IMPROVING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT 

THROUGH TECHNOLOGY 

HEARING

BEFORE THE 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21ST CENTURY 

COMPETITIVENESS 

OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND 

THE WORKFORCE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

 

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 15, 2001 

Serial No. 107-8 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Education 

and the Workforce

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: (202) 512-1800 FAX: (202) 512-2250 

Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 
ii

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE 

JOHN A. BOEHNER, Ohio, Chairman 

THOMAS E. PETRI, Wisconsin GEORGE MILLER, California 

MARGE ROUKEMA, New Jersey DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan 

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina MAJOR R. OWENS, New York 

PETER HOEKSTRA, Michigan DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

HOWARD P. “BUCK” McKEON, California PATSY MINK, Hawaii 

MICHAEL N. CASTLE, Delaware ROBERT E. ANDREWS, New Jersey 

SAM JOHNSON, Texas TIM ROEMER, Indiana 

JAMES C. GREENWOOD, Pennsylvania ROBERT C. “BOBBY” SCOTT, Virginia 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California 

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana LYNN N. RIVERS, Michigan 

CHARLIE W. NORWOOD, JR., Georgia RUBEN HINOJOSA, Texas 

BOB SCHAFFER, Colorado CAROLYN McCARTHY, New York 

FRED UPTON, Michigan JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts 

VAN HILLEARY, Tennessee RON KIND, Wisconsin 

VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado HAROLD E. FORD, JR., Tennessee 

ERNIE FLETCHER, Kentucky DENNIS KUCINICH, Ohio 

JIM DeMINT, South Carolina DAVID WU, Oregon 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia RUSH D. HOLT, New Jersey 

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia HILDA L. SOLIS, California 

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois SUSAN DAVIS, California 

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota 

 PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio 

 RIC KELLER, Florida 

 TOM OSBORNE, Nebraska 

JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas 

Paula Nowakowski, Chief of Staff 

John Lawrence, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21st CENTURY COMPETITIVENESS 

HOWARD P. “BUCK” McKEON, California, Chairman

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia, Vice Chairman PATSY MINK, Hawaii

JOHN BOEHNER, Ohio JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts 

MICHAEL N. CASTLE, Delaware RON KIND, Wisconsin 

SAM JOHNSON, Texas RUSH D. HOLT, New Jersey 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina DAVID WU, Oregon 

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana LYNN N. RIVERS, Michigan 

FRED UPTON, Michigan BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota 

VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan ROBERT E. ANDREWS, New Jersey 

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia RUBEN HINOJOSA, Texas 

TOM OSBORNE, Nebraska 
iii

Table of Contents 

Table of Contents................................................................................iii 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN HOWARD P. “BUCK” MCKEON, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21ST CENTURY COMPETITIVENESS, COMMITTEE ON 

EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES . 2 

STATEMENT OF DONALD W. INGWERSON, SUPERINTENDANT, LOS 

ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION, DOWNEY, CALIFORNIA ......... 6 

STATEMENT OF SUSAN R. COLLINS, GENERAL MANAGER AND SENIOR 

VICE PRESIDENT, BIGCHALK.INC., BERWYN, PENNSYLVANIA..................... 9 

STATEMENT OF DENIS P. DOYLE, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF ACADEMIC 

OFFICER, SCHOOLNET, INC., CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND ........................... 11 

STATEMENT OF MARK NIXON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EDUCATION, AOL 

INTERACTIVE SERVICES, DULLES, VIRGINIA................................................... 14 

APPENDIX A – WRITTEN OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN HOWARD 

P. “BUCK” MCKEON, SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21ST CENTURY 

COMPETITIVENESS, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE

....................................................................................................................................... 27 

APPENDIX B - WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DONALD W. INGWERSON, 

SUPERINTENDANT, LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION, 

DOWNEY, CALIFORNIA........................................................................................... 33 

APPENDIX C - WRITTEN STATEMENT OF SUSAN R. COLLINS, GENERAL 

MANAGER AND SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BIGCHALK.INC., BERWYN, 

PENNSYLVANIA........................................................................................................ 41 

APPENDIX D - WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DENIS P. DOYLE, CO-FOUNDER 

AND CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER, SCHOOLNET, INC., CHEVY CHASE, 

MARYLAND ............................................................................................................... 51 

APPENDIX E - WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MARK NIXON, EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR, EDUCATION, AOL INTERACTIVE SERVICES, DULLES, 

VIRGINIA .................................................................................................................... 59 

Table of Indexes............................................................................................................ 75
iv
1

 

HEARING ON “IMPROVING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH 

TECHNOLOGY” 

____________________ 

Thursday, March 15, 2001 

U. S. House of Representatives 

Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness 

Committee on Education and the Workforce 

Washington, D.C. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in Room 2175, Rayburn 

House Office Building, Hon. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon [chairman of the 

subcommittee] presiding. 

 Present: Representatives McKeon, Isakson, Goodlatte, Osborne, Mink, and Solis. 

 Staff present: Blake Hegeman, Legislative Assistant; Cindy Herrle, Senior 

Budget Analyst; Dan Lara, Press Secretary, Patrick Lyden, Professional Staff Member; 

Michael Reynard, Deputy Press Secretary; Deborah Samantar, Committee Clerk; and JoMarie St. Martin, General Counsel. 

Chairman McKeon. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on 21st Century 

Competitiveness will come to order. 
2

 We're meeting today to hear testimony on the use of technology to improve 

student achievement. 

 Under Committee Rule 12B, opening statements are limited to the Chairman and 

the ranking minority member of the subcommittee. Therefore, if other members have 

statements, they may be included in the hearing record. 

 With that, I ask unanimous consent for the hearing record to remain open 14 days 

to allow member statements and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing 

to be submitted in the official hearing record. 

Mrs. Mink. Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent to make a statement at this point of 

the record. 

Chairman McKeon. Without objection, then so ordered. I'll begin with an opening 

statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN HOWARD P. “BUCK” 

MCKEON, SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21ST CENTURY 

COMPETITIVENESS, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE 

WORKFORCE, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Good morning. Welcome to today's subcommittee hearing on “Improving 

Student Achievement Through Technology.” 

 As we work through the process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act, in particular Title III, which houses most of the educational technology 

programs, I think it is important to highlight some of the successful educational 

technology efforts that are already underway. 

 Each of today's witnesses represents such an effort. These efforts range from the 

Los Angeles County Office of Education's Distance Learning Program to bigchalk, inc.'s 

online research services to AOL's literacy programs to SchoolNet, Inc.'s assessment and 

accountability services. 

 It is also important to note that education technology is not an end unto itself, but 

rather a powerful tool in a school's toolbox to increases student achievement. 

 However, just like any tool, if it is not used properly or is not fully integrated into 

the project at hand, it will gather dust and offer nothing in the way of student academic 

improvement. 

 At the federal level, we want to make sure that does not happen. So in the 

upcoming ESEA legislation, we will be increasing flexibility and targeting dollars to 

those who need them most. 

 This hearing will also focus on the Web-based Education Commission, which was 

a 16-member commission established in 1998 as part of the Higher Education Act. The 

Commission examined ways in which students can achieve the educational benefits of the 
3

Internet and provided Congress with some compelling recommendations. 

 We are fortunate to have not one but two members of that Commission with us 

today, panelist Susan Collins and Vice Chair of the Commission, Johnny Isakson. He is 

Vice Chair of this committee. 

 I would now yield to Mrs. Mink for her opening statement. I look forward, 

hopefully, to working with her once we get a problem worked out on the committee. I 

turn the time over now to Mrs. Mink. 

