Investigating the Quality of the School Technology Needs Assessment (STNA) 3.0: A Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

Schools and districts should use a well-designed needs assessment to inform important decisions about a range of technology program areas. Presently, there is a lack of valid and reliable instruments available to schools to effectively assess their educational needs to better design and evaluate their projects and initiatives. The School Technology Needs Assessment (STNA) is a free, user-friendly online survey tool that meets this need for planning and formative evaluation of technology projects in educational settings. This study used existing data from a robust sample (n=1918) of educators from across North Carolina to examine the reliability and validity of STNA. A collective review of study results including the literature review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistently reliability analysis indicate that STNA is a high quality instrument. The literature supports the selection and inclusion of STNAs subconstructs. Items in STNA cluster together into 10 factors that support the reliability of the existing constructs identified in STNA. Factors focusing on technology program objectives (Teacher Technology Use, Student Technology Use, Teacher Impact, and Student Impact) were identified as stable, reliable, and invariant across multiple school-level response groups. Additionally, the pattern of responses across school-level groups was the same for 30 out of 49 STNA items related to technology program strategies. A copy of the survey is included in the appendix (see Appendix A) and is available online at http://srvlive.serve.org⁄Evaluation⁄Capacity⁄EvalFramework•resources⁄STNA.php.