Title

The Role of the Texas Superintendent in District Technology Planning

Author

Lyle W. DuBus

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Summer 2013

Abstract

The role of educational technology has been debated since education began with the Greeks when they questioned using paper versus memory to record thoughts. While technology in the classroom has changed, the debate regarding the role and use of technology in education remains unchanged. Instructional leadership in the district system continues to shape this debate. The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between the superintendent's and campus principals' perceptions of technology implementation and the effect of superintendent tenure using the Texas School Technology and Readiness (STaR) chart. All teachers and campuses in the state of Texas use the STaR chart to indentify strengths and weaknesses in four key areas of technology, teaching and learning, educator preparation and development, administration and instructional support, and infrastructure for technology. Within each area, teachers and campuses are assigned four areas of competency: early tech, developing tech, advanced tech, or target tech. Using descriptive statistics obtained from a campus STaR chart and other publically available databases, the researcher defined relationships based on the perceptions of campus leadership versus district leadership and the role of superintendent tenure. Four Pearson product-moment correlation analyses and four dependent (matched-pair) sample t-tests were conducted to determine the strength of the identified relationships. All four Pearson correlations demonstrated positive results that revealed similarities between superintendents' and principals' perceptions of technology on campus. Three of four dependent sample t-tests demonstrated positive results, and showed that superintendent tenure positively influenced district technology as measured by the STaR chart. The category of leadership, administration, and instructional support showed a weak relationship and represented little impact of tenure using this instrument.

Advisor

Chuck Holt

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision

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