Evaluation Demographics and Statistics For the School Summary I have chosen Ridgemont High, one of five schools

in the Ridgemont County High School District. There are roughly 2200 students in attendance at Ridgemont. The ethnicity percentages are roughly 70% White, 15% Hispanic or Latino, 5% Asian, and 5% African American. The remaining 5% is comprised of other ethnicities (than those listed above) or students with two or more ethnicities (including or not including those listed above). There are nearly 100 staff members/teachers on campus. The school recently received an API score in the 850s. The school was built in the 1990s, and earned a Good on the School Facilities portion of its School Accountability Report Card. Results 1. Administrative 1a. Policy Behavioral - Islands There are some formalized tools put in place, but adoption by staff has been slow and largely inconsistent. Trainings have been available, but follow-up/enforcement has been weak. Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent There is an official technology policy, so by that standard the district receives a high rating. However, it is important to note that the extent that the technology policy is known by the staff or that the staff is consciously affected by the policy is greatly limited. 1b. Planning Behavioral - Islands Technology planning is highly budget driven. There is some formal planning that takes place, but it is on individual projects and not towards a unified vision/plan. Resource/Infrastructure - Islands

There is not a specific direction with planning overall, but simply moving towards smaller, individualized projects. No cohesive, comprehensive, and unified plan. 1c. Budget Behavioral - Islands Multiple budgets have not been considered, and upgrades have largely not taken place. Resource/Infrastructure - Islands There is a "technology" budget and a "math" budget, but not a budget within "math" for upgrading existing technology or getting new technology. 1d. Administrative Information Behavioral - Intelligent Paper memos are non-existent but instead dealt with via email. Student attendance is taken completely online. School-wide and subject-wide documents are stored on servers where all staff have access. Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent All staff members have access to each of the resource/infrastructure systems. 2. Curricular 2a. Electronic Information Behavioral - Emergent This could easily be Islands level as well. Most teachers do not use electronic/information technologies in their classrooms. However, there are individual teachers who do, and their teaching would be drastically affected if those technologies were no longer available. Resource/Infrastructure - Islands All students have "access" through student computers in the library, but there is nowhere near enough computers to support the entire school population. 2b. Assessment

Behavioral - Emergent Though there is access to Illuminate, an assessment tool, it is solely for teacher use (and even then, a majority of the teachers do not use it). Resource/Infrastructure - Islands Only one assessment technology is available, and while there is a push by certain administrators to adopt and use this tool, most staff are reluctant. 2c. Curricular Integration Behavioral - Emergent The curriculum is not dependent on technology whatsoever. Individual teachers supplement curriculum with technology as they see fit, though this is not the norm. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent Technology is limited to "technology classes" such as Computer Science, Yearbook, etc, but is not used for subjects such as English or Math. 2d. Teacher Use Behavioral - Islands Teachers and staff use technology daily for administration purposes, but not for their teaching. Resource/Infrastructure - Islands The difficulty in assessing this item is in the word "appropriate". All teachers and staff have access to "appropriate" technology for their administrative tasks, but have little or no access to technologies to support student learning.

2e. Student Use Behavioral - Emergent Student use of technology is largely nonexistent, particularly for classes in which it is not explicitly required (though in reality desperately needed). Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent

An example of why this is an emergent item is that a computer with barebones word processing abilities would be passable for appropriate technologies for writing in an English course. On the whole, students do not have access to such items (via the school). 3. Support 3a. Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral - Emergent Teachers are not involved in the planning and implementation of the technology plan. Though they are free to "send emails" to their respective vice-principals, no true power is in the teachers' hands. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent Technology plans are top-down rather than bottom-up. The district dictates what technologies will be needed in the schools and classrooms, based primarily on financial reasons. There is not an expression of what is needed from those on the "bottom floor" (the teachers and staff that are actually impacted by the having/not having technologies), but instead dictated terms that are given out by those "at the top". 3b. Administrative Support Behavioral - Islands For our one assessment technology that is "used", administration has had a few trainings to help teachers become familiar with the program. However, most teachers still do not use it. There have been increased steps taken by administration as of late, though they are after long periods of passive involvement (in fairness, though, staff would likely have had very negative responses had administration pushed our assessment technology harder than it did, so it should be recognized that there are multiple factors in play). Resource/Infrastructure - Islands There has been some formal training on using the technology tools pushed by administration. However, administration has taken little to no input to the planning process. 3c. Training

