On-site technology coordinators and their impact on the achievement of technology standards in Broward County, Florida, public schools

Studying the relationship between the achievement of technology standards and the availability of on-site support will help educational leaders prepare and modify individual and district-wide technology plans in the years ahead. There are many factors influencing success rates in attaining these standards, including the availability of hardware and software, the adequacy of the equipment, and the amount of training provided to teachers. The relationships between the predictor variable, on-site support and the dependent variables, hardware, software, training, integration, and networking were investigated using correlation analysis in the 190 public schools of Broward County, Florida. The relationships between the additional predictor variables of socioeconomic status and school level and the dependent variables were also examined. An alpha level of.01 was used for all statistical tests. Correlations were found to be significant (p<.01) between on-site support (N=190) and the dependent variables, hardware (r=.338), software (r=.563), training (r=.451), integration (r=.432), and networking (r=.315). Correlations between socioeconomic status (n=174) and school level (N=190) and the dependent variables were found not to be significant (p<.01). The study confirmed that increased levels of technological support helped public schools in Broward County realize greater success in achieving specific technology standards. Educational leaders should consider these findings significant when staffing schools and centers. Further, the socioeconomic status of a school did not influence the achievement of technology standards in the sample. This indicated that schools in this study had access to hardware, software, training, and other resources at a level equal to each other. Broward County policymakers seemed to have succeeded with their efforts to ensure that all schools had access to the funds and other resources needed to meet the locally established standards of technology.