Residents supported the state's emphasis on technology from the beginning, adds Robert J. Dilger, a professor of political science at West Virginia University in Morgantown. One key to West Virginia's success was the state's decision to buy all of the districts' hardware and software in bulk and provide the lion's share of teacher training and technical support, state Superintendent Henry R. Marockie says. West Virginia's achievements notwithstanding, some experts argue that a top-down approach does not work for every state because it robs schools of local control. Programs that grow from the grassroots level, they say, get more people involved and are, therefore, more likely to be sustained over time. Change happens when local school officials, educators, and parents become part of the program.
Experts say Kentucky's school technology program has been successful for that very reason.
The state's plan, a component of its landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, calls for a telephone in every classroom and a computer for every six students and every teacher in the state. The program is tied to the state's educational goals, and local districts and individual schools decide how best to use technology to meet them, notes Don Coffman, the Kentucky education department's associate commissioner for school technology.