[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 8, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6710-S6711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 1188. A bill to provide grants to State educational agencies and 
local educational agencies for the provision of classroom-related 
technology training for elementary and secondary school teachers; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


                    teacher technology training act

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to 
help teachers use technology in their teaching, the Teacher Technology 
Training Act of 1999.
  This bill has three major provisions:
  It authorizes $500 million for state education departments to award 
grants to local public school districts on the basis of need to train 
teachers in how to use technology in the classroom.
  It specifies that grants may be used to strengthen instruction and 
learning, provide professional development, and pay the costs of 
teacher training in using technology in the classroom.
  It requires the Secretary of Education to evaluate the technology 
training programs for teachers developed by school districts within 
three years.
  I am introducing this bill because teachers say they need to learn 
how to use computers and other technology in their teaching. In a 1998 
survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, only 20 percent 
of teachers said they felt ``well prepared'' to integrate educational 
technology into instruction.
  Furthermore, the training that does exist for these teachers is 
inadequate. In the same Department of Education survey, among full-
time, public school teachers, 78 percent said they had participated in 
professional development programs on using educational technology in 
their instruction, but only 23 percent of those teachers said they felt 
``well prepared'' in this area. Of the teachers who report having 
received some training, 40 percent felt that it had improved their 
classroom teaching only ``somewhat'' or ``not at all.'' This is 
unacceptable. What we see now is that in many schools the students know 
more about how to use computers than the teachers do. In one Kentucky 
school profiled by Inside Technology Training magazine, the students 
run the school's computer systems. The article quoted the school 
district's technology coordinator as saying that the students had 
``long surpassed'' what the teachers could do and

[[Page S6711]]

reported that one student had recently trained twenty teachers on 
software for Web page construction (``Fast Times at Kentucky High,'' 
Inside Technology Training, June 1998).

  I see this problem in my own state. A report by the Los Angeles 
County Office of Education in 1996 found that in Los Angeles County, 
nearly half of the teachers had no experience with computers or had 
only limited familiarity with word processing software. According to a 
1998 report by the California Teachers Association, teachers in 
California rank training in the use of new technology fourth among 
eighteen changes they believe could most improve public education. 
Forty-five percent of the teachers surveyed said more technology 
training would greatly improve conditions for teaching and learning 
(CTA for the Next Century, 1998).
  It is crucial that we given students the opportunity to become 
familiar with technology in their classrooms because post-high school 
education and most good jobs require experience using computers. U.S. 
Commerce Secretary William M. Daley has said, ``Opportunities are now 
dependent upon a person's ability to use computers and engage in using 
the Internet'' (CQ Weekly, ``Digital Haves and Have Nots,'' April 17, 
1999). In my state, a 1997 Rand report found that there is currently a 
shift in the state's economy away from manufacturing and toward higher-
skill service and technology industries, and employers are placing a 
higher premium on the computer skills necessary for these positions 
(Immigration in a Changing Economy, Rand, 1997). Students are better 
educated when their teachers are well trained. We cannot prepare 
students for the increasingly technological workplace without trained 
teachers.
  We have made great efforts to make technology available to students 
in their classrooms, and now we have a national student to computer 
ratio of 10 to 1. Seventy-eight percent of our nation's schools have 
Internet access. These are good first steps.
  But also essential is having teachers and students use all this 
technology in their day-to-day classroom activities when it can enhance 
learning. This will not happen until teachers are trained in how to 
include technology in their instruciton.
  One teacher expressed her frustration in an article in the National 
School Boards Association's Electronic School magazine:

       Most teachers have no model to show them the advantages of 
     hooking up to the projects available on the Internet. And 
     shrinking school budgets don't provide nearly enough money to 
     train teachers in new or visionary techniques. Meanwhile, we 
     can't escape the magazine and newspaper articles touting the 
     Information Superhighway and heralding new ways of responding 
     to, using, and learning information in our society. Well, who 
     most needs to learn to traverse this road successfully? 
     Society future leaders--and their teachers (Electronic 
     School, ``Going Global,'' February 1995).

I agree.
  Our teachers are not prepared to use technology in their classrooms. 
Students need to learn to use modern technology and it can help them 
learn. If we are expecting teachers to use up-to-date methods and 
tools, we must train them to do so. This bill will provide some of the 
funds needed to do that.
  By introducing this bill I am not suggesting that technology is a 
cure-all for the problems in our schools. Technology is one of many 
teaching and learning tools. It can bring some efficiencies to 
learning, for example, providing a new way to do math and spelling 
drills or keeping students engaged in learning while a teacher works 
with other students who need extra help. It can also be an important 
research tool by providing easy access to information that, without a 
computer, is not easily available.
  We expect a great deal from our teachers and students. We must give 
them the resources they need. This bill is one step.

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