Martha Meloy

Technology Program Evaluation

Fall 2010

Practicum Requirements for FRIT 7738

1
 Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Organizational Structure 4

Methods 5

Center Context and Goals 6

Center Activities 8

Evaluation 10

Monthly Report 12

Appendix A – Email Interview Questions and Answers 13

Appendix B – In-depth Analysis of Technology Specialist of Tritt Elementary 14

Appendix C – Trackstar Examples Created by Technology Specialist 15

Appendix D – Example Lessons from Tritt Elementary Computer Labs 16

2
 Executive Summary

The focus for this program evaluation was a high achieving elementary school in

Marietta, GA. Tritt Elementary School is located on the northwest side of Atlanta, GA. It

is a school that consistently produces high test scores in regards to state and standardized

yearly tests. This report will provide the reader with the organizational structure of the

two computer labs that are housed within the school and review the responsibilities of the

technology specialist who runs both of the computer labs of the school. Methods of how

information was obtained will be highlighted giving a clear context of the center and its

goals, which is to promote academic growth in an attempt to exceed state standards.

Technology use at Tritt Elementary is a high priority in that the Tritt Tiger Foundation

supports the technology specialist position at the school, not county funds. Center

activities will be discussed from both computer labs enabling the reader to conclude that

the technology center at Tritt Elementary School containing two computer labs for

student use is functioning at a high level of efficiency.

3
 Organizational Chart

Technology Center – Two Separate Computer Labs

Tritt Elementary School, Marietta, GA

Georgia Department of Education

Georgia State Standards – Guide the
lessons and activities of the school’s
technology labs.

Cobb County School District

Marietta, GA – Purchases hardware,
software and provides tier 2 technical
support for the labs.

Karen Frost
Principal
Tritt Elementary School

Tritt Tiger Foundation Mission-To provide an ongoing means of

philanthropy and funding to assure that our community of students,
educators and families can continue to provide programs and strategies that
maintain Tritt's leadership and excellence in elementary education.
The Tritt Tiger Foundation funds the Technology Specialist of the School
as well as providing other computer lab needs such as extra headsets or
additional software.

Betsy Gravalec – Technology

Specialist of the School
She runs and maintains two computer
labs at the school. One lab is used
primarily for Pre-K to 2nd grade. The
other lab is used for 3rd grade to 5th
grade.

Computer Lab for Pre – K to 2nd Computer Lab for 3rd Grade to 5th
Grade Grade

Teachers at Tritt Elementary School

Teachers can utilize both labs
at the school.

Students at Tritt Elementary School

4
 Methods

There were multiple methods used in gathering information for this program

evaluation report. An email interview was used to collect information about the

technology specialists of the school. Appendix A exhibits the questions used in the

interview with the answers obtained. Information was gained from an in-depth analysis of

the technology specialist at Tritt Elementary School. Information about the content that

guides instruction for the computer labs were obtained from the Cobb County Website

utilizing the link for “Picasso Parents” http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/picasso/.

This link gives access to and informs about the Technology Literacy Standards for

students in Cobb County. Information regarding funding and expenses of the computer

lab were obtained from the Tritt Tiger Foundation. This site can be utilized at

http://www.trittfoundation.com/. The last method of obtaining information for this

program evaluation was obtained from the school’s website and the computer lab’s blog.

The websites can be found at http://www.cobbk12.org/Tritt/ and

http://tritt.typepad.com/computerlab/. Multiple methods of collecting data were used to

construct this report.

5
 Center Context and Goals

The technology center under evaluation is located in the northwest suburban side

of Atlanta. Tritt Elementary School is a place where students achieve high and parents

have high expectations. There are over 900 students at the elementary school. There are

such high standards for success at this school that they have established a foundation to

further meet the needs of their students above and beyond what the county funds. Tritt

Elementary has been in existence for 30 years. The technology growth at this school has

been phenomenal.

This school offers a vast potential for technology use by their students and

teachers. Besides a fully functional computer lab in the media center this school houses

two separate computer labs for student and teacher use. Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st grade

and 2nd grade students primarily use one lab that contains 28 computers, a Promethean

Interactive Board, LCD projector and one teacher computer. The school also has another

lab that contains 30 computers and is primarily used by 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. It

also has a Promethean Interactive Board, LCD projector and one teacher computer. The

school also has 4 laptop carts that can be checked out for use, which contain 96 laptops

available for students to use in their classrooms.

