A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF)

Companion Document to the Performance Report

The Companion Document to the TLCF performance report provides instructions, additional examples, and directions for the report. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1810-0608. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 40 hours per state education agency and 5 hours per subgrantee. These estimates include time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: US Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202-4651. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to: Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, US Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202-6100.

The Performance Report and the Companion Document are intended to be read side-by side. The Companion Document clarifies items contained in the performance report by providing 1) an explanation of the purpose of each section, 2) relevant citations of legislation, EDGAR, and performance indicators, and 3) additional instructions and suggestions for responding to the items.

The purpose of the items and pertinent citations are in italics while additional instructions are in normal font. Each term underlined is defined in the glossary at the end of this document.

The Performance Report and the Companion Document are intended to be read side-by side.

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund

This performance report is intended to collect annual information that is reliable and of high-quality regarding the use of funds under the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) and the progress of each State towards meeting its goals for educational technology. We intend this performance report to serve as one instrument in understanding the national picture of educational technology as well as the impact of the TLCF. The explicit purposes for the performance report are:

• to provide data regarding the effectiveness of the TLCF statute and program implementation;
  • targeting funds and assistance to districts with a high number or percentage of children in poverty and with the greatest need for technology;

  • partnerships with businesses, libraries, and other public and private entities;

  • The State's plan for financing educational technology;

• to determine the progress each State is making in regard to the four National Pillars;
  • data regarding the four National Goals is requested about both LEA subgrantees and States;

• to provide an opportunity for States to gauge their own progress toward the fulfillment of their educational technology plans; and
  • information concerning the State's goals across the entire State for all of the State's educational technology efforts (not just TLCF) including the use of local, State, and other national funding;

• to update and expand State benchmarks and timelines for future technology planning and implementation.
  • the State technology plan as a living, flexible document that changes as progress toward earlier goals is made.

The four national pillars for educational technology and the related national program performance indicators are provided at the end of this document.

1. Reporting Period

This section ensures that reporting across States is for the same period of time so that the activities for which performance is reported can be linked to the funds provided.

The first performance report for the TLCF is due December 1, 1998. It should provide information regarding activities from the time the State received its first TLCF award (FY 1997) and may include information for its FY 1998 award if subgrants were made prior to September 30, 1998 (See Table below). This first performance report will cover the entire period for which FY 1997 funds were available and for the obligation of any FY 1998 funds made by September 30, 1998.

Therefore, while the State may need to provide information for activity of two fiscal years on a single performance report, once funds from any fiscal year are reported on, the information should not be repeated on a subsequent performance report.

The second reporting period will be from October 1, 1998, to September 30, 1999, and so on for each additional year of the TLCF. "Fiscal year" refers to the federal fiscal year for which the TLCF funds were appropriated. The federal fiscal year is shown under "FY" in block 8 of the State's grant award document.

*If activities for this fiscal year are reported during this period, then the State will not need to report on these funds on the next performance report.

2. Information on State Goals and Assistance

This section allows the US Department of Education to collect information on specific items addressed in the TLCF legislation. It also provides information regarding State goals to allow the US Department of Education to get a better understanding of the picture of educational technology nationwide and, through later analysis, estimate progress towards the four national pillars. Items specified below pertain to the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) 34 CFR 80.40, Section 3132 (a)(2)(A)(B), (b)(1)(A)(B), (b)(2) and Section 3133 (1) and (2) of Title III Subpart 2 of ESEA, and the US Department of Education, education technology indicator: Private sector collaboration. (Private sector participation in planning, support and implementation of statewide education technology plans will increase).

Information in the table will help the US Department of Education better understand the relationship of State goals to the four Pillars and provide a basis for work with individual States in carrying out their plans for educational technology. It will also enable limited national reporting on States' assessments of their own progress, to the extent that the information is available.

2a. [State Plan]

I. [State learning goals and benchmarks]

ii. [Updates]

iii. [Table 1, Educational Technology Goals for the State] States with explicit goals, measures, benchmarks, and timelines should use this table to report on their progress as it relates to the four national goals. States without such means of gauging progress are strongly encouraged to develop and report on them. For column 3, the State should provide the date the baseline data was obtained; for column 4, the date the most recent comparable data was obtained and its status.