WRITTEN OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN HOWARD P. “BUCK” 

MCKEON, SUBCOMMITTEE ON 21ST CENTURY COMPETITIVENESS, 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE – SEE APPENDIX A 

Mrs. Mink. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Your reference to a problem that we have not yet 

been able to resolve is the reason that I must make as my statement today an explanation 

of why Democratic members of this committee on Education and the Workforce will not 

be participating in this subcommittee hearing today as a protest against the unfair way 

that the majority has created the jurisdictions of our various subcommittees. 

 When the Education and the Workforce Committee adopted its organization rules 

last month, the Republican majority voted unanimously to remove programs for 

historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribally 

controlled colleges from the subcommittee that handles higher education, which is this 

one. 

 Every single Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

opposed this ill-conceived and divisive decision on the part of the Republican majority. 

 Every Democratic member of the committee, black, Hispanic, Asian-Pacific and 

Native American, has spoken out against this separation, and the message should be clear 

and should not be ignored. And it is for that reason that the Democratic members of this 

committee have not yet organized and, in fact, there are no subcommittee members on the 

Democratic side of this particular subcommittee. 

 We have received an overwhelming number of letters and communications from 

presidents of minority-serving institutions all across the country expressing their 

strenuous objection to this committee action of carving out the historical black colleges 

and the Hispanic-serving institutions and the tribally controlled colleges out of the 

jurisdiction of this subcommittee to which you are all here and having testimony taken 

today. 

 This includes letters of opposition from a number of institutions and from our 

former distinguished colleague, William H. Gray, III, who now serves as President of the 

United Negro College Fund. 

 The committee should, in our earnest opinion, include all colleges in this newly 

created 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee. Is the majority trying to say that 

21st century competitiveness excludes these institutions? They have made tremendous 

contributions to our country, to our educational offerings for our children. And if we are 

really intent on expanding higher educational opportunities and emphasizing the 21st 
4

century as a new thrust of our educational efforts, certainly these colleges and institutions 

should be included. 

 No college should be relegated to a subcommittee that deals predominantly with 

issues like juvenile justice, child abuse and the other subjects of similar nature. 

 We pledge, Mr. Chairman, and this is certainly not an affront on your leadership, 

your capacity to work with your Democratic colleagues, which you have demonstrated 

over the past that you have the greatest capacity, compassion and understanding of what 

it is like to be in the minority. 

 So this is not a personal statement against your leadership, but it is a statement 

against the Republican majority for failing to understand the severity of their separate 

action. And we pledge our efforts on this side to try to reach a fair compromise with the 

colleagues on your side in hoping that we may come together very soon as a full 

contributing, participating group of members of this full committee to help ensure that all 

colleges and all universities have an opportunity to participate in the serious deliberations 

that this subcommittee will be taking in the next two years. 

 Thank you. I'd like to yield to my colleague, Hilda Solis, to make her statement at 

this point. 

Ms. Solis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members. Good morning. I, too, want to join in 

with Congresswoman Mink in her remarks here this morning. I think this is a very 

serious issue that many Americans have yet to really fully understand. 

 In fact, we hope under the new administration and working with the majority 

leaders that no child and no student be left behind. And the statements that are being 

made with respect to Hispanic-serving institutions, historically black colleges, and 

tribally controlled colleges not being allowed to be a part of the 21st Century 

Competitiveness Subcommittee I think really sends a very negative signal to the many 

students that I represent in my district. 

 Some of those college presidents that I represent in my community have sent 

letters as well. One of the largest institutions in my district, Cal State University Los 

Angeles, wrote a letter also in protest. 

 We have well over 16,000 to 20,000 students that attend that institution. I think if 

they were to hear that they would not be included in the 21st Century Competitiveness 

Subcommittee, I think that those individuals would be alarmed. 

 Also, I represent six other post-secondary institutions, including Don Bosco 

Technical Institute and College. I represent Rio Hondo Community College, where I 

served as a board member. We have well over 18,000 students attending there, most of 

whom are Hispanic. I would clearly ask and plead with the committee and the majority 

members here to please give this a second thought. 

 I know that the Chairman and I and others have talked about this, and I hope that 

we can work in partnership to bring all students up to pace with the best education that 

our society can give them. And as a member of this committee, I would just ask that we 

make that consideration available so that all institutions that we represent, regardless of 
5

race, community, economic, socioeconomic status, that they be allowed to have a voice at 

the table. And with that, I would yield back the remainder of my time. Thank you. 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you very much. We would invite you to stay. We would 

love to have your presence here at this very important hearing, but we understand if you 

decide not to. 

 This is something that we debated fully when we presented the rules, and I do not 

think it is something we need to go back over again. It is something that the leadership of 

the committee is working to try to resolve. We think it is unfortunate that this should mar 

the things that we're trying to do in education, but what we were trying to do is stress 

more education. We divided the committees into three committees, so we had to break 

up some of the Elementary-Secondary Ed Committee and some of the Higher Education 

Committee to form the three committees. We did it with an idea of being able to focus 

even more on historically black colleges and on Hispanic-serving institutions, and I think 

as we move forward that will become apparent. 

 With that, I would like to formally introduce each of our witnesses and begin with 

almost a constituent, Dr. Don Ingwerson from Los Angeles. He was appointed the Los 

Angeles County Superintendent of Schools in 1994. He was named National 

Superintendent of the Year in 1992 as Superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools 

in Louisville, Kentucky. You know, I said Louisville instead of Louisville, the California 

pronunciation. 

 Additionally, Dr. Ingwerson was the recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize 

in Education and has been named Outstanding School Executive four times by Executive 

Educator, the National School Board's Association Journal. Coming from Los Angeles 

and feeling his leadership, we are especially happy to have Dr. Ingwerson there serving in 

this position and here today to testify. 

 Then we will hear from Ms. Susan R. Collins. Ms. Collins is the General 

Manager and Senior Vice President for bigchalk, inc., an education company that assists 

the K-12 community on the web. 

 Prior to arriving in her current position, Ms. Collins has served as the Senior Vice 

President for Marketing, Professional Development and Strategic Planning at Josten's 

Learning Corporation. 

Ms. Collins was also a member of the Web-based Education Commission. She 

attended Oregon State University where she received her master's degree. 

 Then Mr. Denis Doyle. Mr. Doyle is the Founder and Chief Academic Office of 

SchoolNet, Inc., a web-based education reform company that develops Internet solutions 

for performance-driven K-12 schools, districts and states. 

 In addition, Mr. Doyle is a writer, lecturer and advisor on education policy. He 

holds a Master's Degree in Political Theory from the University of California at Berkeley. 

 And finally, we'll hear from Mr. Mark Nixon. Mr. Nixon is Executive Director of 

Education for America Online, Inc. and is responsible for the development of AOL At 
6

School, an online learning environment for K-12 classrooms. 

 He has more than 15 years of experience serving the educational community, 

especially in education-related software and administrative technology. 

 Before arriving at AOL, Mr. Nixon spent four years leading the Education 

Technologies of BDM, a systems integration and consulting firm. 

 These are four outstanding individuals representing many hundreds of others that 

are doing great things in education. We are really very appreciative of you being here 

today. We will begin now with Dr. Ingwerson. 

 Now you'll see that little light in front of you. It will go green, which means you 

have four minutes; and then when it goes to yellow, it means you have one minutes to 

wrap up; and when it goes red, look out. 

 

 We have your full testimonies, which will be inserted in the record, and you can 

use the time to summarize or however way you feel to best get your message across. 

Dr. Ingwerson. 

STATEMENT OF DONALD W. INGWERSON, SUPERINTENDANT, 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION, DOWNEY, 

CALIFORNIA 

Mr. Ingwerson. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. I 

wish to thank you, of course, for the opportunity to address you today and to speak about 

our initiatives on teacher training and technology. 

