School technology use and achievement on statewide assessment: Is there a relationship?

Abstract

As our nation becomes engulfed in the “standards and assessment” movement, school-based technology integration is at a critical juncture. After investing billions of dollars for the incorporation of technology into the classroom, many are interested in understanding the impact of this investment. For some investors, particularly proponents of data-driven decision making, a key indicator for the value of technology integration is student performance on statewide assessments. The present study investigates the relationship between technology and standardized achievement at the school level. First, the latent structure of the components of a statewide technology survey is examined using factor analysis. Resultant factors are then used to investigate technology\u27s relationship with student performance on the Maryland State Performance Assessment, controlling for known predictors including class size, school type, and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price meals. Dependent variable measures include 3rd, 5th and 8th grade student achievement in mathematics, science, social studies, reading and writing. Findings from the factor analysis reveal two latent constructs inherent in the school-based technology survey items: student technology use and teacher technology use. Results from the multiple regression analysis using the student and teacher technology use variables in conjunction with the control variables (percentage of students receiving free or reduced meals, pupil teacher ratio, and school location) show that both student technology use in school and teacher technology use in school are positive predictors of achievement for all subject areas and grade levels studied. However, not all of these positive relationships are statistically significant. Variation in the relative importance of student technology or teacher technology use is found across grade level and subject areas