designs have been created to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind, as well as a multitude of state and local reform initiatives.
We set out to create a study on the impact of focused standards-based professional development, including the use and implementation of ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) in the classroom, as well as the need for data-based decision-making when providing district technology professional development. The study consisted of five phases: information gathering, identifying research-supported staff development criteria, creating the professional development plan, selecting a school corporation to implement the professional development plan, and data analysis.
In the information gathering stage, we identified that the assessable benchmarks in NETS have the basic criteria used in the MyTarget Web-based self-assessment measurement and analysis tool, which is created by iAssessment (online at http://mytarget.iassessment.org). MyTarget provides anytime accessibility, user anonymity and the ability to identify a variety of user technology skill strengths and weaknesses.
MyTarget consists of easy-to-interpret information that an educator can use to set personal technology implementation goals, assist an administrator in setting technology implementation goals, and aggregate data reports to gauge district progress in technology competency. NETS were our choice for standardized benchmark criteria and MyTarget was our assessment tool of choice.
After researching staff development criteria, we concluded that our plan should include site-based initiatives, time for collaboration and reflection, a commitment of resources, and opportunities for teachers to explore and apply new technology strategies in the classroom. With these criteria in mind, we identified Bloomfield's four stages of technology professional development as an excellent foundation (Crystal 2001):
- Teacher buy-in — gaining cooperation from the beginning;
- Assessment — using data to establish district teacher technology skill baselines for pre- and post-professional development assessment;
- Creating differentiated training opportunities to accommodate adult learning and working styles; and
- Time for collaborative follow-up and support.
Technology Coaches
During the planning phase of the project, we decided to select a school district with a manageably sized teacher population and a district willing to commit resources to technology professional development, so we chose Brownsburg Community School Corp. as our test site. Located outside of Indianapolis, Ind., Brownsburg Community School Corp. has about 5,400 students in its five elementary schools, one junior high, one high school and one alternative high school. It is also supported predominantly by property tax dollars. Its leaders support technology hardware equitability in all buildings and consistently evaluate the technology plan to ensure that all buildings have equitable equipment and connectivity.