 The Los Angeles County Office of Education, normally called LACOE, is one of 

the nation's largest intermediate regional education agencies. It provides curriculum 

support, business services and program innovation to 81 school districts, 1,700,000 

students and over 77,000 teachers. 

 We face a crisis in California, and it threatens to dim the light of learning. The 

looming teacher shortage is history making. Over the next 10 years in California we will 

need an unprecedented quarter of a million new teachers. Let me put that in perspective. 

In 1995 in Los Angeles County, 9 percent of our teachers had emergency credentials. 

Putting a number on that is 5,325 teachers. Five years later in the year 2000, 21 percent 

of our teachers had emergency credentials. Putting a number on that, that's 16,722 

teachers. 

 The Los Angeles County Office of Education decided to take a leadership 

position in this emergency and began to train teachers and others in this endeavor. Our 

county presently faces a need for 10,000 new teachers. 

 LACOE is dedicated to meeting this challenge by harnessing all traditional and, 

more importantly, non-traditional means. We want to harness that is in our power, to 
7

prepare teachers for the classroom and students for the future. 

 These numbers may sound very big and impersonal. However, when you go visit 

a middle school and you see five classes of students uncovered with no regular teacher 

and no substitutes available, and the regular faculty teaching those students are on their 

planning period, you begin to see the problem that we are facing and how some things 

can fall through the cracks. 

 Let me share with you some of the elements of our plan. It is a plan that's solidly 

founded on current research and infused with the benefits of technology. 

 Finding thousands of new teachers is no easy task. The key element of the plan is 

our Teacher Regional Recruitment Center, and it is part of the statewide effort. The 

center aims to sign up to 2,000-plus new teachers in our county by the end of this year. 

 LACOE has been a leader in doing this because we've been using technology for 

a number of years, and we plan to dramatically broaden our traditional recruiting base 

with Internet-based virtual recruitment fairs. These online events will connect thousands 

of university and college education students worldwide to teaching opportunities through 

live call-ins. Prospective new teachers can get answers instantly from recruiting school 

districts. 

 However, even as we meet the need for new teachers, there must be new ways to 

support those new teachers. Half of all new emergency credentialed teachers drop out in 

five years. With professional support, that figure changes to 90 percent staying in the 

profession. Our Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program provides that 

support with a solid track record in serving new teachers at their most vulnerable point. 

 Another significant means of help is through what we call our MERET Reading 

Project. This project provides upper elementary and middle school teachers throughout 

Los Angeles County with hands-on, standards-based training to meet their professional 

needs. 

 We have just completed the first phase of the MERET project by training 25 

mentor teachers experienced in reading instruction from 13 school districts. They form a 

core group of online mentors and moderators that will expand to more than 150 teachers 

in a professional development program based on California's new Reading-Language 

Arts framework. 

 MERET uses a mix of technologies, including satellite broadcast, multimedia and 

the Internet. These technologies allow participants to see a master teacher in action, view 

classroom strategies first-hand, and revisit the training as many times as they need. This 

is an online community of learners and nationally recognized scholars, with teachers 

actively sharing concerns, solutions, resources and ideas. 

 The ultimate goal is to develop mentor teacher packages of videos, web materials 

and technology that can be easily replicated in school districts throughout the state. 

 Another program called STELLAR, an online project, also uses the same multiple 

technologies approach as we use in the MERET program. However, the goal for this 

program is improving reading skills of English language learners in low performing 
8

schools. STELLAR supports new and emergency credentialed teachers in selected hardto-staff upper and middle grade schools. 

 Reaching far beyond California, our TEAMS program is the largest distancelearning provider for elementary grades in the United States. In satellite-broadcast 

professional development programs, TEAMS features on-air master teachers who provide 

standards-driven instruction in key subjects. They demonstrate to elementary school 

teachers how to more effectively teach in the areas of K-3 reading, math, science, history, 

social science and language arts. 

 Presently, TEAMS Distance Learning reaches more than 7,500 teachers 

nationwide. 

 One of our recent projects called nciteLA - ncite stands for the National Center 

for the Improvement of Tools for Educators in California. It's a web-based learning 

environment that helps children meet or exceed grade-level standards in reading and 

mathematics. It assists teachers in the use of research-based assessments, media, 

resources and technology tools. 

 Teachers can administer online assessments in their classes to diagnose student 

needs. They can immediately receive reports and recommendations to help them address 

those student needs. To add value to the site, they can access model lessons in print and 

video as well as communicate quickly with professional educators. One thousand seven 

hundred schools in the county have registered on the web, with 1,200 of those schools 

using to date. 

 NciteCA is also has a parent university, and it provides free training and resources 

for parents in English and Spanish so that their children can become successful learners. 

Ncite helps them better understand technology and become reading and math coaches for 

their children at home and elsewhere. It also offers activities such as interactive math 

quizzes. The Parent University is open and accessible to the entire community. 

 Technology is a tool that allows us to reduce the time and space involved in 

teacher training. Time is a precious commodity to teachers and through our integrated 

plan we can support teachers in their homes and in their classrooms, directly connecting 

them to mentors and resources. 

 I would like to summarize my comments today in three recommendations. First, 

in the area of leveraging and partnering we believe that federal initiatives should be based 

on the partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and our state and local 

agencies. 

 We fully endorse the involvement of parental leadership and the business sector in 

implementing our student achievement activities. 

 I don't believe Los Angeles County could have provided the level of technology 

that we have today without the support of businesses, parents and the local universities. 

 Secondly, in the area of accountability and student achievement, our programs are 

and must continue to be performance based with specific goals and objectives. 
9

Otherwise, technology cannot be the support that it is. 

 We must measure and monitor the effectiveness of our programs that train 

teachers as well as those targeting students who are at risk of education failure. 

 Third, in the area of efficiency and effectiveness, regional assistance provides an 

important foundation on which to pursue technology initiatives. They help fill the gap 

between the philosophers and the classroom experience. 

 We can effectively recruit and support teachers by leveraging resources 

countywide. We are able to use the technical expertise of the Southern California 

Comprehensive Assistance Center, whose effective work with teachers is authorized by 

your committee. We appreciate that very much. 

 Finally, please know that it is our ongoing challenge to deploy the benefits of 

technology in a creative way that fully supports the needs of classroom teachers. We 

believe our children's future depends on it. We don't believe in any throwaway children. 

We don't believe in any throwaway teachers. We want to help both to be successful. 

Thank you. 

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DONALD W. INGWERSON, SUPERINTENDANT, 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION, DOWNEY, CALIFORNIA – 

SEE APPENDIX B 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you very much. Ms. Collins. 

STATEMENT OF SUSAN R. COLLINS, GENERAL MANAGER AND 

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BIGCHALK.INC., BERWYN, 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Ms. Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

 Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. My name is Sue 

Collins. I'm the Senior Vice President and General Manager of bigchalk.com. It's a 

company that provides Internet products for kids and teachers. We have 32,000 schools 

in this country that use our products. 

 I'm also pleased to be here today representing the bipartisan Web-based Education 

Commission which, following a year of study, released its report The Power of the 

Internet for Learning in December 2000. Congressman Isakson was the Vice Chairman 

of the commission, and I really appreciate his leadership. He was a wonderful part of that 

commission experience for me. 

 The perspective I will share with you today is one based on my own 30 years of 

experience as a teacher, district and state level administrator, hardware and software 

company executive, and Commissioner of the Commission. I believe my testimony also 

reflects the views of the more than 200 education software and digital content SIIAmember companies that serve the K-12 market. 
10

 What makes the U.S. competitive is its intellectual capital and its citizens' 

capacity for innovation. Both intellect and ingenuity require a highly educated 

population, the path to which begins in our schools. 

