Leadership, Technology, and Student Learning

A Technology in Education III (TIE-3) grant was awarded to the C-SMART Consortium Project for the 1999-2000 school year by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The consortium consisted of seven public and private schools in Texas. The goal of this grant was to accomplish four main objectives: electronic activities for development of student problem-solving skills; video conferencing of Spanish I to rural school districts who were unable to provide a Spanish course to their students; a variety of professional development experiences designed to enhance teacher technological literacy as well as teacher ability to incorporate technology with course content; and opportunity for adult literacy training through the use of computer-based programs to parents, open access labs to parents, and technology training to parents. The purpose of the C-SMART TIE-3 grant evaluation written for TEA was to: determine the degree and quality of the implementation of the project using both qualitative and quantitative research methods; provide formative and summative evaluation of the project in order to facilitate concurrent and future decision making for the TIE-3 grant; and meet the requirements of the TEA for evaluation of the project. Participants included nearly 10,500 students, 750 teachers and 17 district technology facilitators who comprised C-SMART's Leadership Team. From the data gathered in the evaluation, the following assumptions about C-SMART's impact on its participants are construed: computer usage in the integration of content with instruction was greatly enhanced by the C-SMART program; time spent on daily managerial, research, and planning tasks is perceived by participants to be reduced with the use of the computer; students use the computer as a tool for seeking information for their class work with more frequency and confidence; and teachers are more comfortable with using the computer for classroom instruction. The Technology Questionnaire and pre- and post-Technology Questionnaire results are appended. (AEF)