May 4, 2006

Vol. 25, Issue 35
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Table of Contents
WEB EXTRAS STATE DATA
A special state-focused online supplement to Technology Counts 2006. This new State Technology Report assembles key findings in an accessible format that allows readers to examine a particular state’s performance on this year’s indicators.
| Download a State's Full PDF Report: |
These interactive maps offer a quick way to examine State-by-State grades by categories. The grades break down into three groups: access to technology, use of technology and capacity of use.
Provides comprehensive data for individual states in the following categories: access to technology, use of technology, capacity of use, state data system, and data access and analysis tools. Also provides ways to compare multiple states' data in all categories, as well as states' overall grades.
FROM PRINT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Information Edge
The Information Edge
The federal No Child Left Behind Act has touched off a boom in school data collection. As a matter of necessity, states and school districts have responded to the 4-year-old law’s testing, teacher-quality, and accountability demands with major initiatives to upgrade their systems for collecting, managing, and analyzing electronic data.
FEATURE STORIES
Delving Into Data
States and districts are beginning to build digital data systems that can drive decisions in the classroom and the boardroom.
- • Keeping Track
- Decades in the making, Florida's system stands out nationally for its use of student data to influence policy and practice.
- • Building State Data Systems (Requires Macromedia Flash)
- A comparison of the structure and content of student and teacher ID data systems implemented across the states.
District Initiative
Drawing on lessons from the corporate arena, a school district in California consolidated and made accessible its trove of data well ahead of the curve.
- • Aware of All Students
- A well-off district uses data to shine a spotlight on its segment of struggling learners.
- • Finding the Funding
- A small district gets help from a company founded by former educators.
- • Voices of Experience
- District leaders developing school data initiatives can learn from those who have gone before.
- • Monthly Checkups
- A new principal works with teachers to get the most out of a district's benchmark assessments.
- • Tip of Their Fingers
- Teachers in Philadelphia can tap into an array of student-level information from a districtwide data system.
- • Rising to a Challenge
- A vocational-technical school turns to data to help students succeed on high-stakes exams.
Risk & Reward
Both businesses and school districts face risks as they navigate an emerging and highly competitive market for data tools.
'National Effort'
While most of the action on data is at the state and district levels, the federal government is playing a role, too.
State Analysis
Tracking U.S. Trends
Besides updating key statistics, Technology Counts for the first time assigns letter grades to the states on leadership in three core areas of technology policy and practice: access, use, and capacity.
- • How Education Week Graded the States
- For the Technology Leaders section of Technology Counts 2006, the EPE Research Center collected data on 14 indicators covering three major areas of state technology policy and practice: access, use, and capacity.
- • About the EPE Research Center’s Annual State Technology Survey
- To assess state policy and practice in education technology, the EPE Research Center surveyed the chief state technology officials in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
Access selected articles, e-newsletters and more!
- Instructional Leadership Director
- ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Albany, NY
- Chief Innovation Officer
- The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®), Washington, DC
- Common Core Literacy Assessment Developer - Part Time
- The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, New York, NY
- Principal - Chicago Metro Area West
- The Menta Group, Hillside, IL
- Chief Financial Officer
- Hernando County School Board, Brooksville, FL


