Special Report
Education

District of Columbia

May 03, 2005 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The District of Columbia is targeting most of its educational technology efforts toward ensuring that “every learning space is connected to the Internet,” says Stanley D. Johnson, the school district’s director of instructional technology.

Currently, all of Washington’s public high schools and most of its middle schools have Internet access, and Johnson estimates that about 30 percent of its elementary schools are online.

According to data from Shelton, Conn.-based Market Data Retrieval for the 2003-04 school year, the District of Columbia ranked lower than all states except Massachusetts for the percent of schools with at least one Internet-connected computer in each classroom.

The school district uses federal E-rate and local funding to improve Internet access in schools, and it has fully wired all newly constructed schools. But Johnson says that the district has faced significant challenges in overcoming facilities and funding problems.

Funding for educational technology in the district has stayed relatively stable in recent years, so it has turned to other sources to maintain such programs. Johnson has worked with the district’s professional-development division, for instance, to share the costs of technology-related resources for new teachers.

In fact, the school system has made a strong effort to combine professional development and the distribution of technology resources. Teachers must complete a professional-development program on how to use technology tools and curriculum materials before the district will provide the new technology resources to the teachers’ classrooms.

The educational technology budget for the 76,000-student district is $3.1 million for the 2004-05 school year, about the same as the previous year. This includes funds from federal and local sources.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Mathematics Webinar How to Build Students’ Confidence in Math
Learn practical tips to build confident mathematicians in our webinar.
Student Achievement K-12 Essentials Forum How to Build and Scale Effective K-12 State & District Tutoring Programs
Join this free virtual summit to learn from education leaders, policymakers, and industry experts on the topic of high-impact tutoring.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: April 16, 2025
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Quiz ICYMI: Do You Know What 'High-Quality Curriculum' Really Means?
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
Image of curricula.
iStock/Getty
Education Quiz ICYMI: Lawsuits Over Trump's Education Policies And More
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
Image of money symbol, books, gavel, and scale of justice.
DigitalVision Vectors
Education Quiz ICYMI: Trump Moves to Shift Special Ed Oversight And More
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on TikTok in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on TikTok in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP