Evaluation of the Texas Technology Immersion Pilot: Outcomes for the Third Year (2006-07)
Author: Shapley, Kelly
Date: 2008-01-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Middle Schools,Public Schools,Technology Integration,Academic Achievement,Pilot Projects,Program Effectiveness,Program Implementation,Fidelity,Middle School Teachers,Middle School Students,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Teacher Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Poverty,Economically Disadvantaged,Learner Engagement,Group Activities,Independent Study,Student Behavior,Satisfaction,Attendance,Computer Literacy,Ideology,Teacher Collaboration,Laptop Computers,Access to Computers,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Writing Achievement,Social Studies,Science Achievement,Technology Uses in Education,Hierarchical Linear Modeling

The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), created by the Texas Legislature in 2003, set forth a vision for technology immersion in public schools. Senate Bill 396 called for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish a pilot project to &quot;immerse&quot; schools in technology by providing a wireless mobile computing device for each teacher and student, technology-based learning resources, training for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom, and support for effective technology use. In response to this non-funded legislative mandate, the TEA has used more than $20 million in federal Title II, Part D monies to fund &quot;technology immersion&quot; projects for high-need middle schools through a competitive grant process. Concurrently, a research study, partially funded by a federal Evaluating State Educational Technology Programs grant, is evaluating whether student achievement improves over time as a result of exposure to technology immersion. The Texas Center for Educational Research (TCER)--a non-profit research organization in Austin--is the TEA's primary partner for this four-year evaluation that began in the 2004-05 school year and will continue through 2007-08. The overarching purpose of the study is to scientifically investigate the effectiveness of technology immersion in increasing middle school students' achievement in core academic subjects as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). The evaluation also examines the relationships that exist among contextual conditions, technology immersion, intervening factors (school, teacher, and student), and student achievement. The research design is quasi-experimental with middle schools assigned to either treatment or control groups. This report concentrates on information gathered during the 2006-07 school year, but analyses also include data from the first (2004-05) and second (2005-06) project years. The research includes 42 grades 6 to 8 middle schools drawn from rural, suburban, and urban locations in Texas. Schools are divided equally between the treatment group (21) and control group (21). The middle schools are typically small (402 students, on average); however, enrollments vary widely (from 83 to 1,447 students). While schools are mainly concentrated in small or very small Texas districts (less than 3,000 students), about a third of schools are in very large districts (10,000 or more students). Some of the findings include: (1) In the third year, immersion teachers continued to grow in technology proficiency and in their use of technology for professional productivity at significantly faster rates than control teachers; (2) Technology immersion significantly increased students' technology proficiency and reduced the proficiency gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged students; (3) Technology immersion had no statistically significant effect on students' TAKS reading achievement; and (4) Although the overall level of implementation increased between the second and third project years, just a quarter of schools reached substantial levels of technology immersion. Appended are: (1) Theoretical Framework for Technology Immersion--Literature Review; (2) Characteristics of Participating Schools; (3) Survey Items and Scale Reliabilities; (4) Measurement of Implementation Fidelity; (5) Technical Appendix--Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM); and (6) Effects of Technology Immersion on Schools. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 25 figures, 82 tables and 1 exhibit.)