Three reports on technology in special education identify major trends, describe availability and characteristics of adaptive hardware, and report on special education costs and demographic data. The first report notes the continuing interest of the Federal Government in technology, the changing federal policy toward hardware acquisition, and such…

The North Carolina State Board of Education, as part of the Quality Assurance Program, established a computer proficiency requirement for students in grade eight for the 1996-97 school year and beyond in order to receive a North Carolina high school diploma. The first opportunity to meet the requirement is during the eighth grade. Passing the…

On February 15, 1996, the Clinton-Gore Administration announced the Technology Literacy Challenge, envisioning a 21st century where all students benefit from the use of educational technology. At the heart of this challenge are four goals that help to define the task at hand: All teachers in the nation will have the training and support they need…

To guide districts through the process of creating workable technology plans, the Massachusetts Department of Education developed a set of benchmark standards that can be viewed as goals for districts to achieve by the year 2003. Based on findings from the most recent "Tech Plan Updates," the Department's online data collection system,…

A survey of 33,785 faculty in 378 colleges and universities found nearly one-third were 55 or older, compared with one-quarter a decade ago. Over the same period, the proportion of faculty under 45 has fallen from 41% to 34%. While more women are in academe, ethnic diversification has not progressed. The survey also examined attitudes toward…

Nearly all Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have a state-sponsored virtual school, and the remaining states are either planning or beginning initial implementation. Just 12 years ago, none of the 50 states used the Web to provide courses to middle grades or high school students. By 2000, several SREB states, including Florida,…

As the number of microcomputers in schools increases, it becomes more important for staff to provide opportunities for student use. When viewed as an innovation, student use of computers in schools can be susceptible to the same implementation problems as any innovation. Attitude is one factor that can influence success of implementation. In order…

This appendix of state-by-state results is designed as a companion reference to two National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports containing national data from the 1992 mathematics assessment. It contains a selected set of state-by-state data tables that focus on the school and classroom contexts for learning mathematics in grades 4…

In 2000, Australia took part in the inaugural OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Approximately 500 Australian Indigenous students were assessed in PISA, providing a representative sample of the 15-year-old Indigenous population. This report presents the analysis of…

This report summarizes much of the data collected through the 2005 EDUCAUSE core data survey about campus information technology (IT) environments at 933 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. The report presents aggregates of data through more than 100 tables and accompanying descriptive text in five areas relevant to planning and…

This project focused on encouraging instructors at large universities to take advantage of the curricular materials and computer tools developed for two related programs funded originally by FIPSE. In particular, it involved reworking and integrating materials developed for the previously funded Workshop Physics and Tools for Scientific Thinking…

The four papers in this volume are four parts of a series on the status of recent work on measuring instruction, curriculum content, and instructional resources. These papers are intended to identify aspects of instruction, to analyze the approaches used in several leading studies, and to describe the implications of recent work for National…

A Technology in Texas Public Schools 1998 Survey instrument was integrated into a Web-based response system enabling the instrument to be accessed, completed, submitted, and instantaneously analyzed over the Internet. A mark-sense or optical scan paper version of the instrument was also developed for mail-out distribution to each school district…

This paper reports on an evaluation of InfoPoint, a centrally-managed, professionally staffed reference service available at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus Library through a variety of communication modes, including a World Wide Web form, direct e-mail, and chat and collaborative browsing. Over 400 InfoPoint users were sent a…

Computers have become an essential tool in society. Early exposure to computers may help students gain the computer literacy that will be crucial for future success in the workplace. Access to computers at school and at home allows students to retrieve information, manipulate data, and produce results efficiently and in innovative ways. Examining…