Standards for Technological Literacy-Views from the Field

The results of the survey indicate these respondents are highly supportive of the K-12 content standards for the study of technology. ITEA's pivotal document, Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology, was released in April of 2000. Since that time a number of efforts have been initiated to facilitate dissemination and implementation of the standards nationwide. The standards are reviewed and discussed in school department meetings, in state department training sessions, at the ITEA annual conference, and at Technology for All Americans Summer Implementation Workshops. Curriculum guidelines have been developed and materials distributed--all aimed at supporting use of the new content standards. But how are teachers, state supervisors, and others interested in technology feeling about the new standards? Are the standards being implemented? Are the standards viewed as important, and why? Are they seen as having the potential to significantly impact the field, the education of youth in grades K-12? These questions and others were posed to a randomly selected sampling of the teacher, department head, and state supervisor members of ITEA via an e-mail survey conducted in the late spring of 2002. The results of this survey, including responses to open-ended comments, are reported herein. The Survey The e-mail survey was sent to 410 randomly selected members of ITEA who were teachers, department chairs, or state supervisors. Sixty individuals completed and returned the survey. Of the respondents, 75% were teachers, 13% were department chairs (most of whom also taught), and 12% were state supervisors. Thus, the responses heavily reflect the classroom teacher perspective. The Results When asked the extent to which they were familiar with ITEA's Standards for Technological Literacy document, most of this group had, at a minimum, looked through the standards. In fact, over half had compared the standards with their own curriculum, and a third had even participated in training. Almost everyone (93%) who completed the survey thought the standards were important. The remaining few said they were not sure. Many reasons were offered in justification for the importance of the standards. The primary themes offered were that Standards for Technological Literacy: 1. Helps to validate the profession. 2. Gives direction to the curriculum. 3. Facilitates movement toward more standardization of technology education across the country. 4. Provides for a better understanding of expectations and goals. 5. Identifies the essential content that students need to learn. 6. Provides a vision for technological literacy. Direct quotes on the respondents' ideas as to the importance of the standards are reported later in this article. The respondents also offered their opinions on the quality of the standards. About 87% indicated they believed the quality of the standards to be either excellent or very good. Another 13% said the standards were good. The respondents were asked to rate their expectations regarding the impact of the standards upon technology education, and on grades K-12 in general. The results of the survey indicate these respondents are highly supportive of the K-12 content standards for the study of technology. 1. Over 60% expected a significant impact on technology education, with another 33% predicting some impact. Four percent expected very little impact. 2. Forty percent expected a significant impact on grades K-12, and another 51% expected some impact. Nine percent thought there would be very little impact on grades K-12. Some of the most interesting responses to the survey questions were in the form of reactions to the open-ended questions. Following are quotes that depict why the survey respondents believe the standards are important: * We live in a technological society, and the curricula should be appropriate to society's needs. …