The 2000 Missouri School District Computing Census

Executive Summary Of The 2000 Missouri Census Of Technology

Back to 2000 Census

PLANNING:

Ninety-nine percent of the districts have a technology plan. This is up from 96% in 1999 and 93% in 1998. Forty-four percent of this year's plans cover a five-year period, compared with 53% in 1999 and 50% in 1998.
Eighty-six percent of school buildings have a building technology plan in 2000, compared with 83% in 1999 and 73% in 1998. Ninety-seven percent report that their building plan is part of the district plan.
Ninety-six percent of districts include technology as part of their Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, up from 95% in 1999 and 92% in 1998.
Eighty-nine percent of district technology plans were approved by DESE for 2000, up from 82% in 1999 and 71% in 1998. Approval is required for participation in the e-rate program. (The nationwide Universal Service Fund (E-rate) is being supported through an assessment to all providers of telecommunication services. The funding is available for telecommunication services provided after January 1, 1998, through June 30, 2000 to all schools and libraries that apply, on a first-come, first-served basis.)
Ninety percent of the 2000 district plans covered the following items; hardware/peripherals, school computer software, internal connections, staff training, curriculum integration, and maintenance of equipment. Fifty-seven percent of the 2000 plans covered the school's electrical wiring capacity, while in previous years less than 50% covered wiring.
Who is making the decisions about technology acquisition and use within a district? The following are presented in 2000 rank order, with 1998 and 1999 percentages:

Group involved	1998	1999	2000
Teachers	85%	90%	93%
Superintendent	28%	90%	93%
Principals	11%	89%	90%
Technology team	50%	84%	87%
Library Media Specialist	83%	82%	85%
School Board Members	76%	73%	78%
Parents	19%	67%	74%
Instructional technology director	20%	57%	62%
Curriculum director	69%	31%	36%
Consultants	86%	26%	30%
Business partners	14%	19%	23%
Chief Financial Officer	83%	20%	22%
Other	12%	17%	22%
Director of Management Information	63%	12%	15%

Twenty-nine percent of the districts partnered with a business or higher education institution to support technology in 2000, up from 27% in 1999 and 22% in 1998.

PLANNING - SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Eighty-six percent of schools have a technology plan, up from 83% in 1999 and 71% in 1998. Of these schools, 97% of the building plans are part of the district plan.
Over 84% of building technology plans cover computer software, internal connections, computer maintenance, and curriculum integration, an increase from 75% in 1999.
Ninety-seven percent of schools have a school improvement plan, and 99% of these schools' plans include technology as a component.
Thirty-one percent of schools partner with a business or higher education institution to support technology. This is an increase from 29% in 1999 and 23% in 1998.

TRAINING:

TRAINING - DISTRICTS

Instructional integration was ranked the highest priority for technical assistance with educational technology.

Areas for which districts gave a high priority ranking for technical assistance (1999)	Pct. Of Schools 1999	Pct. Of Schools 2000
Instructional integration	73%	78%
Curriculum integration	72%	77%
Technology planning	44%	44%
Network/wiring	45%	43%
Information systems	33%	35%
Basic operations	33%	31%
Procurement	24%	24%
Budget planning	20%	20%
Community awareness	19%	20%

In 2000, 8% of the districts required teachers to demonstrate technology skills for employment or continued employment within the district. In 1999 and 1998, 7% of districts had this requirement.
Those districts requiring demonstration of technology skills by their teachers, evaluate the teachers by: monitoring professional development hours (2000-5% / 1999-4%), hands-on-evaluations (2000-4% / 1999-4%), and transcripts (2000-3% / 1999-2%).
Sixty-three percent of school administrators are at an intermediate skill level in the use of technology. This is up from 59% in 1999 and 50% in 1998.
Eighteen percent of Missouri school districts have technology requirements for students to advance.
District personnel estimate that 78% of sixth graders are computer literate - up from 70% in 1999

TRAINING - SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Fifty-three percent of buildings plan to increase the number of scheduled professional days scheduled for technology training (54% in 1999), 45% indicated that scheduled days would remain the same (42% in 1999), and 2% said they would reduce scheduled days for technology training (4% in 1999).

HARDWARE:

HARDWARE - DISTRICTS

District-level staff and outside vendors were most commonly responsible for technical maintenance/support in the district 1998 through 2000.

Responsible persons	1998	1999	2000
District staff	70%	73%	77%
Outside vendors	65%	69%	72%
School certified staff	44%	51%	56%
Contractors' agreement	22%	22%	24%
School classified staff	15%	17%	20%
Students	10%	13%	17%
Parents/community members	3%	5%	4%
Regional centers/units	2%	3%	3%
No one	0%	0%	0%

IBM compatible computers are the most common computers in use in business/administrative offices (88%). Apple and Macintosh computers comprise only 12% of district office computers.

Missouri District Technology Expenditures (Millions)

Missouri school districts have spent or budgeted $52,608,300 for computer hardware and peripherals in the 1998-99 school year - up from $43,321,919 in 1999. During the same period, $7,864,958 was spent or budgeted for instructional software, and $4,289,194 for professional development.

