BF High School (BFHS) Evaluation

BFHS Demographics
This small, rural high school has a total of 615 students, the majority of whom are white (60%). The second largest ethnic population is Hispanic (39%), and there is very little diversity otherwise.

Graphic source: http://publicschoolsk12.com

The majority of families in the community are working middle class, with 44% earning between $50K and $100K per year (2006-2010, U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey). Approximately 35% of students enrolled in BFHS are eligible for the Free/Reduced Lunch (FRL) program. The student/teacher ratio at the school is roughly 17:1, and the school is located in a rural setting.

Maturity Model Benchmarks

Administrative Filter
Policy
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Although there are some policies regarding the use of technology by administrators and staff, most participants do the bare minimum and do not strive to integrate technology beyond written rules and regulations. Policies that exist center around appropriate e-mail use by staff, computer lab resources, and the use of the districts grading/assessment and data-management system. This system is little more than an Excel spreadsheet, and data is not used in any significant way, nor is it reported school-wide to help teachers inform instruction or intervention. Teachers who gather and use data in this manner have figured out how to do so on their own and not because any policy exists to do so.

Planning
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Some technology use planning does occur at the administrative level, but it is isolated to specific projects. For instance, there is a plan in place for an upgrade to design software used in the yearbook lab. There are also plans for specific software in science labs and an engineering classroom (i.e., computer drafting). There is no school-wide, comprehensive technology use planning taking place.

Budget
Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands A formal technology budget exists for specific projects, as mentioned above. However, a budget for technology is not included in other budgets that would benefit from its use.

Behaviorally, technology budgeting occurs with high priority given to its use in particular labs or classrooms. But there is no long-term, school-wide process, and most technology budgeting is driven by teacher requests.

Administrative Information
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Administrative systems are available to and utilized by many staff members, particularly for grading and attendance purposes. Unfortunately, those systems are not utilized to their full potential in regard to data-driven instruction. Administrators do not aggregate data for evaluation by individual teachers or teacher teams. Administrative information is just that--kept only as records by and for administrative use.

Curricular Filter
Electronic Information
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Students and staff at BFHS are somewhat dependent on electronic information resources. For instance, teachers keep records of grades and attendance electronically. Students complete many assignments on computers and use supporting evidence from online sources. The school is equipped with one computer lab that has 35 computers and five classroom-based labs with between 7 and 12 computers each. Teachers in the five computer-equipped classrooms make regular use of electronic information resources, but the school computer lab remains underutilized. Part of the reason for this may be the administrations lack of emphasis on integrating technology into curriculum. Teachers are more focused on ensuring that standards are included in their lesson plans than on thinking of ways that technology can help meet these standards. Another reason for the lack of integration is the absence of training/collaboration on ways to incorporate computers into lesson plans and activities.

Assessment
Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands An online data-management system is in place and is utilized by most of the staff. Students use it in the sense that they receive progress reports and assessments generated by the system. Parents also occasionally receive these reports.

There are many aspects of the data-management system that could be expanded and shared with more staff members. Currently, much of the system is restricted to administrative use and not accessible by teachers. If teachers were given access to more of the online assessment and reporting functions, they would be able to use that data to inform instruction and communicate better with students and parents.

Curricular Integration
Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Islands More technology-related resources are available in certain curricular areas by virtue of their having classroom access to computers and subject-specific software. These curricular areas include science, engineering, and yearbook/newspaper. There could be technology available to any teacher who makes a case for it in his/her classroom. The budget allows for the purchase of software and even the potential for more classroom computers. But as there is no comprehensive, school-wide technology plan, teachers are expected to make their own cases for technology they would like to integrate into the curriculum. The overall belief of most teachers is that technology is meant to be used only in certain subjects (aforementioned) and that it has limited practicality in the curricular design of other content areas. Most of the curriculum is textbook-based, and apart from going to the computer lab to do some research related to an instructional unit or type up an assignment, teachers do not think much about ways to incorporate technology into their lessons.

Teacher Use
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Most teachers have access to appropriate technology in their work area, including a computer with Internet access and relevant software. Projectors are available to all teachers upon request but underutilized. There has been some talk of purchasing interactive whiteboards, but traditional overhead transparencies would need to be taken away to encourage their use. Teachers regularly go online to take attendance and enter grades, but that is the extent to which many of them incorporate technology into their daily work.

Student Use
Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands

The maturity level of student technology use is the reverse of teacher use. Many students use technology to complete assignments--and some even seek out lab resources before/after school or during lunch hours to do so. But they are not given consistent and regular access to appropriate technologies except in specific subject areas. All students have access to computers while in science class, but must work with one or more lab partners. Students enrolled in the yearbook/newspaper electives may have individual access to a computer, but only if their role on the team involves page layout and design. In order to have consistent and regular individual access to a computer, students must take the initiative to take advantage of open lab times (lunch, before/after school) or use technology outside of school (home, library, Internet cafe, etc.), which is what most of them do.

Support Filter
Stakeholder Involvement
Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent As there is no formal technology planning and implementation process, few groups of teachers and support staff are represented. Technology purchases and implementation occur on a caseby-case basis, typically upon request by some innovative stakeholder. Very few teachers or support staff members are actively engaged in thinking about or implementing technology.

Administrative Support
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands There is no forward-thinking vision for technology use school- or district-wide. Administrative support is provided only when the occasion arises (i.e., when a project pops up that calls for technology use), and involvement is peripheral in planning, practice, and implementation. The real leaders and drivers of change are individual teachers with a vision for the use of technology in their own instruction.

