FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 6, 2003
CONTACT: Norris Dickard, (202) 638-5770 norris@benton.org
BENTON FOUNDATION RELEASES NEW EDTECH REPORT, THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE
Report: America's $40+ Billion Investment in K-12 Education Technology
Potentially At Risk
Report available online:
http://www.benton.org/Library/sustainability/sus_challenge.pdf (PDF format)
http://www.benton.org/Library/sustainability/sus_challenge.html (text only)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Benton Foundation and the Education Development
Center's Center for Children and Technology (CCT) released their latest
report, The Sustainability Challenge: Taking Edtech to the Next Level, over
the Internet today. In the last 10 years, the United States has invested
over $40 billion placing computers in schools and connecting classrooms to
the Internet; the report cautions that this massive investment in
educational technology, or edtech, may be at risk.
The Sustainability Challenge outlines a number of critical next steps that
are needed to sustain America's edtech infrastructure and insure that this
investment helps support student achievement. The report offers a
"Sustainability Top Ten List" of reforms necessary for insuring that the
nation's edtech investments do not go to waste. The list includes:
* Accelerating teacher professional development
* Professionalizing technical support
* Ensuring all Americans have 21st Century Skills
* Adopting a new national goal to bridge the home and community digital
divides
The report demonstrates that school districts that have implemented
successful and sustainable edtech strategies have certain elements in
common. "In these districts, for example, educational leaders have
articulated a clear vision for technology's role in the classroom," Margaret
Honey of CCT noted. "Their schools offer educators professional development
that goes beyond basic skill-building, and is available for teachers when it
is most relevant and critical to their teaching." The full report presents
these and other key building blocks in a "framework for sustainability."
Highlighting survey data in which tech-savvy students said that most of
their computer use and learning took place at home, The Sustainability
Challenge also points out the growing need for all students to have home
Internet access. The report challenges policymakers to embrace the goal that
all students on reduced and free lunch subsidies should have access to a
computing device and Internet connection at home.
The findings in The Sustainability Challenge were based on fieldwork in
three midwestern cities and a series of roundtables held in New York,
Chicago and Washington, DC. The project was supported with a generous grant
from the Joyce Foundation of Chicago. The report is the third in a series
focusing on federal edtech investments, including The E-Rate in America: A
Tale of Four Cities and Great Expectations: Leveraging America's Investment
in Educational Technology.
Since 1981, the Benton Foundation has worked to realize the social benefits
made possible by the public interest use of communications. Through its
projects, the nonpartisan organization seeks to shape the emerging
communications environment in the public interest. The Benton Foundation is
located in Washington, DC.
(c) Benton Foundation
1625 K Street, NW
Washington DC 20006 USA
phone:202-638-5770 fax: 202-638-5771
email: benton@benton.org
Web: www.benton.org
online version of this release: www.benton.org/press/2003/pr0306.html
***********************************
Andy Carvin
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation
acarvin@benton.org
http://www.benton.org
http://www.digitalopportunity.org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
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