Lotusville is a suburban school district in the South with an enrollment of 5,500 students distributed among one high school, three middle schools, and six primary schools. The population has been increasing by approximately 2% per year. The district's tax base has also been rising because of recent commercial development. A formal planning process was implemented in 1998 by the board of education. A district wide Planning Committee was established and has continued to be active in establishing goals and objectives. The membership of the Planning Committee is as follows:

• Three parents, one of whom is the president of the PTA

• Two school board members

• The manager of the local bank, who is a former school board member

• A teacher who represents the teacher's union and who teaches high school mathematics

• The district superintendent

• The director of pupil personnel services for the district

The district superintendent also acts as a resource person for the Planning Committee and has established formal processes for gathering information for the committee's planning activities.

In 1996, at the suggestion of two of the parents, the Planning Committee established an Advisory Committee for Instructional Computing. Although the Planning Committee had always been supportive of computer technology in the instructional programs, the resources devoted to it were increasing significantly. The perception was that a need existed to more carefully review the district's future resource allocation. The Advisory Committee has the following membership:

• Two parents

• The manager of a local computer hardware distributing company

• One school board member

• A teacher who represents the teachers' union and who teaches science in the high school and was a former part-time computer coordinator

• The assistant superintendent for instruction

• The principal of one of the middle schools

The Advisory Committee has worked well with the Planning Committee and has been effective in expanding instructional computing in the district.

In the entire district in 1987, there were 40 microcomputers in two computer laboratories in the high school. One science teacher who was released from half of his teaching responsibilities supervised these. Pascal, BASIC, word processing, and electronic spreadsheets were taught in elective courses within the high school mathematics program. An instructional computing plan was developed in 1988 that called for a significant increase in the number of microcomputers being used for instructional purposes at all grade levels and the hiring of at least one computer teacher for each school by 1995. By 1998, the district had installed 450 microcomputers, primarily in central computer laboratories. Increasingly more units were being distributed to individual classrooms, primarily in the high school. Each school has at least one full-time computer teacher who supervises the laboratories and teaches computer courses. A full-time computer technician has also been hired who maintains the equipment for the entire district. A wide variety of computer software packages is available for all grade levels, including LogoWriter, simulation programs, desktop publishing, word processing, spreadsheet, database, BASIC, and Pascal. All the schools are connected to the Internet including the computer laboratories, libraries, and certain classrooms. All classrooms will be wired this year.

A major issue facing the district's Planning Committee is whether the expansion in instructional computing has been worth the investment in equipment and personnel. Annual standardized test scores indicate that academic achievement has actually been decreasing slightly during the past 5 years. In addition, the teachers' representative on the Planning Committee has stated that many of the primary school teachers would like to see more microcomputers placed in the regular classrooms. The district superintendent has been advised by the assistant superintendent for instruction that locating equipment in the regular classrooms would require a major increase in the number of microcomputers and an extensive new staff development program because many teachers, especially in the primary schools, were not familiar enough with the technology to use it effectively.

Individually analyze the preceding case study.

1. What observations can you make regarding the effectiveness of the planning process in the Lotusville school district?

2. Do you have any suggestions for improving it? Consider especially the structure, membership of the committees, evaluation, and feedback.

3. Compared with your own environment, does Lotusville appear to be more or less effective in the way it plans for technology?

4. If you were the district superintendent, what courses of action might you consider or recommend to the Planning Committee to help resolve some of the recent issues identified regarding instructional computing?

Compare your observations as a team and then create single PowerPoint that responds to each of these questions. (Four slides might be plenty.)