 The congressional Web-based Education Commission, chaired by Sen. Bob 

Kerrey, spent the last year examining the educational opportunities and issues 

surrounding the use of the Internet. It is a technology that substantially widens the 

educational path. 

 The Commission held five public hearings with more than 100 witnesses, 

presented at national and international meetings, and in a timely application of the very 

technology we were studying received testimony from more than 250 additional 

witnesses via the Internet. 

 Here is what we found. The Internet enables education to center learning around 

the student instead of the classroom; to focus on the strengths and needs of individual 

learners; and really makes lifelong learning a practical reality. 

 As a result of these findings, the Commission believes a national mobilization is 

necessary. We issued a call to action which included making broadband accessible for 

all; supporting the continuous growth of educators to the uses of technology; creating the 

comprehensive research and development framework; developing high-quality content 

for online learning; and removing barriers that block full access to online learning 

resources while continuing the accountability for local taxpayer dollars; developing and 

adopting privacy and protection safeguards; and finally, to expand funding initiatives to 

support these policies. 

 In the interest of time, I would like to speak about three of them and what they 

really mean in classrooms. Imagine, if you will, a classroom where students are engaged 

in events as they are happening in the world, discussing late-breaking news and 

researching questions that arise. 

 The Internet makes that opportunity available today with programs such as 

Classroom Radio, a collaboration between my company and NPR. Every day last fall, 

Classroom Radio provide Internet-based audio news from NPR about the 2000 

Presidential Election complete with grade-appropriate lesson plans matched to state and 

national standards. 

 Two important things make Classroom Radio valuable. The resource was 

available any time kids wanted to get to it, and the resources were so current that when 

the election failed to end we were able to keep providing up-to-the-minute information to 

teachers and students until it did; a very different environment than had the children been 

using a textbook. 

 Second, it's no surprise that the Internet, with its capacity to facilitate distance 

learning, now makes it easier and more convenient for teachers to improve their skills. 

What is surprising, and quite exciting, is the way the Internet enables other forms of 

professional development. For example, bigchalk has an innovative program called 

Generation Y in which teachers and students work together as partners to develop the 

technical skills they need to infuse technology throughout their school one lesson at a 

time. Generation Y, which was selected as an “Exemplary” program by the U.S. 
11

Department of Education, uses Internet-based consultants and web communities to 

support the student-teacher teams. 

 Finally, access to broadband is critical to providing rich, interactive learning 

environments in multiple paths to understanding. Broadband will provide the fast access 

required for students to view images, watch video, listen to audio or gather data. 

 When all of our schools have reliable, high-speed connections to the Internet, our 

children will begin to have the access required to prepare them for the world that they 

will live in. 

 The Web-based Education Commission, along with the entire educational 

technology industry, encourages your support of federal policies and funding aimed at 

increasing access in a high-quality online content for students - and providing training 

and support for educators. In return, these policies must hold schools and educators 

accountable for ensuring that all students achieve to high standards and 21st century 

knowledge and skills. 

 Members of the Commission will be happy to work with you to make this a 

reality. 

 Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I'll answer any questions. 

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF SUSAN R. COLLINS, GENERAL MANAGER AND 

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BIGCHALK.INC., BERWYN, PENNSYLVANIA – SEE 

APPENDIX C 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you. Mr. Doyle. 

STATEMENT OF DENIS P. DOYLE, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF 

ACADEMIC OFFICER, SCHOOLNET, INC., CHEVY CHASE, 

MARYLAND 

Mr. Doyle. Mr. Chairman, members, thank you for receiving me today. I am pleased to 

be able to share with you my views about education technology and how it may improve 

academic instruction for the nation's children. 

 Two years ago I co-founded, with Jonathan Harber, an education technology 

entrepreneur, a company called SchoolNet, Inc. We are devoted to the proposition that 

academic achievement can be improved, enhanced markedly through access to webbased tools. It is on that basis that I'd like to share my views today. 

 Together with broadband communications, the new technologies, both fixed and 

wireless, will transform education as they are transforming society as a whole. It would 

be hard to overestimate its potential. I'd like to highlight six areas in which IT, or 

information technology, will have a transforming impact on our schools. 

 First, and most important, in my view, is the strategic use of data for both 

administrative and pedagogical purposes. Data warehousing, the creation of a 
12

comprehensive longitudinal, relational database, is a tool of vast power in an information 

rich environment like schooling. In the hands of discerning and thoughtful analysts, 

school data is the key to institutional renewal and significant academic improvement. 

When data is available on the web, students who are learning and those who are not can 

be spotted immediately. Accolades for those who are doing well and prescriptions for 

those who are not doing well can be instantly issued. The old business bromide is true in 

schooling as well, you get what you measure. 

 As important as the data itself is, instantaneous access is equally important. 

Parkinson's last law was “deadly is the deadliest form of denial,” and this is nowhere 

more true than in schooling. Testing children in the spring and getting their scores in the 

fall works a cruel hoax on them. To improve academic achievement, test data must be 

available instantly. 

 Secondly is curricular, instructional and assessment alignment. Strange but true, 

today, alignment is the exception not the rule. Rare is the school that practices this 

simple precept. A fine example of an aligned instruction is the College Board's 

Advanced Placement examinations. Thoughtfully and carefully constructed, they are 

carefully aligned. As a consequence, the courses are highly effective and their 

measurements are highly effective. They are justly, widely admired. 

 Third is what I've come to call VES, virtual education space, or substantive 

communication opportunities within the education community. Schools like businesses 

and successful non-profits need to be able to use the power of the web to exchange ideas, 

share calendars and post information resources electronically. They need to escape the 

bounds of time and space imposed by the conventional bricks and mortar organization of 

modern schooling. 

 Fourth is content delivery. While the web will never replace books - I'm quite old 

fashioned, I use a fountain pen, drive a stick shift car - but books will be supplemented in 

dramatic and powerful ways for both teachers and students. 

 Textbooks, for example, will give way to original sources available over the web, 

an enormously powerful learning opportunity. Of course, the web is ideally suited to 

Internet-specific courseware; not talking heads, but courseware that uses the dynamic 

power of the web to present information multi-dimensionally; as well, structured webbased activities such as resource searches and web surfing in a selective way is an 

important way for youngsters to make progress. 

 Fifth is high stakes test alignment and certification. Aligned tests, offered in real 

time, are one of the most powerful tools known to reinforce good instruction, expose 

weak instruction and encourage genuine subject matter mastery. And so, carefully 

designed assessments, like exams for pilot’s licenses or driver's licenses, can be used for 

certification in lieu of seat time. That has been the historic standard for much 

certification. 

 Sixth, and I think in some ways most important, is access to resources, both 

technical and substantive, which ordinary teaching and research cannot anticipate. By 

this I mean the combination of what gifted teachers call the “teachable moment” and the 

law of unintended consequences. We cannot anticipate all that we might. Serendipity is 

an important aspect of education. I mention it last, however, to honor the old adage that 
13

chance favors the prepared mind. Know the basics and creativity may follow. 

 Taking a page from Sherlock Holmes' famous example of inductive reasoning, 

The Dog That Didn't Bark, let me also say a word about what it is not. Education is not 

about “teacher proofing” the classroom. 

 Finally, let me conclude by offering four quick areas of interest that I think the 

federal government could profitably explore. First, cost educational technology in its 

first issuance is expensive. It would be critically useful and important for the federal 

government to act as a banker for some early adopters, as a disinterested analyst for 

others, and as an honest broker for the larger school community. 

