Support Capacity
K–12 School Technology Initiative funds provide support of ETV’s Network Technical Services (NTS), and is primarily responsible for supporting the program delivery needs of South Carolina’s K–12 school community. This support includes the planning, installation, and maintenance of all equipment necessary for the schools to receive television programming, regardless of the delivery method.
NTS also offers schools services that include reviewing and approving plans and specifications for new/renovated schools to ensure compliance with ETV established guidelines for the television building distribution system. NTS maintains school television building distribution systems including the repair and/or replacement of the amplifiers, filters, modulators, cable and connectors. In addition, they provide and install satellite downlink and receivers at new schools, relocate/remove satellite downlinks and receivers at renovated/closed schools, relocate/remove ITFS receive towers at new or renovated schools and assist with the installation of school provided VCR(s), DVD(s), cameras, etc.
The Division of the Chief Information Officer effectively utilizes K–12 School Technology Initiative funding to provide network connectivity to connect schools and public libraries with wide area networks. These networks meet local needs and connect each district and main library to the South Carolina backbone network, which links them to state resources and provides connectivity to the Internet. This support is essential for the implementation of online learning, enabling computer-based assessment, and providing data and analysis tools to South Carolina schools.
According to Education Week (2005), more than two-thirds of state technology spending must be concentrated on hardware in order to maintain systems that support new educational resources.
In the area of student administration and data collection, South Carolina is one of only a handful of states to utilize a uniform student administrative system – SASIxp. The K–12 School Technology Initiative funding allows use of SASIxp and provides imperative funds for training districts in effective use and management of this data tool. South Carolina is on course to be one of the first states in the nation to implement systems that will enable local, state, and federal government to make data-driven decisions through unique student identification and longitudinal data tracking. The K–12 School Technology Initiative funding is critical in making the Student Unique Identifier Project and the Longitudinal Data System realities.
South Carolina compares favorably to other states in the number of public classrooms connected to the Internet. This connectivity allows teachers to deliver digital content to their students, thus opening a whole new realm of teaching and research possibilities. Presently, 100 percent of schools and libraries have T-1 or greater connectivity.
K–12 School Technology Initiative funding also provides technical professional development courses in SASIxp which is needed to ensure accurate reporting from the districts in order to ascertain important federal reporting data requirements such as Adequate Yearly Progress. Because of K–12 School Technology Initiative funding, South Carolina was highlighted in Education Week’s Technology Counts 2005 edition as having state funding specifically allocated for educational technology. South Carolina’s two major priorities for technology spending were listed as Internet connectivity and data management which postures the state to meet NCLB mandates focusing on data analysis tools.
K–12 School Technology Initiative funds will play a vital role in sustaining and refreshing South Carolina’s technology in order to maintain hardware, software, connectivity, and infrastructure. Alarmingly, in Education Week’s 2005 report, South Carolina was listed as one of many states with no plan or mechanism to regularly update technology as the point was made that technology must be regularly updated or replaced in order to remain an effective tool for learning.
South Carolina was highlighted in 2005 (Education Week) as being one of only four states piloting computer-based assessment. In 2006, the legislature called for a study regarding the feasibility of a statewide computer based-assessment program. K–12 School Technology Initiative funding will be critical to ensuring the state network, infrastructure and hardware are adequate to sustain such an immense undertaking.