Objective
To identify a set of key components essential to building a National Education Technology Plan (NETP), including identifying themes, recommendations and stakeholders.

Key Question: Why should a national education technology plan be developed and how will a national plan help state education leaders?

Under the new requirements of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the U.S. Secretary of Education is to develop a long-range national plan for educational technology to promote and enable measurement of the extent to which the Nation's schools are effectively using technology. Achieving a new national vision of the potential of technology for improving and transforming education in this country will depend heavily on state leadership and on the capacity of state education agencies to successfully implement its goals.

Guidance from SETDA
The NETP is a critical priority for state education technology leaders. Realizing the opportunity to collaborate with the federal government on the development of a national education technology plan, the National Education Technology Plan (NETP) Work Group effort involved the identification of themes that should be inherent to all aspects of the NETP. The group also developed a set of recommendations to be included in the NETP and a list of critical stakeholders who should be consulted in the development of the NETP.

Key Themes
The NETP Work Group determined that a visionary National Education Technology Plan must strive to improve student achievement, build partnerships, develop leaders and provide flexibility for innovation. The group stated that the key elements needed to achieve this balance included: future vision; leadership; collaboration; capacity building; and, sustainability.

Recommendations
To begin the process of collaboration on the national plan, the NETP Work Group issued five (5) recommendations in this toolkit. The consensus of the group believes that a national plan should:

1. Promote technologies and electronic-based services that influence learning and achievement
2. Strengthen the quality of education leaders and professional educators
3. Ensure equity, access and use
4. Acknowledge the significance of the new educational policy framework and other critical policies and strategies currently in place to meet requirements;
5. Develop the plan through widespread public participation with recommendations from educators and other stakeholders at all levels.

Critical Stakeholders
Based on the dialogue around recommendations, the NETP Work Group also started an outline of key stakeholders whose input would help develop a dynamic national plan. The list includes categories such as business, minority/ethnic groups, professional organization, administrators, teachers and many others. The NETP Work Group expects this list to grow further as the NETP development progresses.

SEDTA Tools to Assist States
This toolkit provides education leaders with:

• A list of key components essential to building a National Education Technology Plan
• A set of recommendations for the Federal Government for incorporation into the development of a National Education Technology Plan
• A list of stakeholders who should be involved in the development of a National Education Technology Plan

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Scientifically Based Research | Technology Literacy Assessment | Common Data Elements | Effective Teaching with Technology Assessment | National Education Technology Plan

© 2003 SETDA. Toolkit Resources