HARDWARE - SCHOOL BUILDINGS

There are 187,623 computers in Missouri school classrooms, up from 176,150 in 1999 and 131,777 in 1998. This is an increase of 42% between 1998 and 2000.
The ratios of students to computers in Missouri has become much smaller between 1998 and 2000.

Ratio	1998	1999	2000	% Change 1998-2000
Students per computer	6.4	4.8	4.2	-34%
Students per Internet capable computer	8.3	6.1	5.1	-39%
Students per Internet connected computer	13.5	8.6	6.6	-51%

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY:

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY - DISTRICTS

Ninety-two percent of district offices have a direct connection to the Internet, up from 85% in 1999. Of these, 88% have a T1 connection, again up from the 77% of 1999.
Seventy-six percent of districts require parent signatures for students to access the Internet (average of percentage for elem., middle, and high schools), up from 68% in 1998.

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY - SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Internet-connected computers in classrooms have increased from 62,118 in 1998 to 132,115 in 2000. This is an increase of 113%.
The number of students per Internet connected computer has decreased dramatically between the 1998 and the 2000 census of technology. In 2000 there were 6.6 students per Internet connected computer - a reduction of 51% since 1998. There were 13.5 students per Internet connected computer in 1998, and 8.6 in 1999.
The percentage of schools with a direct connection to the Internet has increased from 68% in 1998 to 89% in 2000.
Ninety-seven percent of schools have access to the Internet in 2000, up from 91% in 1998. Of these schools, 22% have one or more dial-up links to the Internet.

Overview Of The Census Of Technology

To help create 21^st century classrooms that are suitably equipped to meet the needs of students and teachers, reliable information is needed about the current levels of education technology and its use. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), (Division of School Services) is helping to lead that effort by supporting the 2000 Missouri School District Census of Technology and related projects.

The census was conducted from March-July of 2000, by the University of Missouri, Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA), in cooperation with DESE and the Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet). The 2000 census has two parts: a district census and a building census.

The actual census was administered on the World Wide Web, with each district and school having a unique user ID and password to complete the census forms. Now that almost all schools have access to the Internet, this form of data collection is possible. The use of database management systems to record census information and follow up with individual districts/schools contributed greatly to the high response rate and reliability of the 2000 census.

The District Census assesses the levels of planning and training for the district as a whole and concentrates on hardware, software and levels of connectivity for the administrative buildings and offices. Completed by district-level technology specialists, the 2000 District Census includes information for all Missouri school districts (524).

The Building Census assesses planning and training needs for individual school buildings and focuses on hardware and levels of Internet connectivity in computer labs, libraries and classrooms. Completed by building-level technology contacts, the 2000 Building Census includes information for a public school universe of 2,229 schools with complete data for over 90 percent of them.

Use of a Census Methodology

The 2000 Missouri Census of Elementary and Secondary Education Computing gathered essential baseline information about instructional computing and the Internet among Missouri public schools. A "census" methodology was used to gather information from all Missouri School Districts and schools. Often survey projects draw inferences about a population by measuring the characteristics of a relatively small, usually random, sample of the larger population. However, Missouri School districts have very diverse characteristics and also have widely different levels of technology. To establish definitive baseline information, every district and every school was enumerated and data sought from all of them.

Response Rates:

The response rates were high for the 2000 Census: 99.8% for the district forms, and 99.7% for building forms. If 2000 data were not available then 1999 and/or 1998 estimates were used at the district and building level. Thus, for the purposes of the study, 1998, 1999 and 2000 data were combined to create an "Adjusted 2000" response-effectively counting every district and building in the state. See appendix Cfor details.

Design, Distribution and Follow-up:

In early 1999, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Staff, MOREnet staff, and OSEDA staff collaborated in the design of the census questionnaires. Following revisions, final formats were approved. The 2000 census forms were identical to those from 1999. The actual census was administered on the World Wide Web, with each district and school having a unique user ID and password to complete the census forms. In February 2000, Missouri School Districts were informed of the forthcoming technology census with a letter from the Assistant Commissioner of School Services, Dr. Marilou Joyner. The upcoming census was also addressed by Commissioner Bartman in a newsletter to districts. In March 2000, email contact information was solicited from district technology personnel and these email addresses were used to send emails with directions to the World Wide Site for the census questionnaires. These emails included all necessary directions, user IDs and passwords for filling out the census. Between March and July, an extensive follow-up was conducted by OSEDA staff and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff. These follow-up activities included over 3,000 phone calls to district/school personnel. On July 10^th, the census database was closed for processing.

2000 Census of Computing Distribution and Follow-up Activities:

March, 2000 - district technology contacts were asked for an email address to send them necessary information.
During the second week in April a second emailing was sent to all the building points of contact which had not responded.
During the second week in April follow up telephone calls were made by OSEDA personnel to districts and buildings that had not responded. Non-responding building and district contacts were continuously contacted through July 10.
On July 10, 2000, the Census of Technology database was closed for analysis.
By September 1, preliminary data were made available to DESE for reporting purposes. Summaries for individual districts were posted to the WWW in the first week of September. Final summaries and these WWW pages were completed by September 20, 2000. For the 2000 census, building-level reports were made available on the WWW to augment the district-level reports provided in previous years.

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
"Making a positive difference through education and service"