Training
Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent There is no technology training at BFHS or any other school in the district, apart from a brief introduction to the web-based data-management system at new teacher initiation. This is more of a presentation than hands-on training, and teachers are given a manual that they are

expected to read in order to begin implementing the system. There is no ongoing or refresher training in this technology.

Technical & Infrastructure Support

Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Formal technical assistance is provided by a designated technical support specialist at the school. Each school in the district has a tech support specialist on staff. Most staff at BFHS reach out to technical support first when they encounter a problem with technology. If they do not get a prompt response, then they will reach out to other teachers, staff members, or administration. In short, there is definitely a support network for the limited technology use in place.

Connectivity Filter
Local Area Networking
Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Local area networks are truly integrated, with high-speed networking access to all working environments. This is the case throughout the district. Staff use is limited to data, but all team members use local area networking extensively. Many students at BFHS take advantage of the schools connectivity by utilizing computer labs before/after school hours and during lunch.

District Area Networking

Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated District area networking infrastructure is integrated, with dedicated, high-speed lines. Several data services are available, but there is no voice or video capacity. Staff use district services often, but in very basic and traditional manners.

Internet Access
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Intelligent

Although direct Internet access is available to all locations in the school and throughout the district, the USE of this technology is still not integrated into curriculum. Some teachers incorporate online research, tutorials, and videos into their lesson plans, but many barely skim the surface of the learning resources available on the Internet. Students are often left to explore these resources outside of school hours, which does not take into account the very real digital divide in this rural community.

Communication Systems
Behavioral: Integrated Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Staff use e-mail frequently to communicate with colleagues and parents, although some traditional letters are still sent home with students. E-mail is the preferred mode of communication to discuss learning activities with colleagues in the building, as its difficult for a teacher to leave the classroom during school hours. Its not uncommon to e-mail a colleague who is sitting right next door. Administration also uses e-mail to communicate with staff and parents. There is a monthly BFHS e-newsletter that goes out to all parents and staff. Students do not receive this newsletter but can view it on the schools website. Students do not receive school e-mail accounts, except when a specific extracurricular or school government role requires it. For instance, the schools newspaper staff is granted two e-mail accounts: one for advertising purposes and one for editorial. The student governmental body also has e-mail accounts for president, treasurer, etc. to be used solely for communication related to official, pre-approved matters.

Innovation Filter
New Technologies
Behavioral: Islands Resource/Infrastructure: Islands Most staff express interest and even excitement in new technologies that are presented to them, usually by an innovative teacher or parent. However, very few staff actually incorporate these technologies into their instruction; after learning about them, they get caught up in business as usual and set them aside. Opportunities for experimentation with Internet-based new technology is district-wide. However, there is a digital divide among staff when it comes to mobile apps that can help organize, schedule, track, etc. Not every teacher has a smart phone, and some of the apps brought to their attention may be only for Apple users.

Some new technology, including drawing pads for computers and interactive whiteboards, have been rejected by administration. While many students, including those in art and engineering classes, could benefit from drawing pads, they have been deemed to expensive. All teachers could benefit from interactive whiteboards, but until the school sees increased use of projectors that are currently available, they will not be purchased. Again, purchasing of new technology is on a case-by-case basis and not dictated by any comprehensive technology use plan.

Comprehensive Technologies
Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent There is no such thing as comprehensive technology at BFHS. The few teachers who are using new technology are using it in isolation. Most educators are still dependent on computers, VCRs, overheads, and the like in their classrooms. As previously discussed, some modern technology has been suggested by innovative staff members, but it has not been adopted (i.e., purchased). Only in the computer lab and classroom-based labs do students have access to computers. This makes it difficult to use technology interactively, even just the Internet.

Summary
Overall, I would give BF High School a technology maturity rating of Islands. Technology resources at the school include a data-management system, integrated e-mail, high-speed Internet access, and LAN/WAN connectivity. The problem is that this technology is used primarily for day-to-day record-keeping by teachers and administrators rather than innovative instructional planning and implementation. Instructional use of technology does occur in isolation, typically by some forward-thinking educator, but without any school-wide support. When new technology is requested, it is often not purchased because there is no school-wide vision or technology use plan driving advancements. Technology may be purchased on the whim of the administrators for specific projects such as yearbook design and computer drafting. What was most striking to me was the lack of opportunity for students to use technology. In terms of student use and access, I would rate the schools technological maturity as Emergent. There is only one computer lab big enough to accommodate every individual student in a class, and only five classroom-based labs where students can work in pairs or small groups. Even so, the computer lab is not always booked, which means many teachers are not even trying to use this limited resource to improve learning. As stated in the directive for this evaluation, It is not sufficient to just acquire technology with the hope it will become used as an essential part of a student's learning environment. On the flip side, installing more computers in classrooms would certainly improve the learning environment in that teachers would be constantly reminded that there are other ways to teach and reinforce lessons and students would undoubtedly make this point. Given the opportunity to use technology in all classes, students would transform learning at BFHS. Students would have the power to shape their own exploration and discovery of the subject matter, which in turn would transform pedagogy. Giving the students this power would be like hiring hundreds and thousands of teacher trainers in the sense that they would use the technology to enrich the curriculum and expand learning modalities. (And it would be a much less expensive option.) A technology use plan must be created, and innovative students, teachers, and administrators must be the drivers of change. More needs to be done now so that learning at BFHS is not restricted and students do not fall behind. Every learner deserves the opportunity to become college- and career-ready, and learning through technology is an essential aspect of meeting that standard.