The Tiger Foundation has allowed this high achieving school to obtain technology

components above and beyond other schools in the county. The mission of the school and

the Tiger Foundation is to provide an ongoing means of philanthropy and funding to

assure that the community of students, educators and families can continue to provide

programs and strategies that maintain Tritt's leadership and excellence in elementary

education. The stakeholders of this establishment are its students, parents and faculty

members who belong to this excellent community of learners.

6
 The goals of the computer labs at this school are to meet and exceed standards

using Georgia State Standards to guide instruction. The technology specialist manages

two computer labs within the school, which includes scheduling and equipment

maintenance on both computer labs. The goal of this position is to create engaging,

challenging lessons for Kindergarten though 5th grade students. The technology specialist

must also troubleshoot hardware and software issues that arise. Her main objective is to

run the school’s computer labs efficiently, work with teachers and students to show

academic gains, and problem solve technology issues and software upgrades that are

needed. She works closely with the administration and the media specialist. The Media

Center provides additional resources that the computer lab doesn’t offer. Together they

make a strong team to ensure a high level of technology is utilized at their school. One

idea noted here is that the technology specialist is not funded with county funds. Her

position is funded by the Tiger Foundation, which receives contributions from the parents

and the community. The current status of this center is a fully functional, high achieving

technology center that allows for vast utilization of technology at the elementary school

level.

7
 Center Activities

Georgia Performance Standards guide the activities carried out by this center.

They are determined by grade level. The Technology Literacy Standards that Cobb

County has determined important for mastery also guide instruction in the labs. All

activities are performed in the computer lab but the technology specialist has allowed for

extension activities that students can complete at home. By utilizing Trackstar, Mrs.

Gravalec gives ample opportunities for students to master important skills outside of the

computer lab. Mrs. Gravalec uses Trackstar in the computer labs for all grade levels Pre-

K through Fifth Grade. Parents can access skills taught during the day and allow for extra

practice a home. Appendix C has Trackstar examples that Mrs. Gravalec uses for

teaching in the lab to meet the standards, which can also be used for extension at home.

In doing an investigation of the available software of the school and observing

lessons taught I realize that students are challenged at different levels and lessons

encompass a variety of thinking strategies. There are numerous software titles that get

utilized at Tritt. Different grade levels utilize various applications in the computer labs.

The younger grades utilize appropriate Internet sites, Kid Pix, Kidspiration, Mega Math,

Type to Learn, Graph Club and more. The older grades utilize Microsoft office including

Word and PowerPoint, Graph Club, Mega Math, Movie Maker, Timeliner and more. Mrs.

Gravalec has developed numerous notebooks that are full of meaningful lessons. She has

combined standards with available software, Internet sites and Trackstar when

appropriate to create worthwhile, engaging lessons for computer lab instruction. Her

lesson books are a tremendous resource for Tritt Elementary School. Please see Appendix

D for some example lessons.

8
 There are other activities that are administered in the computer labs at Tritt

Elementary. Students must take certain assessments three times a year using the

Scholastic Reading Inventory to determine a lexile score and Star Early Literacy to

determine vocabulary scores. The technology specialist is also responsible for recording

and dispersing this data. In 3rd trough 5th grade students partake in Georgia’s Online

Assessment System. The mission of the OAS is to provide school districts, classroom

teachers, students, and parents support for classroom instruction and student learning.

Test items are aligned to the state-mandated curriculum, which allow for the development

of student learning. The two computer labs at Tritt Elementary School have many

available resources for teaching and for learning within their school community.

9
 Evaluation

After collecting information regarding the two computer labs at Tritt Elementary

School it is apparent that they are using technology in ways that promote student

academic growth, which is one of the overall goals of the school. Students are expected

to use various levels of thinking as they complete computer lab lessons. Mrs. Gravalec

does a wonderful job at differentiating the lessons to meet all needs of her student’s

abilities. For example when I observed a lesson on graphing temperature data creating a

bar and line graph using Graph Club software, students were given opportunities to make

observations about their graphs, which gave higher achieving students an opportunity to

apply their writing skills effectively. The technology specialist uses various software

applications to enhance the learning process across all standards of teaching. Students

work on math skills and language skills within both computer labs, which fosters

academic growth utilizing numerous benchmarks of the state standards.

Scheduling of the computer labs is also done efficiently. Both labs have a sign up

sheet and are indicated when the technology specialist is available in that particular lab.

She runs both labs by getting them up and running in the morning and shutting them

down at the end of the day. She teaches different days of the week in each lab delegating

her time between both labs. Teachers can work with her or without her in the lab, which

offers teachers who want to extend their own curriculum with technology giving ample

opportunities to use technology.

