The State of Massachusetts made a major commitment to educational reform with the passage of its Education Reform Act of 1993. Since then, there has been a significant increase in the overall level of State funding to schools in Massachusetts and in the level of per-pupil funding available in under-served communities. State-wide curriculum frameworks were developed in the core subject areas, and state-wide assessments have been implemented for accountability. Major efforts in the areas of teacher recruitment and professional development have also been part of the reform program. In addition, the Massachusetts State Department of Education has placed a major emphasis on the use of technology to support educational reform, with state initiatives to support student learning, teacher professionalism, and administrative efficiency. The Educational Technology in Massachusetts 1999-2000 Report shows the following status as of Fall, 1999:
On average throughout the State, there are 7.4 students per high-speed
computer (those with Intel Pentium or Apple Power PC processors, their equivalent,
or newer). There are 5.1 students per any computer type.
69.2% of classrooms have access to the Internet and 68.5% of classrooms
are connected to a Local Area Network (LAN).
60.8% of professional staff (including administrators, teachers and support
staff) participated in district-sponsored technology professional development
activities.
On average statewide, district spending on technology training is up 36% from the 1998-1999 school year, with the average district spending $188 per staff person.
Compared with other states, Massachusetts has an unusually rich array of colleges and universities, education professional associations, educational research and development organizations, and non-profit or university professional development providers, many of which are active in the education technology area. In recent years many of these groups have joined together in coalitions with the State Department of Education and with each other to offer a variety of initiatives that are relevant to this proposal. Some representative examples include the following:
To equip and prepare schools to use twenty-first century technology, the
Massachusetts NetDay
campaigns, led by MNEP, mobilized 20,000 volunteers in nearly 75% of the
state’s school districts and over $20 million of in-kind contributions
for local networking. This formed a basis for a 1997 EdTech Bond bill, which
provided $50 million to schools for school local area networks on a 3-1
matching basis.
To further reduce infrastructure costs, MA DoE created a purchasing consortium
that hired a private firm to provide high-capacity connections to every
public sector building in the state for the same low price regardless of
location.
To help schools keep their systems operational, as well as to prepare students
for the high-tech labor market, MA DoE has supported state-wide efforts
to promote academically-aligned student technology training through Youth
Tech Entrepreneurs and MNEP's
Students as Technology Leaders programs.
To ensure that all students have access to the general curriculum, MA DoE
awarded MESPA a grant to create an assistive
technology program that helps districts create local teams to implement
inclusion strategies.
To ensure that technology instruction for administrators and teachers is
provided, MESPA operates a cutting-edge Technology
Center that houses three technology labs and a software library of over
1,600 educational titles. MESPA serves as one of twelve national sites of
the Educational Software Preview Consortium sponsored by the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). MESPA’s professional
development activities include an Ed.D. program in educational administration
in collaboration with Boston College, a principal certification program,
and an instructional technology specialist program.
To make education data more accessible and useable, MA DoE is developing
a comprehensive, web-based Information Management System to replace
the paper-based data collection and information system that is currently
used to exchange information between the Department and school districts.
To promote more effective professional development activities, MA DoE and
other organizations, including MNEP and TERC, secured a federal Technology
Innovation Challenge Grant for Project
MEET (Massachusetts Empowering Educators with Technology), which
helps districts across the state develop teacher teams, create technology
curriculum-integration support positions, and address policy issues.
To help districts align classroom teaching to the new state frameworks,
MA DoE and MNEP have made available a technology-facilitated program called
CLASP
(Curriculum Library Alignment and Sharing Project), which has been
installed in nearly 200 districts. Building on that success, MA DoE, again
working with MNEP and other groups, has been planning a series of educator
tool sets called the Virtual Education Space (VES) and a related
training program.
PPE/HGSE and EDC have collaborated to offer the Leadership
and New Technologies Institute during the summers of 1997–1999.
Supported by the AT&T Foundation, these intensive week-long institutes
brought together leadership teams from around the country to develop ways
to successfully incorporate technology into their districts. A related web
site provides ongoing support to the education leadership community.
EDC and TERC, along with Learning Innovations and the Education Alliance
at Brown University, have recently received funding from the U.S. Department
of Education for the Northeast and the Islands Regional Technology in Education
Consortium (NEIRTEC), one of ten regional consortia established throughout
the U.S. NEIRTEC will provide professional development, information resources,
and technical assistance to state, district, and building level leaders
throughout its region, with a particular focus on the needs of underserved
communities.
M.A.S.S. has organized an annual Superintendents
Leadership Technology Conference, which last year was attended by about
500 superintendents and members of their district leadership teams. The
association’s web site, the M.A.S.S.
Exchange, is being developed as a superintendent online learning community
for M.A.S.S. members.
The MA-TLC activities are designed to complement and coordinate with these and other relevant activities. We will also invite participation by other relevant organizations in the State, including the MIT Media Lab, the Concord Consortium, the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy (CSTEEP) at Boston College, and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST).
As this sample of the many activities in Massachusetts demonstrates, there is a strong commitment at all levels – the Governor and legislature, the State Department of Education, superintendents, principals, and teachers – to improving education and enabling all students to meet high standards. And, at all levels, the effective use of technology is viewed as an essential element in meeting that goal. The MA-TLC project will play a central role in helping school and district leaders understand the potential of technology to:
The project will focus specifically on using technology to help students meet the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks standards, and will incorporate case studies and best practices from districts throughout the state. The MA-TLC project will also provide professional development and ongoing support to enable school and district leaders to make effective use of technological resources being provided by the State, including the Information Management System, Curriculum Library Alignment and Sharing Project, and Virtual Education Space described above.