Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 32

By Amanda M.
Fairbanks

Districts Tackle
Technology Gaps
A recent report found
that 72 percent
of districts do not
meet basic Internet
bandwidth
requirements

randt Redd likens some
of the panic surrounding
the coming common-core
online assessments to the
hysteria preceding y 2 k ,
when many predicted
that the inability of computers to make
the shift from 1999 to 2000 would result
in widespread virtual devastation.
As was the case then, Mr. Redd, the
chief technology officer of the Smarter
Balanced Assessment Consortium, thinks
the careful planning currently underway in many school districts around the
country will likely result in a similarly
averted crisis-with administrators and
teachers feverishly scrambling to update
their technology inventories in time for
the assessments his and other groups are
developing for the Common Core State
Standards.
Even so, ed-tech experts say the gap
between districts that appear to be well
prepared to put those tests in place and
those that aren't is significant and could
pose challenges down the road. Some
districts are already piloting commoncore tests, while others are just getting
started in figuring out how to build up
their technological bandwidth in preparation for them.
"Yes, there are a lot of districts that still
aren't prepared, but there is a lot of preparation going on to make sure they'll be
ready in time," said Mr. Redd. "Many aren't
ready yet, but I think they'll get there."
A recent report by the State Educational Technology Directors Association,
a Glen Burnie, Md.-based nonprofit, suggests the readiness concerns are justified,
indicating that 72 percent of schools do
not meet the basic Internet bandwidth
requirements of 100 kilobits per second
per student set by the association, or the
minimum of what's required to run a

EDUCATION WEEK

>> MARCH 13, 2014

schoolwide 1-to-1 computing environment.
Further, a 2013 survey conducted by the
Washington-based Consortium for School
Networking and Market Data Retrieval,
a Shelton, Conn.-based education market
research firm, found that an overwhelming 99 percent of districts indicated a
need for increased connectivity. It also
found that only 57 percent of
elementary schools and 64 percent of secondary schools had
wireless Internet capability.
Later this spring, the 23 states
included in the Smarter Balanced consortium, will participate in a field test. Its purpose is
to gauge each district's readiness
in advance of next year's formal
assessments. Or, as Mr. Redd explained, "It's testing the test, as
opposed to testing the students."
The 17 states, plus the District
of Columbia, in the Partnership
for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers, or parcc, are
also planning similar field tests
this spring.

play this slow and miss this one,' " he said.
Many districts cite limited resources as
an impediment to change. But Mr. Ryan
counters that districts need to be more efficient and innovative in how they spend the
money they already have.
"We can't fund all the old methods of
teaching and learning. We can't maintain

Closing Tech Gaps
Whatever bumpy ride this technological preparation takes, experts say
online assessments are the undeniable
wave of the future, and not just for common-core tests. They see online tests, and
adaptive ones in particular, as a key tool
for building personalized learning programs that address individual students'
strengths and weaknesses.
Last month, the Consortium for School
Networking, the eLearn Institute, and
Education Networks of America jointly
released a white paper that analyzed
the practical steps districts of various
sizes had undertaken to prepare for online testing. The white paper examined
three districts-Nashville, Tenn.; Warren
Township, Ind.; and West Side in Idaho-
and highlighted the specific hurdles
each faces in working to close technology
gaps. Thomas Ryan, the ceo of eLearn
Institute, a Wyomissing, Pa.-based nonprofit that works to transform education
through the effective implementation of
digital-learning tools, and the co-author
of the white paper, said the time for excuses is over.
When traveling the country, Mr. Ryan
still sees a troubling number of districts
continuing to drag their feet, taking what
he describes as a "this too shall pass" approach. "The thinking being, 'Maybe we can

the old environment and the new environment. There's no new money," he said. "Part
of the answer is that we have the money, but
we're spending it on things that represent
an era gone by."
Regardless of the debate about how
to spend money, Mr. Ryan sees the common core as providing a badly needed
push in the right direction. He said the
technological preparation for the online
tests is forcing districts to put technology
programs in place that they should have
started years ago.
"If we put it off for three more years, we
would be at the exact same point three
years from now. It needs to be last-minute, or nothing gets done," he said. "We're
moving technology from a specialty or
marginal program and finally placing it
on central stage."
Still, Mr. Ryan cautioned, the clock is
ticking, with districts that are only beginning the process likely facing a difficult
road ahead. "If students don't have a year
of practice with the devices, just having
them available for the assessment will
be more of a test of their technology skills
than their content awareness," said Mr.
Ryan, who sees poor children at a particular disadvantage when it comes to equitable access. n

FROM TOP: Studentteacher Jayne Hubbell
works with students in
a kindergarten class at
Buena Vista Elementary
School in Nashville,
Tenn.
Nashville teacher
Michael Taub examines
technology training
materials at an "All Star
Training" session
designed to help
prepare educators to
get their students ready
for common-core
testing.

Photos by
Josh Anderson
for Education
Week

Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

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