Tritt Elementary School has the potential to use technology with the learning

process in numerous ways. Not only do they have two separate computer labs that

facilitate the needs of various grade levels, they also have four laptop carts teachers may

10
check out and use in their classrooms, making ninety-six total additional computers for

educational purposes. The potential for technology use is plentiful at Tritt Elementary.

One factor that stood out to me in this evaluation process was the fact that the

technology coordinator has many county responsibilities but is not paid by the county.

She is responsible for keeping up with the school’s testing database records and does

much of the troubleshooting issues that arise during the school day. It’s ironic that the

county doesn’t fund her position yet she has many county responsibilities. I wonder who

would be in charge of these major tasks if her school’s foundation couldn’t afford to pay

her? Would someone with fewer qualifications be hired to complete her job duties?

Recommendations for the continued success of the lab are as follows. It is

recommended to continue the success at Tritt Elementary that each teacher utilize the

computer lab at least one time each nine weeks without the guidance of the technology

specialist. It is also recommended that a school wiki be created to facilitate lesson ideas

among fellow teachers. This wiki will be used to promote technology growth above and

beyond the already strong foundation that the technology specialist has provided. It is

apparent that the two computer labs are functioning at a high level of efficiency. The

recommendations that have been made will only promote technology use and the

enhancement of the school’s vision of academic growth and allowing for the

development of 21st century learners.

11
 Monthly Report

First Quarter of School Year - August 2010 to October 2010

Goal – Our Goal is to exceed the technology standards provided by the state and county.

Trackstar – Trackstar is an efficient way for students to review and master skills taught in the computer lab extending practice at home.
Please use the Computer Lab Blog to locate information regarding Trackstar. http://tritt.typepad.com/computerlab/

Year Long Goal - Students will create and publish a bound book providing an authentic purpose of writing and technology uses. Each
student will create his or her own book. The Tritt Tiger Foundation pays for the books. For the first quarter of the 2010 school year
students completed the following activities.

Grade Level Number of Activities Performed in Tritt Elementary School’s Computer Labs
Classes Served
Kindergarten 7 Welcome to the computer lab, Mouse skills using preselected Internet sites, Mega Math skills –recognizing numbers 1 – 10,
extending patterns and understanding position words, Kid Pix to draw pictures, Mega Math- counting, shapes and patterns
1st Grade 7 Star Testing, Began to use webbing software as a prewriting activity using pictures to describe details using pictures, Began
illustrating writing with details, sorting pictures with long and short vowel sounds, drawing their favorite weather in Kid Pix,
Mega Math Skills, Drawing addition sentences with pictures, Accelerated Reading lesson, Mega Math – addition and
subtraction, Graph Club
2nd Grade 6 Star Testing, Began to use webbing software as a prewriting activity using pictures to describe details and began to typing
details in their webs, writing about bedrooms and drawing pictures using Kid Pix, Mega Math Skills – addition, money and
reading graphs, keyboarding skills and the home row keys, Graph Club, Story web using Kidspiration
3rd Grade 7 Star Testing, Created a web using their senses when they visit a particular place, Math skills, created webs about the Branches
of Government, written friendly letters, inferencing skills, Power Point, Keyboarding, Graph Club, Math Practice
4th Grade 6 Star Testing, Practice logging into school network using student ID’s, learning how to access online textbooks from the school
website, Investigating the new school website showing how to access the calendar and grade level links, weather web quest on
the Internet, Trackstar Language Arts and Math lessons, producing writing projects using Microsoft Word and Power Point,
Simple Machines Investigation
5th Grade 5 Star Testing, Practice logging into school network using student ID’s, learning how to access online textbooks from the school
website, Investigating the new school website showing how to access the calendar and grade level links, Math skills using
Mega Math and the Internet, Descriptive writing, Descriptive writing monster project, Graphs focusing on mean, mode, median
and range

The expectations are high for the computer labs at Tritt Elementary School and Mrs. Gravalec is providing instructional activities

that facilitate exceptional student learning opportunities. The information portrayed in this table is a snapshot of one quarter of a year’s

worth of success and growth for Tritt students.

12
 Appendix A – Interview Questions and Answers from Email Interview

Questions:
1. What is the size of and level of your organization?
Tritt Elementary School has 900+ students.

2. How long have you been a technology coordinator?

6 years

3. What do you envision as your primary role in your position?

The primary role of the technology instructor at Tritt is to manage the two computer labs inside the school.
This includes scheduling and equipment maintenance.