 A second content provision from the federal government's extraordinary arsenal 

of rich content includes such things as the U.S. Naval Academy's rich language 

instruction program. It could be commercially developed and exploited to good 

advantage for both the Navy and the nation as a whole. 

 Third, R & D, in sort of a surrogate entrepreneurship role that the federal 

government can continue to play effectively. 

 And finally, a comment if I may about an area which does not yet fall in this 

committee's jurisdiction, e-rate. Free or heavily subsidized access to Internet services for 

poor children is critically important if they are to be able to use the great power of the 

web beyond the bounds of their school building. Similarly, access to the instruments to 

get to the web for computing; if broadband is available, dumb terminals and web 

appliances are things that the federal government could underwrite under e-rate as it 

underwrites services and goods under Title I. 

 And finally, I would suggest you might consider subsidized or partially subsidized 

access to content for youngsters across the board. In particular, the poor and 

disadvantaged youngsters who need access to rich content perhaps more than any other 

students in our education system. 

 Let me close, then, by saying that the web offers the opportunity to transform the 

old mantra, “every child can,” to a new mantra, one with real meaning, “every child shall 

learn.” And I think through devices of that kind, we can in fact deliver on the twin 

promises of the Children's Defense Fund and the Bush administration's to leave no child 

behind. 

 Thank you for your time, and I'm sorry to have gone on at such length. 

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DENIS P. DOYLE, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF 

ACADEMIC OFFICER, SCHOOLNET, INC., CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND – SEE 

APPENDIX D 
14

STATEMENT OF MARK NIXON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

EDUCATION, AOL INTERACTIVE SERVICES, DULLES, VIRGINIA 

Mr. Nixon. I'd like to thank the subcommittee members, especially Chairman McKeon, 

Representative Isakson for his work on the Web-based Education Commission, 

Representative Goodlatte for his known work on telecommunication issues, and 

Representative Upton for his continuing dedication to this issue as evidenced by his 

hearing on ed tech just last week. 

 My testimony is really in three parts. First, AOL's perspective on 21st century 

literacy; second, on AOL at school; and third, on suggestions on how we believe 

technology could further enhance learning in the future. 

 AOL is committed to ensuring that everyone can share in the benefits the Internet 

makes possible, and to building a medium of which we can all be proud. 

 We believe one of the most important ways we can fulfill this goal is to find new 

ways of using technology to improve education and enhance 21st Century learning. 

 Technology trends. We're beginning to make distance learning a rich and viable 

option. We are continuing to connect schools and libraries to the Internet and 

communities worldwide. The cost of devices both wired and wireless continues to come 

down. It's easier to distribute, access and update digital content. Availability of 

broadband is improving our capacity to deliver current content and live cybercasting, 

high quality video and multi-media. 

 In the future, and in many cases right now, digital content - like CD-ROMs, 

email, software, video-on-demand, online learning management systems, live online chat 

- will become commonplace in the classroom. Web-based digital books that can be 

updated often will be available. Students will be able to access information anywhere 

and anytime, and teachers will be able to expand and customize content based on 

students' interests. 

 Students will be able to design their learning experiences by manipulating 

information and creating their own multi-media applications. 

 Although AOL-Time Warner has many educational offerings like Time for Kids, 

Turner learning, CNN FYI and others, we're focused this morning on AOL@School. 

AOL is a free online learning tool that helps administrators, teachers and students take 

full advantage of the Internet's vast resources by doing what AOL does best in it's core 

business; organizing content in useable ways for its users. 

 We found that children and educators were frequently frustrated by the difficulty 

they had in locating and utilizing the high quality online content available on the web. 

We developed it in conjunction with educators, principals, parents and students from all 

over the country. We've organized it into six basic portals, or learning environments; 

primary school, kindergarten through second grade, elementary, middle school, high 

school, teachers and administrators. They each have an environment that aggregates the 

best content, resources and tools available for their area in an environment designed 
15

specifically for them. 

 The site also includes age-appropriate content filtering, and teachers control 

student access to such tools as email and chat. 

 We took compliance with the Coppell legislation very seriously. We have made 

our service available on the web as well as with our software. We made it available on 

the web for free for home schoolers, public libraries, religious community centers, and 

also kids, parents and teachers wherever they had access. But we also offered software 

that would allow us to comply with the Coppell legislation, fulfilling our part in making 

sure the registration process was compliant. The second part involved offering email and 

chat instant messaging. The content filtering was for free but only at the discretion of 

local schools. They physically have to turn those features on in accordance with their 

parental consent policies and acceptable use policies. 

 AOL@School has over 300 partners providing content. One of the nice things 

about being a company like AOL is we can aggregate content. Because AOL@School is 

not a business venture, these contracts are basically cashless. If they have grade, content, 

resources and tools to offer the education community we aggregate them in our service. 

We do not charge them, and they don't charge us. It's just a better way to get the 

resources available to the hands of our students, teachers and parents. 

 At the primary school level, we have just introduced a first graphical search tool 

designed for primary school children, kindergarten through second grade. For the most 

part they are unable to type or spell properly. This easy to navigate environment employs 

friendly graphics, colorful images and playful animation to make research more intuitive 

and fun for the younger students. 

 We've also introduced a partnership with a company called Test U to provide the 

most comprehensive free online SAT prep course available on the Internet through 

AOL@School's high school portal. Students receive four weeks of curriculum material, 

diagnostic assessments of their strengths and weaknesses, and a final graded practice 

examination. We're very proud of this partnership, most specifically because of its ability 

to provide this type of service that was ordinarily only fee-based to any student that has 

access to the web through AOL@School. 

 AOL@School’s been collaborating with state governors and state departments of 

education to develop individualized windows and tool bars that provide content 

correlated to state education standards. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush called upon school 

administrators across the state to incorporate the AOL@School online learning system 

into their K-12 curriculum. Maryland and Virginia have endorsed AOL@School and are 

using the State Focus tool. It allows states to provide locally oriented information about 

topics such as state standards, right down to the school level. 

 We also are soon to announce a similar deal with the State Focus window in 

Colorado, Pennsylvania, and also with the Office of the Overseas Schools which is a 

department of the State Department. 

 Of the challenges ahead, we believe the following issues to be most pressing for 

the 21st Century literacy policy agenda. First is equity. 21st Century learning tools and 

resources must be made available to under-resourced schools and communities as well as 
16

to learners with disabilities and other special needs. 

 The second is teacher quality. We must significantly increase the quality of 

professionalism and opportunities of the teaching profession. We note with approval the 

Web-based Education Commission's recommendations, and hope the Congress will heed 

its call for increased technology training and support for educators. 

 AOL supports requirements that teachers have expertise in substantive content 

areas, pre-service technology both in how to use technology and how to integrate it into 

the classroom, teachers receiving quality ongoing professional development in line with 

teacher and student standards, performance-based pay for teachers, greater career 

building opportunities, rewards for the acquisition of special skills, and the development 

of master teacher programs. 

 Third is basic literacy. 21st Century education must include new information on 

literacy as well as technology skills and other skills critical to success in the information 

age. In addition, there needs to be renewed interest - national focus on math and science 

education, particularly for women and minorities. 

 Technology. Technology must be integrated into teaching and learning at all 

education levels. AOL supports all students having equitable access to technology and 

Internet resources, teachers being trained to integrate new technologies, learning 

applications and adding new information sources into the core curriculum, and any time 

anywhere distance learning. 

 Family and community literacy is also important. Technology can allow the 

learning environment to be extended beyond the classroom into the home, thereby 

reaching not only children but also their parents at home and neighbors as well. AOL 

supports quality after-school programs, adult technology education, distance learning 

opportunities and community technology centers. 

 Research and best practices. We need a greater federal focus on research, 

learning, and how new technologies, learning applications and information resources can 

support and assess learning gains. Research should be closely tied to practical classroom 

applications and focused on identifying and disseminating best practices. 

