Technology Maturity Benchmarks Evaluation

Washington High School (a pseudonym) is one of four high schools in the city. It is in an area of the suburbs that has a majority of middle class and upper class families, many of whom work for a large technology company, or have professional jobs. Most of the students come from families of European Descent. The largest non European ethnic group is Asian. Other ethnic groups include Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Native American, along with a much smaller population of African American students. WHS serves students in grades 10-12 with an enrollment of 1148 students for the 2012-2013 school year. The school has an impressive report card: 99% Graduation Rate 97.7 % Proficiency Rate in Standardized Reading Tests 94.2 % Proficiency Rate in Standardized Math Tests 96.7 % Average Daily Attendance 75.5 % College Bound Ranked among the top 1500 high schools in America by Washington Post

Washington High School has an average 23 students per class. 55% of the teachers hold

advanced degrees, and over 70% are veteran teachers who have been in the profession for over ten years. 38% of the staff are male. There are many extra curricular activities for students to choose from and many students and teachers are involved in multiple after school activities. The school has an active parent organization. Washington High School is an overall vibrant school where the staff, students, and parents form a strong community that feels safe and supportive for its students.

Technology Maturity Model Benchmarks Rankings Administrative Filter

Policy: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated
Most teachers use computer projectors regularly in the presentation of their lessons. All teachers use online gradebooks and email, while some teachers use School Fusion to keep a class website.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Intelligent

Washington High School has a technology plan that has been approved by the school district.

Planning: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

Planning for technology use is not school wide, but tends to focus on specific departments. While planning may be not be budget driven, oftentimes implementation of technology plans is not followed through with because of budgetary issues.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

Although there is a formal technology plan in place that has been approved by the school district, it has no formal review process.

Budget: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated

In addition to a technology budget, and to departmental budgets that can be used for technology, there is a rainy day fund that has the highest priority going to maintaining class size, and then technology as the second priority. The school district WHS is in has had very little extra money in the rainy day fund for the past several years. With the current budgetary limitations there is no long term budget in place that is solely dedicated to technology. There is no planning for upgrades to technology in the current budget.

Resource/Infrastructure Ranking:Integrated
Some department budgets have line items for technology; for example the science department has a large budget for lab materials, some of which is used to replace digital sensors used in data acquisition for labs.

Administrative Information Behavioral Ranking: Intelligent

All grades and attendance are recorded using infinite campus, a web based software program. Email is used for virtually all staff to staff communication, including discipline referrals and counselor referrals. School Fusion is available to all staff to create and maintain a classroom website.

Resource/ Infrastructure: Intelligent

All staff members have accounts to use the online gradebook and to use email. All staff have access to School Fusion to create classroom websites.

Curricular Filter
Electronic Information :Behavioral Ranking: Integrated
There are examples of staff members in each of the four rankings for this category at WHS. An individual instructors ranking seems to correlate with their use of the School Fusion classroom website software available to all instructors. The majority of the staff falls into the Integrated, or even Intelligent categories, using electronic information resources regularly as a key component to their courses. But there are also more than a hand full of teachers who fall into the Emergent category, rarely using electronic resources.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

The Science and English departments have comprehensive, up to date resources that they have chosen to spend parts of their department budgets on, or to write grants for. These include electronic lab equipment and lab simlulations for the science department. I would rank these departments in the Intelligent category. Other departments have less comprehensive resources available.

Assessment : Behavioral Ranking: Islands

Some departments use electronic methods for students to submit their work. Use of turnitin.com is common for English and History papers. Very few use electronic means for assessing student progress; the only example found was use of Plato software a remedial math class. This software allows students to work at their own pace and scores their progress through multiple choice quizzes. Some teachers use their classroom websites to post self tests for students to utilize for review purposes.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Islands

Teachers tend to use traditional assessment measures, such as paper tests, or in class presentations. All staff use the online gradebook infinite campus to report grades, allowing parents and students to log in to view the gradebook in real time. While the reporting of grades is fully integrated with technology use, the limited availability of assessment tools resulted in an Islands ranking.

Curriculum Integration: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

Some departments are very dependent on technology use, and use it fluently throughout their curriculum. The Islands ranking is given because this technology dependence is not comprehensive throughout the school.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Integrated

Some classrooms have 5 to 10 classroom computers making technology use available for group work, or for working in stations. All teachers have access to reserve a computer lab for use. Related Resources such as software specific to a subjects curriculum, are not available for all curricular areas.

Teacher Use: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

Some teachers use technology daily in their classrooms. But more teachers are in the regular use category, where technology is not integrated into daily curriculum use, only into their daily administrative use.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

All teachers have access to at least one classroom computer with a projector in their classrooms. Some classrooms have 5-10 computers available for students to do group work, and run science labs on. Other teachers must reserve time in computer labs for students to have access to technology. So, while all teachers have access to at least one computer, the appropriate technology for them to utilize it in their classroom may not be available.

