The Technology Connections Initiative in the Wake County Public School System and Its Effect on Scale Scores and Passing Rates on State Tests

Abstract

To determine the effects of using the Technology Connections initiative and philosophy on students' scale scores on eighth-grade North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests in reading and math and on the Multiple-Choice and Performance North Carolina Tests of Computer Skills, the researcher used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent group. The pre-post group consisted of all eighth-grade students in grade 8 in the Wake County Public School System who had both a pretest and posttest in reading or math, had not been retained in grade 8, and had been in membership in the system for at least 140 days. The post-test-only group consisted of students in grade 8 who were administered one or both parts of the Tests of Computer Skills and who had not been retained. The experimental group consisted of all grade 8 students in schools that had been named Technology Connections Leader Schools and subsequently had computers in their classrooms and were instructed using constructivist and brain research philosophy. The comparison group had use of a computer lab with the same frequency as the experimental group, but their classrooms had no computers, nor were their teachers trained in constructivist theory and brain research. Both groups were administered the North Carolina Tests of Computer Skills and End-of-Grade Tests. Pooled two-tailed t tests were computed for all tests for 10 student subgroups designated in No Child Left Behind legislation. No significant differences were found for treatment groups in scale scores on pre- and post-test End-of-Grade tests in reading or math, except for the Asian and White subgroups in the experimental group that showed a statistically significant difference on the math tests. There was no significant difference in students' scale scores on either the Multiple-Choice or Performance section of the Computer Skills Tests with the following exceptions: (a) the Black subgroup in the experimental group showed statistically significant differences on the multiple-choice section of the test and (b) both the Black and the Economically Disadvantaged subgroups in the experimental schools showed statistically significant differences on the performance section. While the Technology Connections initiative and philosophy was no more or less effective than traditional methods with regard to achievement for all students, it appeared to make a difference for some subgroups of students.