Technology Education Standards Implementation in Florida

Overview & Synopsis

Similar in scope and intent to the National Science Education Standards, the Standards for Technological Literacy were conceptualized as a way to bring more consistency and accountability to the varied technology education K-12 content in the United States (International Technology Education Association, 2000). The organization's goal was to continue the reform of technology education from its industrial arts past to an interdisciplinary and academic future, thus ensuring continued support from educational and political leaders. The future of technology education is uncertain. Technology is changing so rapidly that it is difficult for schools to keep up-to-date technologies in the classrooms (Dugger & Naik, 2001). States are using strong local programs to build a case for technology education as a basic core requirement for graduation (Newberry, 2001). These challenges persuaded leaders of the Technology for All Americans Project and the International Technology Education Association to follow the direction of leaders in science and mathematics in developing standards for the field of technology education. The central problem this paper examines is how content standards devised at the national level filter down into classrooms where teachers make the decision to implement or not. A critical element in dissemination of "top-down" standards is the role of district content area supervisors. There is a paucity of research that explores district-level factors that contribute to or hinder facilitation of education reform. Educational leaders have a lack of understanding about how attributes of the supervisors and districts themselves affect implementation of content standards in classrooms. Two potential results from the study are more efficient ways of disseminating educational innovations in the future and identification of districts that will require more concerted training in the standards. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between school district and technology education district-level supervisor variables and the technology education teachers' perceived levels of classroom implementation of the Standards for Technological Literacy in their respective districts.