Most states also evaluate their plans and have a schedule for revising them. The plans vary in scope and vision, however, and only 21 states have analyzed how much it would cost to complete them. Dede of George Mason University recommends that states try to calculate this expense. The costs of technology projected beyond one or two years can easily diminish, making it possible for a state to do more with less money, he says. Nearly every state either regularly collects its own data on education technology or partners with an outside organization, such as the Quality Education Data market-research firm, that does some of the work for them.
Some states do both.
Of the 28 states that regularly collect their own data, many use different sets of indicators and different means of collecting them. Roberts of the U.S. Department of Education says a more unified approach for data collection across the states would make it easier for her department and others to make the case for technology. All but eight states provided funds for education technology in fiscal 1998. States draw on a variety of sources to pay for technology other than their general funds. Georgia and Indiana, for example, depend heavily on lottery revenues.