An Assessment Framework: Common Data Elements for Educational Technology (CDEET)
"It is time to realize the full potential of the technology investment we have made during the last decade. It is time to move beyond talking about the potential of technology to change education - we need to prove it. We need to study what technologies have the most dramatic impact on what types of students. We need to move our efforts, as the Web-based Commission said in its report, from promise to practice."
Background: In 2002, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), at the request of the U.S. Department of Education, set out to identify a set of common data elements for assessing progress in education technology throughout the nation. The intended use of the data was two-fold: to track state progress on NCLB (Title II, Part D) and to provide a basis for state comparisons in national reports about learning technologies. Given the high stakes of the federal legislation, the emphasis to date has been on building an assessment for NCLB, Title II, Part D.
The NCLB, Title II, Part D legislation calls for increased academic achievement through strategic, effective approaches to the use of technology by schools. Given this directive, it was clear that the data collection processes used by most states in the past - school and district surveys - would not be sufficient. The process must include data from teachers and students at the classroom level - in addition to state, district, and school survey data that address policies, practices, and impact.
The Challenge: The challenge for SETDA is in identifying a process for assessment that provides the U.S. Department of Education with sufficient evidence of a state's progress in using technology to advance the goals of Title II, Part D. At the same time, this assessment must minimize the costs and burdens of data collection and analysis for all participants.
Work to Date: In the Fall of 2002, the Metiri Group was commissioned to develop an assessment framework to meet these challenges. Metiri developed a framework for assessing a state's progress with technology based on many excellent works to date at the state and national level. The framework is based on a set of key questions aligned to indicators and data elements.
A matrix was established to aligns elements from the framework to the NCLB goals and purposes, and the framework was reviewed by a select group of state technology directors and experts at the December 9-10 National Leadership Institute (NLI). The NLI workgroup provided insight and guidance to SETDA and Metiri in extracting the most critical indicators and data elements - a collection comprehensive enough to provide an accurate assessment of the progress states are making with technology while minimizing the burden of data collection for educators, schools, districts, and states.
SETDA Recommendations: Once this framework for assessment of education technology is finalized and the instrumentation is developed, SETDA will develop a toolkit for all states to use, and will recommend that the U.S. Department of Education selectively use key elements from the framework in the federal performance report required of states participating in NCLB, Title II, Part D. SETDA further recommends that the U.S. Department of Education provide the support states will need to rigorously use the definitions, indicators, and data collection methodologies in the framework.
--Education Secretary Rod Paige, quoted by John Bailey at NECC 2002
