University educational leadership technology course syllabi alignment with state and national technology standards

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of alignment to national and state standards in public and private university educational leadership certification programs in the state of Florida. The standards used were the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) and the Florida Principal Leadership Standard for Technology (FPLST). A total of 16 university technology leadership course syllabi were examined. Nine syllabi were obtained from 11 public universities and seven were obtained from 11 private universities in Florida. Syllabi were examined using rubrics and assigned to one of three categories: definitely aligned, somewhat aligned and not aligned. A percentage was calculated for each type of school and degree of alignment to national and state standards to determine degree of alignment of syllabi. Inferential statistics were used to compare the degree of alignment between public and private universities. Alignment to national standards was more prevalent in syllabi from public universities than private universities while no significant relationship existed between the type of university and state standards. No inferential tests were conducted comparing traditional course syllabi with blended and online course syllabi, as the sample size of online courses was too small. The study found that technology leadership courses are being offered in a majority of Florida's educational leadership programs, indicating a growing commitment to the field. Although most universities offer a course in technology leadership, syllabi are not addressing some key national and state standards.