The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund and other Federal programs actively support increased use of educational technology for increased technology proficiency and improved teaching and learning. Rapid change in these technologies and in their uses makes assessing these skills for trend information challenging. With these changes, particular proficiencies may become more or less important, their interrelations may change, and so on. Additional complexities arise from differences in what technology proficiencies are appropriate at various grade levels, and in the specificity of the proficiencies required in various areas, particularly for students in upper grade levels and educators. Methods of assessing these proficiencies vary widely.
Some states utilize paper and pencil tests to assess student proficiency in educational technology.
Others conduct on-line assessments of proficiency. Portfolios of work are another approach to measuring educational technology proficiency. Some states rely on course taking requirements for courses dealing with educational technology as a proxy measure of proficiency. The methods used for large-scale assessment of these proficiencies pose important issues of accuracy, burden and cost. The diversity of activity across states and various other assessment providers may provide opportunities to learn of promising practices and pitfalls, with the states serving as educational laboratories to spur innovation and help identify what works.