2b. [State Evaluations] The Department is required to report the results of State evaluations of the TLCF to the Congress. In order for the Department to comply, States must provide summary information of State evaluations that include TLCF-funded activities. At a minimum, States must provide summary information on evaluations performed by districts receiving TLCF funds as required by section 3135 of ESEA.

2c. [Financial Plan] Please include all sources of non-Federal State-level funding for elementary and secondary education, such as legislative funding (line items, educational trust funds), private foundation funding, or telephone company rate-payer settlements, etc., to provide a comprehensive view of statewide financial support for educational technology. Funding need not be under the control of the SEA to be listed.

[Note:] Please include non-monetary support such as that provided through Tech Corps, private foundations, and professional development bundled with software purchases.

2d. [Technical Assistance] In responding to this section, please answer, at a minimum, the following questions:

• Describe the technical assistance offered to LEAs in conjunction with the TLCF. What technical assistance have you provided unsuccessful subgrant applicants?

  For example, did the State's Techcorps offer technical assistance to particular LEAs? Did the ED-funded Regional Consortia provide assistance? Any Technology Innovation Challenge Grants assisting? Were grant-writing workshops the primary focus of the SEAS technical assistance? Were examples of good local technology plans provided?

• How did you determine the types of technical assistance that would be offered to LEAs?
• How did you determine whether the technical assistance provided was effective?

  For example, were the applicants that were provided with assistance successful in applying for the TLCF? Were district educational technology plans changed and improved? Was there a difference in effectiveness between on-site meetings that provided tailored assistance and more general assistance with applying?

• What changes will you make in the technical assistance for educational technology to be offered in the future?

3. Information on State TLCF Subgrant Process

This section collects information on program implementation at the State level. The information will be used in analysis of State policies and the effect of the TLCF. Information requested pertains to Section 3132 (a)(2)(A)(B), (b)(1)(A)(B), (b)(2).

3a. [Strategy]

3b. [Targeting Assistance]

I. [Definitions/Criteria]

ii. [Targeting]

3c. [Subgrant Awards]

[Table 3] Subgrants in this table should be grouped by fiscal year, and, if there is more than one competition in a fiscal year, grouped by competition within the fiscal year. The newest awards should be listed first.

(1) If an award was made to a consortium, please provide the name of the fiscal agent that received the funds on behalf of the consortium and note in the column provided (4) that it is a consortium award. LEAs that have received a continuation award during the reporting period should also be listed.

(2) Provide the code number that the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) uses to identify the district. If you do not know the code, use the NCES search system to locate any school within the school district. The search system is located on the NCES website: <http://www.nces.ed.gov/>. It permits you to search by entering the district name, county of the district's location, or any of the schools within the district. The file for any school in a district will list the district code.

(3) The amount of the award from one fiscal year. Recipients that received awards from more than one fiscal year during the reporting period should be listed for each fiscal year with the amount for each fiscal year.

(4) Please respond "yes" or "no" as appropriate.

(5) When identifying the number of teachers and students affected by the program and as a result of the leveraging of the funds, please try to be as close to the >real' number as possible. (e.g. The funding is used to integrate technology into the fourth grade science curriculum at three elementary schools. Therefore, the number of students impacted is the number of fourth grade science students and their teachers in those three schools rather than the total number of students in those schools.)

(7) A yes response indicates that the LEA has met the definition/criteria defined in Section 3b.

(8) A yes response indicates that the LEA has met the definition/criteria defined in Section 3b.

(9) Please complete this item even for subgrantees listed for a previous fiscal year.

4. Summary Information on TLCF Subgrants

This section enables the US Department of Education to report on the use of funds from prior years and to gather descriptive information about subgrants to illustrate the use of funds. Items, as specified below, pertain to Section 3134 and 3135 of Title III Subpart 2 of ESEA, and the US Department of Education, education technology indicators: Training tied to certification, Staff access, Staff training, Student access, Access in high poverty schools, School access, Classroom access, and Classroom use.

[Note: This section of the performance report may be deleted from the performance report requirements at such time that the US Department of Education devises a data collection instrument that addresses the items included in this section.]