Behavioral - Integrated Nearly all (if not all) staff members participate in training activities. There is not much follow-up beyond those training activities, but essentially all staff does attend the training events (which are offered multiple times). There is not much with regards to additional training, but instead referring those desiring more from the technology to go through the technology's own walkthroughs. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent This item is difficult to assess as there is formal training for all staff. However, it is not "on-going" in nature, but one-time trainings. 3d. Technical/Infrastructure Support Behavioral - Intelligent There is an excellent tech team that is only a call away. They always help staff with whatever their technical issues are, and work to find a solution. Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent The tech team is full time and across multiple sites within the district. They are awesome. 4. Connectivity 4a. Local-Area Networking (LAN) Behavioral - Islands There is a shared drive amongst all staff, useful for sharing files within departments. However, it is limited in space, which means that it is primarily used for Word documents and not videos or anything of great sophistication. Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated All computers are attached to wired internet (all school computers are desktops). The network is not used for voice, and video. 4b. District-Area Networking (WAN) Behavioral - Islands The extent of district area networking is limited to the sharing of district common assessments, which are all Word or pdf files.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated Accessing data district-wide is extremely easy and straightforward. Voice and video are possible, though they are certainly not used. 4c. Internet Access Behavioral - Islands Internet access is available on all computers on campus. The use of internet is not integrated into the curriculum. Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent There is internet access on all computers. 4d. Communication Systems Behavioral - Intelligent Email is used extensively, and is the primary means of communication. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent Email is available to all staff, but students do not have "school email accounts".

5. Innovation 5a. New Technologies Behavioral - Emergent Many teachers are curious about new technologies shared with them by other teachers, but adoption is largely nonexistent. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent This depends on the definition of "accepted". Technologies are not necessarily rejected immediately, but actual use of and adoption of new technologies is extremely rare. 5b. Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral - Emergent

Computers and projectors are the primary technologies used by teachers, but digitizing and scanning has not yet been adopted. Resource/Infrastructure - Emergent With computers and internet access, much more technology adoption could occur through free programs, etc. However, these opportunities are not recognized or put into practice by the staff. Summary In conclusion, I rate Ridgemont High and its district as being in the Island stages with regards to technology maturity. Being in a relatively large district, Ridgemont High does some things very well. Their infrastructure for Internet and communication between staff via their network is excellent. They also have wonderful tech support to assist staff who themselves are not particularly tech savvy. However, this is largely the end of the road when it comes to Ridgemont High s technological maturity. Technology is seen as its own entity, and not a tool to be used within other domains. For example, there are computers available for Computer Science classes, but not for use in English. The necessity of a computer for writing is a reality outside of school. Inside of our school we simply do not see it as a necessary component and I do not know why. Money is obviously one aspect, but it almost seems that tradition itself is the reason why change does not occur. Since money for computers has never been part of the English Departments budget, there has been incredible reluctance to add it in now in English or any other department. This is unfortunate, as computers are a way to improve student learning in other areas, to increase the reality of the learning context, and demonstrate how computers are tools to be used by the students computers are a means, not an end. Though not an explicit part of this inquiry, it has also come to light through researching Ridgemont Highs technology plan that even when a plan is enacted, it is the teachers and staff that put it to life. There are areas where teachers and staff could use better technological tools, but the lacking in those areas does not excuse the failure to follow through with and effectively use that which they have been given. There are deeper issues at work unfortunate divides between teachers and administration and both sides need to move towards one another in cooperation. Teachers can make a great first step by taking seriously the tools that they have been given and getting the most out of them that they can.