edweek.org — state technology grades
well, the annual education week Technology Counts report is out. they have evaluated every state and reported on each state’s “grades” for technology in education. not surprisingly, Michigan received a grade of C. as you get into the specifics, they report that Michigan actually does a good job of using technology, but that we are particularly poor in providing access to technology and that we don’t have the capacity to use technology. what does that mean you ask? well, they basically looked to see what kinds of standards and requirements we have. we only have teacher standards at the State level. but we lack administrator standards, initial certification requirements, initial admin license requirements, teacher recertification requirements, and admin recertification requirements. this earned us a D in capacity.
Access was another area of weakness. only 41.5% of classrooms here have a computer in the classroom. that’s pretty pathetic in 2007. and, 78% of students can access computers in a library or media center. that’s still very disheartening to me. i guess i am surprised we could get a D+ for access when more than 1/2 of students in the state don’t even have computers in their classroom.
we do well with regard to using technology . . . at least at the State level. we have student standards (based on the NETS) for using technology, we have a virtual school established, and we offer computer-based assessments. we lack a State test for students with regard to technology (only 4 states have this, fwiw) — so we get an A-. what this survey fails to recognize is that Michigan requires all students in K-12 to have an online educational experience before they graduate. that’s a big step for a state and Michigan is at the front of this initiative. unfortunately, this isn’t part of the test.
Michigan has about the worst economy in the nation, so i don’t see our technology access improving too quickly. but it’s nice to see that we’re not at the bottom of the barrel even though our economy is. hmmm.
Technorati Tags: ed tech, edweek.org, NETS, Technology Counts, students, teachers, technology, Michigan
May 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I found the grading of Michigan’s education system to be quite surprising. I did not think that our school’s rated that poorly. Moreover, I was astounded to find that only 41.5% of the classrooms were equipped with computers! With such an emphasis on technology in education, our schools sure don’t live up to what they preach!
I agree with your point about a lengthy turnaround process for schools to raise their overall “grades.” In addition to our economy being in the dumps, the state also seems to be cutting back their funding for education. Even worse, the state faces a major budget deficit, which is really not going to help educators to properly equip their classrooms.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I dont find this article to be too surprising really. I know alot of schools dont have the resouces to administer technological advances to every school in the state. Alot of districts put more of their money into sports and the arts, which Im not saying is a bad things becuase those activities teach alot in themselves. But a students first responsibility at school is to earn an education and if the schools dont have adaquete resources to give them, they will be left behind. Our economy sucks in this state, thats a normative statement. Our leaders suck and cant seem to come together to figure things out, and our educational systam which seems to be improving on some points but failing on others are the ones taking the heat for our bureaucratic mishandlings.
May 19th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
[…] Michigan and the grades we receive in education and technology http://atticmooses.com/blog/2007/04/02/128/#comment-19311 […]
May 20th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I, like Bryan, found this to be very suprising. I didn’t think that our schools were rated that low in the use of technology. Most of the schools that I attended were using many forms of technology and they seemed to use it on a day to day basis. I was suprised by the amount of schools that have a computer in a classroom. I guess I came from a very well off school because every classroom had a computer and each of our four schools had one or two computer labs full of about 30 computers. It’s shocking that only 78 percent of students are able to access a computer when so much of todays world revolves around technology. It’s sad to think that our schools aren’t able to prepare students for jobs that are based on the use of technology. I hope that someday our economy will get better and we can improve our technology crisis and prepare our future students.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Very nice comments to all 3 of you.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 am
Nice post! You have said it very well. Keep going.
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I can understand how michigan ranks so low. I remember how i felt when my high school spent a substantial sum of money on getting new computers when the old ones were perfectly good. These old computers were thrown away… The students were then expected to use the new technology, which is not difficult, but with the new hardware came new problems which came down to a restriction in use. Classes were stalled due to multiple network crashes, and the entire schools file system was set back for about three weeks. All because nobody knew how to properly set up or use the new equipment, but the school absolutly had to have it. If the administration can make these kinds of mistakes, it does not suprise me that this states average capacity for educational technology.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I also understand how michigan ranks so low, my high school was well equipt with enough computers to serve most of the needs of students. But we lack the ability to educate the students in how to effectivly use they computers and we were given the oppurtunity but wernt given the apropriate intructions and teachings.