In order to collect information regarding subgrant activities, it will be necessary for States to provide this information after the LEA has expended its award. Therefore, for the first performance report, this section will be completed only on those FY 1997 LEA subgrantees. The second performance report will include this section on FY 1998 LEA subgrantees and so forth. The state may choose to detach this section from the overall performance report and distribute it to its subgrantees for completion.

Information requested in this section must be submitted for all subgrantees.

4a. [LEA Administrative Data] For simplicity, the state may choose to complete this item on behalf of its subgrantees before distributing section 4 to its subgrantees.

[Subgrantee name] For consortia, please list all partners, their NCES district codes (if appropriate), and indicate which district is the fiscal agent.

[NCES district code] Provide the code number that the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has assigned to the district. If you do not know the code, use the NCES search system to locate any school in the school district. The search system is located on the NCES website: <http://www.nces.ed.gov/>. It permits you to search by entering the district name, county of the district's location, or any of the schools within the district. The file for any school in a district will list the district code.

[Amount of TLCF award] Enter the amount of the award for the period being reported on.

[Reporting period of the award] See section 1 of the TLCF performance report.

4b. [LEA Technology Plans]

(1) If the consortium has specific goals of its own, please list them. Otherwise, list each districts' educational technology goals that are directly impacted by the TLCF award.

4c. [State Technology Plan] Districts should report how district goals relate to State goals. For example, given a State goal that "Students, teachers, staff, and administrators will have access to advanced technology for curriculum integration and administration," a district could report its goals identified in Table 4 regarding, for example, progress on connectivity and upgrading computers in order to enhance the curriculum support this State goal.

4d. [Subgrantee Learning Goals] Section 3135 (1)(B) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) states that all recipients of a TLCF subgrant shall have a long-range plan that "[explains] how the acquired technologies will be integrated into the curriculum to help the local educational agency enhance teaching, training, and student achievement."

If the consortium has specific goals of its own, please list them. Otherwise, list each districts' learning goals that are directly impacted by the TLCF award.

4e. [Use of Funds]

(1) Complete the table for each that apply: professional development, hardware, connectivity, curriculum/software/on-line resources, other (please explain). See Section 3134 of the ESEA, Local Uses of Funds.

(2-5) Indicate if not applicable.

4f. [Strategy] If the consortium does not have specific goals or partnerships of its own, then refer to each districts' goals as stated in item 4b and partnerships.

4g. [Four pillars] This section reports the progress subgrantees have made toward the 4 pillars.

The Likert Scale, should include consideration of all (federal, State, and local) funding sources available to the subgrantee. Indications of effect are to be reported from the self-perception of the district at the end of the fiscal year. If you are reporting for a consortium, make the determination based on the progress of all districts in the consortium as a whole.

The bottom of the range for the pillar regarding modern multi-media computers is based on the national baseline established by Market Data Retrieval and reported in "Technology Counts," Education Week, November 10, 1997, p.20.

The bottom of the range for the pillar regarding connectivity to the Information Superhighway is based on the national baseline established by the National Center for Education Statistics, Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996, 1997.

The COMMENT section is to report solely on the effect the TLCF has had on the subgrantee. Questions to consider under the COMMENT section could include, but are not limited to:

• What part did the TLCF play in the district technology plan?

   

   

• Did the TLFC result in other funds being used for educational technology?

   

   

• Did the TLCF spark progress?

   

   

Glossary

Classroom

Rooms in the school building used for any instructional purposes (includes classrooms, labs, media centers, art rooms, rooms used for vocational or special education, etc.)

Core content areas

Include English, mathematics, science (including physics), history, geography, foreign languages, the arts, civics and government, and economics (Section 306 (9)(c) of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act).

Information Superhighway

Internet, a network of networks all running TCP/IP protocols, sharing the same underlying network address space as well as the same domain name space, and interconnected into a network of information.

Modern multi-media computer

Computer with CD-ROM, graphics, and sound capabilities.

Support

Administrative, technical, and local financial foundation

Teaching workforce

Classroom teachers, school administrators, and school librarians.

Training

Professional development that enables the teaching workforce to effectively use education technology to help students learn through modern multimedia computers and the Information Superhighway

[Part C. Specific Priority Areas]

[SDFSCA Reporting Form for State Educational Agencies]

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