1. Your Name: Susan Ferdon
Name/location of Organization: Schaumburg Community Consolidated School District 54,
Schaumburg, Illinois
Web link of tech plan: http://sd54.org/plans/techplan0508/District54TechPlan2005.pdf
CRITERIA Level of Comments
Comprehensiveness
1 2 3 4
Pages 3 - 5
70+ member committee included
teachers, administrators, students,
Broad Based Support Process
X school board, community
(who was involved in developing it) members, special ed., gifted, tech
staff, engineers and technicians.
Pages 8 & 9
18 sources of data focused in three
targeted goal areas: community
X involvement,
Needs Assessment Breadth & depth curriculum/instruction,
(is everything included) professional development.
Page 7
Written using broad statements, yet
specific enough to provide
X direction. Recognizes depth and
Mission and/or Vision breadth of learning as well as roles
of school and community.
Pages 10-16
All targeted areas (above) are
addressed; focus is on how
technology will improve teaching
Goals and Objectives and learning, not on specific
X hardware/software. Strong
emphasis on staff development and
infrastructure. Strategies and
Activities can be amended/revised
if needed, without adversely
affecting the focus of the plan.
Page 11
GOOD: Tied to NETS; goals are
sufficiently broad.
NOT GOOD: Objectives/activities
Curriculum Integration (if a school)
X lack detail. Marked difference in
specificity between curriculum
goals/activities and goals related to
other areas (staff development, for
example).
2. Page 17-20
A variety of procedures are listed
for gathering assessment and
evaluation data as it relates
Evaluation/Research components community involvement, staff
X development and infrastructure
goals. Indicators of success and
measurement instruments are listed
but those related to
Curriculum/Instruction are not
uniform or research-based
(checklists, rubrics).
This Technology Plan covers three
years, 2005-2008. In Illinois,
schools are required to complete
three-year Technology Integration
X Plans, to be approved by the
Illinois State Board of Education,
Multi-year Planning in order to be eligible for e-Rate
funds.
Pages 11-14
Illinois Learning Standards listed
(1B, 1C) are Language Arts
Standards, unrelated to technology.
NETS 2, 5 & 6 (student) are listed
but actual connections are tenuous
Standards addressed
X and limited at best. Document
states that staff development will
be based on a variety of standards:
NSDC, NETS-T, NETS-A, IPTS,
Information Literacy Standards,
but specific standards are not
identified.
Page 6
District characteristics and
demographics are provided.
District 54 is a K-8 district
comprised of 27 schools serving
about 15,000 students. No site-
specific information is included,
Facilities but one-to-one laptop program has
X been instituted for students in
grades 3-6. Even though the district
is very large, some information
about facilities could still have
been included. Current Illinois
forms used for tech planning
includes a section about facilities.
3. Goals and activities support
hardware, software and
infrastructure concerns. Issues
related to reliability and security
X
are addressed. 16 district tech staff
members were involved in writing
Maintenance and Support the plan.
There are more Activities,
Strategies and Goals related to
Professional Development than any
other targeted area. Activities
X
target specific learners/staff and
utilize a variety of instructional
Staff Development models.
Briefly comment on the overall completeness/comprehensiveness of the technology use plan you
evaluated:
Overall, I believe the plan to be very good. Like any plan, its true effectiveness lies in the
implementation. Those goals and activities that lack specificity could very well be implemented in a
very comprehensive manner thus providing effective training, resources and opportunities for the
community, students and staff alike.
Beginning in September of 2008, Illinois moved to online TIP submission using a template
(http://iirc.niu.edu/). Illinois Technology Integration Plans, to be eligible for e-Rate, are required to be
data-driven. The fact that District 54 used so many sources of data (18) to guide tech planning made it
possible to identify a variety of goals and is one of the plan’s greatest strengths. Many Illinois districts,
including my own, are using only ISAT (state testing) data, which can easily result in a much narrower
focus.