4. Please list all of your duties as a technology coordinator.

Maintain computers in labs. Troubleshoot errors and problems with equipment in lab (computers, printers,
scanners, other peripherals). Keep lab clean and in excellent working order.
Support the classroom teachers in the computer lab by providing lessons to enhance classroom curriculum,
locating appropriate web resources, supply supplemental instruction to students and teachers on the
operation of the equipment in the computer labs and provide software support when needed.
Maintain a complete schedule for computer labs. Manage schedule to maximize the usage of each lab.
Maintain and update school website as often as needed to meet the needs of the school.
Review and test programs to assess the need for new or upgraded software to meet the needs of the school.
Administer online and computerized testing as required by the school district. Maintain testing database
records to reflect current enrollment.

5. What sort of assistance do you receive in doing your job?

Administration - Provides guidance and funding.
Classroom Teachers - Assess needs of class to be able to support students in the computer lab.
Media Center - provides additional equipment support and research resources to be used in the labs.
School Foundation - provides funding and support for the technology instructor position.
Cobb County School District - provides tier 2 support for student and staff network accounts.

6. What are the parts of your job that you really enjoy?
Developing engaging lessons for K-5. Website design and maintenance. Troubleshooting hardware and
software problems.

7. What parts of the job would you rather have someone else do?
Clean up.

8. If you could restructure your position and responsibilities, how would you do it?
I would want it to be a salaried, benefited position. The position is currently funded by the school
foundation, which relies on donations from the parents and the community to provide 2 school instructors
as well as funding many school projects not available from the school district budget.

9. What words of wisdom do you have for successfully Coordinating Technology in an Educational
Setting?
Know more than your students!

Betsy Gravalec
Computer Lab Manager
Tritt Elementary School
Marietta, GA

13
 Appendix B – In-depth Analysis of Technology Specialist of Tritt Elementary School

Maintain a complete
Locate schedule for two
appropriate web Provide software Maintain and update
computer labs located
resources for the support when school website as
in the school to
school needed often as needed to
maximize usage of each meet the needs of
lab the school

Administration

Provide supplemental
Support
instruction to students
and teachers on the
operation of Administer online
technology equipment computerized testing as
required by the school
district
Support classroom
teachers in the computer
lab by providing lessons to
enhance classroom Maintain testing
curriculum database records to
reflect current
enrollment

Duties of a Technology
Coordinator at the School Level

Review and test programs to

assess the need for new or
upgraded software to meet the
needs of the school

Educational
Maintenance

Troubleshoot errors and

problems with equipment in lab Keep lab clean
including computers, scanners, and in excellent
printers and other peripherals working order

14
 Appendix C – Trackstar Information obtained from Tritt’s Computer Lab Blog
“Trackstar- I have been using Trackstar in the computer labs for quite a while for all
grade levels (Pre-School through Fifth Grade). I wanted to share my tracks with you so
that you can use them at home. To access Trackstar, please go to the following web
address:
http://trackstar.4teachers.org

Enter the track number where you see the empty box labeled View Track Number. Click View in Frames
so that navigation is easier.
Enjoy!”
• 413265 Preschool Mouse Practice
• 415568 Preschool Practice
• 412766 Kindergarten Mouse Practice
• 404958 Kindergarten Games
• 403760 Kindergarten Review
• 416922 Kindergarten Second Nine Weeks
• 396457 First Grade Coins and Shapes
• 383775 First Grade - Classification
• 383033 First Grade Fun LInks
• 398080 First Grade 1st Semester Review
• 384624 First Grade Grammar
• 416228 First Grade Language Practice (reading and punctuation)
• 413209 Second Grade 1st Nine Weeks - Language Arts
• 392581 Second Grade Plural Nouns
• 412761 Second Grade Place Value
• 384865 Second Grade Links
• 416476 Second Grade Shapes and Angles
• 416562 Second Grade Subtraction Practice
• 413163 Third Grade 1st Nine Weeks
• 413637 Third Grade Reading - Inference
• 417605 Third Grade Georgia Habitats
• 391525 Fourth Grade Language Arts Practice
• 413179 Fourth Grade 1st Nine Weeks
• 383702 Fourth Grade Fun Links
• 413872 Fourth Grade Weather Webquest
• 417352 Fourth Grade Explorers
• 413181 Fifth Grade 1st Nine Weeks
• 393219 Fifth Grade A Personal Journal - Gettysburg
• 384310 Fifth Grade Bridge to Terabithia
• 415014 Online Keyboarding Practice (beginner to advanced)

15
Appendix D – Lesson Examples from Tritt Elementary School

16