 We respectively urge the committee to incorporate these technology-based 

solutions as a part of any future legislative effort so that we can assure that all children 

have access to a 21st Century education. It is the single most important investment we 

can make today for our future. 

 I'd like to thank you for having us again. 

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MARK NIXON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

EDUCATION, AOL INTERACTIVE SERVICES, DULLES, VIRGINIA – SEE 

APPENDIX E 

 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you very much. I was remiss earlier in not welcoming our 

newest committee member to the committee, Mr. Goodlatte. He's new to the committee 

and new to the subcommittee, but not new to the Congress. We came here together in 

1992 and are classmates. Mr. Goodlatte has been very active on the Judiciary 
17

Committee, and has proven himself to be an outstanding legislator. He heads a 

technology task force, and has been a leader in Congress for reaching out to the 

technology field. I'm really happy to have him here on our committee. 

 I will begin the questions in the reverse order that you testified, and I'll try to 

make my questions brief so you will have time to answer. 

 One area of concern, Mr. Nixon, is when it comes to education technology, and 

the impact that it can have on reducing administrative costs. How does AOL@School 

assist administrators in taking full advantage of the Internet's vast resources? 

Mr. Nixon. Well, one of the ways it does that is if you think of the current situation. We 

spent billions and billions of dollars getting connectivity and workstations in our schools. 

Yet, in using the Internet, they are forced to use generic browsers that aren't really 

designed for use in the classroom. One of the frustrations this leads to is teachers and 

students going to a search box, typing on anything, Abe Lincoln, and getting 30 million 

hits. Then spending their time trying to weed through what's available on it and how to 

incorporate it into their curriculum. 

 What AOL@school is trying to do, and we're in a unique position maybe to do 

this because we aggregate content - we have no propriety interest in the content in that 

we're providing a service that aggregates it and organizes it effectively so they can use 

their time more efficiently in the classroom especially. 

 So what we've done is create these portals that basically bring the best content, 

resources and tools that are available, already pre-screened by educators. This will allow 

teachers and students to know that they're one click away from resources that have 

already been evaluated, and already brought into an environment that makes it easier for 

them to use. So they're using their time more effectively in the classroom itself. 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you. Mr. Doyle, if you could change the money and 

priorities that are made with respect to educational technology programs, what are the 

priorities needed to benefit student achievement? 

Mr. Doyle. The priorities that benefit student achievement would be several. As I 

suggested in my testimony, the e-rate, although in some respects not universally popular, 

is a very powerful tool to bringing about access fro youngsters across the board. In 

particular youngsters who are the least advantaged, poor and dispossessed will need to be 

able to keep up with their counterparts by gaining access to Internet services through an 

ISP - the dial-up protocol might work. Other possibilities would include community 

carrels or other devices that would be non-school based, ideally putting equipment in the 

hands of youngsters so they could access the web from home. 

 Then I think perhaps most importantly, since the technology is not an end in itself, 

which content is designed to utilize the enormous power of the Internet, as I suggested, 

not just talking heads - as we used to think of the educational TV. - but rather the kind of 

graphing and sound and light and dynamic power that the web offers to bring instruction 

alive. To use a dreadful term, part of the power is the asynchronicity. That is to say the 

opportunity of kids to study when they want to, when they need to after regular hours in 

school. 
18

 I had the privilege of serving on the National Commission on Time and Learning, 

and one of the things we found in that work is that the typical American youngster gets 

much less academic exposure than his or her European or Asian counterparts. By way of 

illustration, a German or Japanese youngster, after completing rigorous high school 

course of study, will have had about 3,500 hours in demanding academic work. A typical 

American youngster will typically have less than 2,000. The web is a way to begin to 

readdress that balance and provide rich academic content to a much larger population of 

youngsters. 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you. Ms. Collins, in your testimony, you mentioned your 

program called Gen Y in which teachers and students work together to develop the 

technical skills they need. Would you please explain in greater detail how this program 

works? 

Ms. Collins. I'd love to. It's a great program. It actually came out of the need that's 

recognized in most schools where the expertise that is technical belongs to the children. I 

mean the children know more than the teachers in most cases. So what this does is it 

partners up students and teachers together to do something that teachers need to do, 

whether it's to do a lesson plan on volcanoes, a unit studying Shakespeare or any subject 

matter the teacher is involved in. 

 They then have the advantage of an offsite consultant that they work with on the 

Internet so that they don't have to have this sort of expertise between the two of them. 

Then they become part of this web-based community where there are all kinds of teachers 

and students partnering together across the country, and the teacher learns how to do the 

things from working with the student. The student gets the expertise on basically being 

in sort of an apprenticeship mode of helping the teacher put together what they are trying 

to do. Then it becomes part of the common lexicon of that community. 

 So it can happen with a teacher and a student in Olympia, Washington, and 

LAUSD could be in Pittsburgh and they communicate across the web. But it's a great 

program for taking advantage of kids knowing a lot about technology, teachers not being 

so sure of it, and then having the teachers actually get to what they are doing which is 

teaching children. 

 Does that make sense? Sort of? 

Chairman McKeon. Yes. 

Ms. Collins. If I could draw a diagram - 

Chairman McKeon. Especially the part about the students knowing more than the 

teachers. 

Ms. Collins. Yeah, that's - 

Chairman McKeon. Mr. Isakson. 

Mr. Isakson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I ask a question, I want to take the 

liberty if I can of acknowledging the tremendous work Susan Collins did on the Webbased Commission. The time, effort and sacrifices she made when we were in existence 
19

and since by coming to Washington today and helping testify is greatly appreciated. I 

really enjoy being with her. I also want to acknowledge David Byron and Irene Spiro; 

you all raise your hands. They are the people that made us look good because they were 

our primary staff on the Web-based Commission. 

 I would be remiss if didn't acknowledge that Mr. Doyle began his career on the 

staff of George Miller, Sr. in the California legislature, the father of our distinguished 

member George Miller here. Congratulations on that. 

 I thought I would just tell them that they missed something by not coming today. 

They could have come to hear that. 

 Let me also commend Dr. Ingwerson on his testimony, particularly with regards 

to teachers and development. I think your testimony points out the real promise of the 

web in solving the insoluble, which in the past has been time, distance, space and access. 

 I wanted to ask you a question about the Stellar Program and the Merit Reading 

Program that you mentioned. I assume because of the multiple disciplines and 

technologies that broadband access is essential to the full utilization of those programs; is 

that correct? 

Mr. Ingwerson. Yes, you are correct. It may not be quite so obvious in the beginning 

pilots and the beginning efforts, but when you start having best practices and showing 

model teachers teaching those units, you eat up a lot of band width. 

Mr. Isakson. You may not have read the Web-based Commission report, but if you did, 

our primary first recommendation was for the government to facilitate fully having the 

promise of the web, wherever possible, through both satellite as well as hard wire 

broadband access around the United States of America. In terms of education, do you 

agree with that? 

Mr. Ingwerson. Absolutely. 

Mr. Isakson. In fact, isn't it true that without it the most underserved, who we worry 

about today, will be even more underserved in the future? 

Mr. Ingwerson. That is correct. 

Mr. Isakson. I appreciate that acknowledgment. We've got to stay focused on them. 

 The second recommendation of the Commission was with regard to teacher 

training. While I think you addressed training teachers for certification, training teachers 

to use technology in the classroom is also doable through the use of the web; is it not? 

Mr. Ingwerson. I think it is, and we are demonstrating that is true in our case. I hesitate 

just a moment because I don't have access to all the research, but in our situation that is 

very true. 

