A Flawed Measure of Ed Tech

A recent study on the impact of software on test scores fails to capture the profound impact technology is having on education

by Ron Kind

In our increasingly global marketplace, how to effectively prepare our kids to compete in a 21st-century economy is the crucial question facing education in America.

The tools we use to do this are currently at the center of debate. The U.S. Education Dept. recently released a study that found educational software has no measurable impact on student achievement. Judging by scores on standardized tests, there were no statistically significant differences between students who used reading and math software and those who didn't, according to the research. The finding raises the question whether this nation should only invest in tools whose effectiveness can be measured through test scores.

The answer to that question should be no. This study attempts to show the ineffectiveness of educational technology. Instead it simply reveals the Bush Administration's tunnel vision on the uses and value of it.

The benefits education technology offers students go beyond merely passing core-curricular tests. With it, students are gaining the technology skills and knowledge they will need to compete in the 21st-century economy. While ensuring that our students are proficient in reading, math, and science is critical to their academic and employment futures, their ability to use technology tools, mine the resources of the Internet, and collaborate virtually with peers around the world are skills that high-paying employers seek as well.

Wider Scope

The Education Dept. also cannot ignore education technology's value in developing critical-thinking skills and media literacy in this and future generations of students. All of us want our students and this country to compete effectively and win in the global marketplace. Education technology is a key component to achieving those goals.

To realistically assess the value of education technology, the Education Dept. must first broaden its scope. The study focused solely on whether one aspect of technology—education software—improved test scores. No single tool, including the best textbook, can do that. Rather, the Education Dept. should assess a comprehensive education-technology program—one that incorporates sound content, professional development in using and incorporating technology into the classroom, and parental involvement initiatives—and measure its impact on teaching and learning. By failing to review this type of comprehensive approach, the Education Dept. has missed an opportunity to truly analyze what works in education.

It is surprising that the Education Dept. took this limited approach given the ample evidence from some of its other studies that comprehensive education-technology programs improve student achievement.

Promising Results

Consider the enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies, or eMINTS, approach. In Utah, Missouri, and Maine, the eMINTS program provides schools and teachers with educational-technology tools, curriculum, and more than 200 hours of professional development to change how teachers teach and students learn. The achievement of students in the eMINTS-equipped classroom was repeatedly more than 10% higher than in classrooms without.

In Wisconsin, the Using Digital Media to Create 21st Century Learners program had students use digital media to create various projects, including ones focused on information sharing and analysis. As a result, by the end of the project, 89% of the target students demonstrated proficiency in English/language arts, research & inquiry, and information & technology literacy standards.

In Texas, the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), implemented in middle schools, demonstrated that discipline referrals went down by more than one-half with the changes in teaching and learning. In one school, sixth-grade standardized math scores increased by 5%, seventh-grade math by 42%, and eighth-grade math by 24%.

Meeting the Mandate

Before the Education Dept. writes off the benefits of educational technology, it should expand its vision of the use of tech in classrooms. A more meaningful, broader, and longitudinal study of comprehensive education-technology programs would not only better illustrate the benefits of educational technology, it would also help schools understand which approaches work and which don't, giving them concrete best practices that they could actually use.

The Education Dept. should also collect data from the states on how well they're meeting No Child Left Behind's mandate that all students be technologically literate by the eighth grade. Only by determining whether our students are acquiring 21st-century skills will we know whether they—and our nation—are on the right track competitively.

Finally, Congress and the Bush Administration should support full funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program (EETT), which provides school funding for a wide range of education-technology tools and services. This is the federal government's sole direct investment in ed tech, and without it, the programs that have produced tangible academic gains would disappear.

The Education Dept. study illustrated the department's narrow vision for education technology and its role in our nation's future. If the department doesn't open its eyes to the centrality of education technology to achievement and competitiveness, our nation's students will suffer.

U.S. Representative Ron Kind, a Democrat, represents Wisconsin's third congressional district.