Student Use: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated

Most students have home access to the internet, and use it frequently for research and informal collaboration with peers. The Integrated ranking is given because very few classes have assignments that require the use of technology.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Intelligent

Most students have computer access at home. All students have consistent and regular access to computers in the library, which is open to student use before, during, and after school.

Support Filter
Stakeholder Involvement: Behavioral Ranking: Islands
Technology planning is not a process that many are involved in; The chairs of each academic department have some input during meetings but ultimately decisions are made by a few at the administrative level.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

Because a member from each department has some input at technology planning meetings, this ranking could fall into the integrated or intelligent category. It is the implementation that is left to just three technology coordinators, two of whom are from the same department, that causes WHS to fall short of the intelligent ranking here.

Administrative Support: Behavioral Ranking: Emergent

The administration encourages teachers to use technology in their classrooms, but does little beyond discussion. Planning and Implementation is not focussed on at an administrative level.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Islands

Teachers cite classroom work days at the start of the school year as a time where they have access to in building technology coordinators to set up technology in their classroom and to trouble shoot. No other on the clock time is dedicated to technology planning and implementation.

Training: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

Many staff members participate in optional trainings at the start of the year which focus on administrative tasks such as the gradebook and attendance programs. Any additional training is sought out by staff on an individual basis.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Emergent

The training available at WHS is only related to administrative use of technology, and not to how to integrate technology into curriculum.

Technical & Infrastructure Support: Behavioral Ranking: Intelligent

Three technology coordinators who are paid extra in addition to their standard teacher salary are available for fast, on site tech support. There is also a formal electronic system for putting in help desk tickets to a full time staff that provides tech support to the district. Help desk tickets are responded to within 24 hours of the placement, and usually resolved in the same time period.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Intelligent

The on site technology coordinators are also classroom teachers, but at the district level there are full time support staff available.

Connectivity Filter
Local Area Networking: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated
The local network at WHS is used extensively by all staff to share and access student data, along with curriculum resources. Video and voice services are not available.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking:Integrated

High speed networking is connected to all computers, but no voice or video components are available.

District Area Networking: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated

Use is extensive, but limited to data, without voice or video capabilities.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

Use is extensive, but limited to data, without voice or video capabilities.

Internet Access: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

There is limited integration of internet use into the curriculum at WHS.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Intelligent

High speed internet is available on every computer at WHS.

Communication Systems: Behavioral Ranking: Integrated

Email is the main way the staff communicates with each other. WHS is kept at an integrated ranking here because on a lack of email use in communicating with students in relation to learning activities.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Integrated

All staff have a given email that has the easy to remember address pattern of firstname.lastname@cityschools.org. School email addresses are not assigned to students, but most have their own private email addresses.

Innovation Filter
New Technologies: Behavioral Ranking: Islands
An example of a new technology introduced to Washington High School is the use of School Fusion as a means of maintaining a classroom website. Very little training was

given in the use of this new technology, and some staff members have rejected its use, while others have accepted its use on a limited basis.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Islands

Keeping with the above example of School Fusion, nearly all staff members have a basic homepage set-up for using the technology, but few use their classroom websites to the full potential possible with the software.

Comprehensive Technologies: Behavioral Ranking: Islands

All staff members have classroom computers with projectors available, and the use of the School fusion site to maintain a classroom website. Copiers in the building have the capability to scan and digitize hard copies of curricular materials to allow teachers to post them on their website.

Resource/ Infrastructure Ranking: Islands

The available technology is limited to those listed above, with the key component of voice equipment keeping WHS in the Islands stage.

Final Technology Maturity Model Ranking:Islands

The overall ranking of Islands for Washington High Schools technology maturity model ranking was found by assigning a numerical value to each categorys ranking: Emergent=0, Islands = 1, Integrated = 2, and Intelligent =3. The average value was found to be a 1.71. This is between the Islands and the Integrated stage. A review of the categories shows that the rankings are skewed to the higher end between the two rankings because of Intelligent rankings in categories related to internet access and to access to technology support. Because these are not related to how the technology is actually used, a review of the Technology Maturity Model characteristics was done. The key factors in the designation of the Islands stage related to training and to instructional delivery system. Because WHSs technology training is available but not advocated by the institution, and because the instructional delivery system is only somewhat dependent on technology, the final categorization was placed in the Islands stage. Recommendations to move up on the Technology Maturity Model would be to utilize the computer and internet access that is already at or near the Intelligent stage more systematically. Many teachers are making regular if not daily use of technology in their classrooms. Encouraging collaboration and regular technology trainings for the staff could help teachers to feel more comfortable in implementing more frequent technology use in their classrooms. This could be especially helpful in the use of School Fusion. Many teachers are utilizing the features of this website to build rich interactive sites that complement their curriculum. Others are not using it past having a syllabus posted. A systematic use of the technology available in all departments of the school could quickly change WHSs ranking to the Integrated stage.