Mr. Isakson. Thank you. 
20

Mr. Nixon, I'd like to ask you a question. I have a personal belief that the vendors have 

an advantage over the administrators of education, and I don't say that in the negative 

sense. You made a statement in your testimony with regard to best practices which really 

interests me. 

 I believe one of the things that the Department of Education in Washington could 

do with the existing resources is become a center for best practices of programs that work 

rather than a regurgitator of whatever research may be out there. Would you and Ms. 

Collins and Mr. Doyle - you're all in this business hopefully already making a profit, but 

hoping we get smart so you can really make a profit - would either one of the three of 

you, speaking for your companies, find it offensive if we worked for the Department of 

Education to actually be a certifier of best practices. Not a black-lister, not certifying 

what does not work, but the absence of somebody appearing might portend that there is a 

better program out there. Would you object to that at AOL? 

Mr. Nixon. Absolutely not. In fact, one of the things we find most useful is exactly those 

best practices. When you get teachers online and they are able to collaborate with each 

other, what they really get excited about is being able to ask their colleagues: I have this 

issue, I have this problem; I did it this way, but I didn't get the results I wanted. How did 

you do it? They don't really want the research as much as they want proven practicable 

things that they can do in their classroom. 

 If you ask teachers the number one thing they want right now, it's time. If you 

think about what a teacher's day is, it does not stop at 3 o'clock. It certainly doesn't stop 

at 3:00 and it certainly doesn't stop at 10:00, because they are always working to try and 

figure out what they can do the next day, the next week. Having these best practices 

would save them enormous amounts of time and give them much more confidence and an 

ability to deliver them in the classroom. So I would support it wholeheartedly. 

Mr. Isakson. Susan, would bigchalk be supportive of that? 

Ms. Collins. Oh, I definitely think so. I mean I agree with Mark. I used to be one of 

those middle school teachers. What I really needed, particularly as a beginning teacher, 

were models and things that I could have done that I knew were effective. The only way I 

figured those out at that time was by doing them myself and saying did this work or did it 

not work. If I had the environment that Mark described where I could actually have the 

chance to look at some best practices, and particularly if I could do it in what you might 

think of as a multi-media format, I could see another teacher actually practicing or doing 

it with their own class. I could then say that would work with my kids or that would 

work if I did this, because I think everything has to be localized. But the notion of being 

able to share how things really work is a very viable one, and I think very necessary. 

Mr. Isakson. I know my time is up. Mr. Chairman, at the risk of offending you I've got 

another statement to make for Mr. Doyle. Yes or no, would Schoolnet have the - 

Mr. Doyle. We would encourage you strongly to do so. I serve on the TMSR, a review 

panel. TMSR has already done some of this, and it's been extraordinarily useful. They 

have videodisks or CD ROMs in which you can actually see examples of best practice. 

What a Japanese or German teacher does with a math solution is a very powerful learning 

tool for American counterparts and very useful and widely distributed. 
21

Mr. Isakson. Lastly in spending my time, I want to really ask of you something. 

President Bush is, as you know, introducing a substantial education reform package that 

has substantial recommendations in terms of the use of the web and technology in 

education. I'm a personal believer that the private sector should be engaged in becoming 

advocates for our breaking through what we've done in the past in opening the door, and 

this bill is going to have a lot to do with it. 

 In particular, Mr. Doyle, and with your and I think also Mr. Nixon's comments 

about the digital divide and access; one of President Bush's recommendations is to add as 

an allowable use the CDBG block grant community development funds, allowable use 

for community technology centers in under-served communities. So the very after school 

access you all were talking about is available to everybody. 

 I know it is not a question, but I hope you all will follow the President's bill as it 

goes through this committee and overlook the things you don't agree with and find favor 

with the things you do. Please help us to make some reform in education in America. 

 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman McKeon. Thank you. Mr. Goodlatte. 

Mr. Goodlatte. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your kind welcome to the 

committee and subcommittee. I am very much delighted to be working with you. You 

have personally taken an interest in educational institutions in my district, and I look 

forward to working with you on this committee as well as with Mr. Isakson because I 

know both of you are very committed to this subject. I am very interested in the direction 

the subcommittee is now taking and focusing on technology and looking ahead. I like the 

name of the subcommittee from that standpoint too. 

 I have a very practical question. I have two teenagers, and I wonder, Dr. 

Ingwerson, if you could help me with this. I've watched them through all of their years in 

the public schools in Roanoke, Virginia, carry the most enormous book bags, 30 to 40 

pounds worth of textbooks that they lug back and forth to school. I wonder if this is a 

part of your physical education program or whether you can tell me if any progress is 

being made in getting textbook companies to put their products online so that kids can 

have books either at home or at school, whichever is more practical, and in the other 

place get online. 

 It would seem to me that you could use the textbooks in new ways. You could 

link to other subject matters. You could do a whole lot more things with that textbook 

and make the learning experience even more interesting if you had access to them online. 

What is your interest in that, and what is your progress in getting that accomplished? 

Mr. Ingwerson. I think we're in a great transition period right now where the American 

spirit is not quite ready to downplay the use of textbooks. I think textbook companies are 

already online with their materials, but I think it's a commerce question as much as 

anything else. At the local level, I don't think many parents and many community 

members are able to put their trust yet into the technology that hasn't really been 

validated for them. It may be validated for us. So I sincerely believe that what you are 

talking about is going to be prevalent before long. 
22

 In the meantime, we're going to have large backpacks with books in them. But 

the smarter districts, the smarter communities, the communities that are planning ahead 

will have that infrastructure in place that has the broadband, etc. that allows us to start 

using those avenues with trust and being able to deliver. Our teachers are now coming 

out of colleges and universities with better preparation. They are able to explain to 

students and parents that this is reliable. However, we're in a transition period. It is not 

available to all. And we all have a role in that. 

 Getting that broadband access is so important to teacher training. Online real 

training for teachers to see what the person next door is doing solves their learning 

problems. 

 The question is a good question. We just need to move the clock forward. 

Mr. Goodlatte. Maybe they will get lighter gradually. 

Mr. Ingwerson. They will. 

Mr. Goodlatte. My real purpose is not to lighten the book bag so much as to give the 

opportunity to have access to those things. In that regard, Mr. Nixon, let me commend 

AOL for participating in Power Up, which is an effort to get access to lower income 

children in after-school type environments and weekend type environments where they 

can get access to the Internet. I would love to meet with you or somebody else at AOL 

and talk about some ideas I have in my congressional district that you could help with. 

 Let me ask you, Dr. Ingwerson had identified the key problem here in getting 

more of this online, and that is the inequities in access to the Internet. What thoughts do 

you have on that, and what progress are we making? Power Up is a good step in the right 

direction, but obviously not everybody has access to it. They certainly don't have equal 

access to getting online at home. 

Mr. Nixon. Right. And Power Up is a wonderful example of that. I think we also need 

to open up our schools past the hour of three o'clock after investing all this money, 

infrastructure and technology in our school buildings. School buildings should be looked 

at as community learning centers not just a K-12 bricks and mortar environment. 

 We've made significant investments, and we can start leveraging that across the 

board. 

Mr. Goodlatte. That's a very good point. My son's school has just started doing that with 

one teacher designated, who might be working later there anyway, to stay. 

Mr. Nixon. Absolutely. 

Mr. Goodlatte. It is an advanced learning environment, but they love to stay late and use 

the facility that I can't duplicate in my home. 

Mr. Nixon. That's right. I'm going to forget whose quote this is, but there is a quote that 

I love that says, “Technology is only technology to those born before its introduction.” 

Our kids don't look at it as technology; it's an inherent part of their lives. When I show 

them an eight-track tape - now I'm dating myself - that was technology to us, right? We 
23

need to open up these centers and also make available things like AOL@School. 

AOL@School is trying to do this by making our service free, number one, and two, 

available from any browser anywhere. Not just opening up the school buildings or doing 

the Power Up community centers, but encouraging our public libraries, community 

centers, religious centers, or any place where we have technology and made the 

investment that these type of resources and tools are available, because not everybody has 

access at home yet. That's the big problem in looking at digital textbooks. They all have 

supplemental information online today, but we need not go too fast or we are going to 

pass up and make the digital divide even greater. Textbooks are a necessity today. 97 

percent of our schools are connected to the Internet, but I almost challenge the panel to 

say how many classrooms they think that is. It's not 97 percent of our classrooms, and 

that's not 30 workstations in every classroom. It's not every kid walking home with a 

laptop. Until we have that kind of ubiquitous access, textbook publishers can't go fully 

online. They have to have printed materials for you. 

Mr. Goodlatte. Thank you. Well, my time has expired, and I don't want to be kept after 

by the committee chairman on my first day with the committee. Thank you, Mr. 

Chairman. 

Chairman McKeon. I think it is interesting how Mr. Nixon dated himself with eighttrack tapes. I would date myself with a slide ruler. It is interesting how we've seen this 

step up, and now at an ever-accelerated pace on technology. 

Mr. Osborne. 

Mr. Osborne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am sorry I have just arrived. We had three 

meetings at the same time, and that doesn't work very well. I'm going to come at this 

from a little different direction. I serve in a very rural district and wonder if any of you 

have had given much thought or have had much experience with providing service, 

particularly broadband services, to rural areas. How is it best done? I'm assuming maybe 

it is in somebody's level of expertise here, so I'd like to address that question to you. 

Ms. Collins. Well, I mean I can talk a little bit about some things that have happened 

over the history of technology and education. 

 In probably the late '80s there were a number of programs that were put together 

specifically to serve rural areas. They came out of the Star Schools Program and some 

others where they provided direct video. It was one-way video and two-way audio kinds 

of programs. The Internet now is able to enhance that whole experience because you can 

actually do two-way video. You can do a number of different kinds of things. 

 The issues I think are facing the vendors on this side of doing that is the 

credentialing issues, a number of the credit issues and things that cross state lines prohibit 

us from serving populations in Nebraska and serving populations in the state of 

Washington because the requirements of the two states are different. Every state in this 

country has a different set of requirements for how they govern education. 

 One of the things that would be a terrific boost to this whole thing is if we could 

remove some of those that you might think of as legalistic barriers that really serve no 

purpose anymore. 
24

 They were very appropriate in an age where every school, every child went to a 

school. They basically spent their entire career in a single school, graduated, and the 

teacher stayed there his or her entire teaching career. But now we have kids who move, 

we have subjects that move, and we have a whole variety of expertise that doesn't 

normally exist in a rural high school, like the opportunity to study Japanese or study 

calculus. Those kinds of things are great skills for the 21st Century and yet a local small 

rural school might not have the ability to have the capacity to teach that. So to sort of 

turn the whole subject around is this removal of barriers, which would contribute a lot to 

helping rural areas. 

Mr. Osborne. Does somebody else have something in mind? 

Mr. Doyle. The technology, as you know, is ideally suited to the problems of rural areas. 

I have just come from a site visit in Sweetwater in far western Wyoming, Green River, 

with two children, one school with 35 children, and there they use technology with 

extraordinary effect. 

 The two-student school is too far off to hardwire, so they have a satellite uplinkdownlink. There, of course, the issue is delivering high quality content to youngsters in 

remote areas. 

 I might also add, however, that these same issues occur in densely populated 

urban areas. In Washington, D.C., for example, there is a consortium of institutions 

offering advanced placement courses. A public-private consortium, Sidwell Friends, St. 

Albans, Walt Whitman, Woodrow Wilson; for kids even in schools of this quality, they 

have a hard time creating a critical mass of enough youngsters to fill exotic advanced 

placement courses. In that case as well, distance learning is ideally suited so long as the 

quality is as high as it should be. 

Mr. Nixon. You know, I also want to make sure we understand that there are compies 

such as those that are represented here. You're not a company, but it's very easy for us to 

move at the speed of light. The speed issue in regards to, especially the rural schools and 

any school district in the United States may not be something that this committee can 

address. But if I were to ask Susan how long it takes to adopt a textbook, how long 

would you say it takes to adopt a textbook in a normal state? 

Ms. Collins. I will say six years cycle, and it takes at least a year of study across the 

state. 

Mr. Nixon. And yet we're developing online content curriculum and resources that we 

want to make available right now. Yet, we're dealt with a process that doesn't lend itself 

to that. 

 In terms of taking distance-learning classes, whether it be a teacher, a student or a 

parent, especially the teacher and student, there are rules around certification. There are 

rules around the accreditation of the courses in terms of the student getting credit to the 

school. All of those processes in our schools are still so antiquated that they're not really 

set to accept the kind of bandwidth, resources, content and tools that we're ready to push 

to them. 
25

 So I don't know if it's part of this subcommittee's efforts, but it is something that 

we encourage you to kind of help push along at the local level as a way to incorporate 

these things more quickly into their policies. 

Mr. Ingwerson. If I could comment a little bit on that, we provide distance learning out 

of Los Angeles County. We provide it to 20 states. In Boston, Massachusetts, they buy 

our service and curriculum for teaching students and teachers. The same is true in 

Mississippi, Colorado, and Utah. We've done that for 10 years, and we're growing with 

those agencies. 

 I would say that rural areas do have a problem, but they should not have a 

problem with proper planning now. It is a collaborative effort. It's to make sure that if 

you don't have the talent in a rural area, there are avenues now through distance learning 

or with a satellite, etc. that it can be provided and is being provided. 

 The wiring part on an Internet is, I think, the slowest element to come along, but 

even that can be taken care of through wireless. 

Mr. Osborne. Thank you. 

Chairman McKeon. Mr. Isakson? 

Mr. Isakson. All of you said you didn't think it was within our purview on that last 

comment. I just wanted to comment to the Chairman and to Mr. Osborne and really all of 

our committee that what they were just saying is, in fact, one thing we have got to do. 

We have got to tear down the unintended consequences of the barriers of government 

regulation and accreditation rules that were adopted for a textbook Ozzie and Harriet 

world and modernize them, because we actually have laws and regulations and rules 

today that are impeding what we are trying to facilitate through hearings like this. 

 We are going to have some bills to do that, and it is probably our single biggest 

responsibility as a committee right now. So you are great to bring that up. Thank you. 

Chairman McKeon. Well, our timing is excellent. We just got called for a vote on the 

floor. This will be the only hearing that this subcommittee will hold prior to the markup 

of our elementary and secondary education reauthorization. 

 I want to thank you for your valuable time. Thank you to both the witnesses and 

the members for their participation. I encourage you, if you think of something that you 

wanted to say as you leave here, to insert it in the record. The record will be open for 14 

days. I also hope you will be available if we think of things to ask you later as we go 

through this process. This will be an ongoing thing that we are involved in. 

 If there is no further business at this time, the subcommittee then stands 

adjourned. Thank you. 

 [Whereupon, at 11:19 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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Table of Indexes 

Chairman McKeon, 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25 

Mr. Doyle, 11, 17, 20, 24 

Mr. Goodlatte, 21, 22, 23 

Mr. Ingwerson, 6, 19, 21, 22, 25 

Mr. Isakson, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25 

Mr. Nixon, 14, 17, 20, 22, 24 

Mr. Osborne, 23, 24, 25 

Ms. Collins, 5, 9, 18, 20, 23, 24 

Ms. Mink, 2 

Ms. Solis, 4