Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent

"We have lots of good school districts in our country. We have just a few great school districts. Getting from good to great is a quantum leap. Technology plays such a significant role in that."
— Dr. John Morton, Superintendent, Newton (KS) Public Schools

Of all the challenges you face as a superintendent, technology leadership may be the one that leaves you feeling the most unprepared, uncertain and vulnerable.

You're not alone. Superintendents in districts of every size and geographic region expressed similar sentiments about technology in focus groups and one-on-one interviews with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), the nation's premier voice for technology leadership in K-12 education:

• Superintendents recognize that technology is critically and increasingly important in education. They embrace their leadership role as technology advocates who create the vision and set the tone for technology use in their districts. At the same time, many acknowledge that their own technology knowledge and competencies aren't where they need to be.
• Superintendents take pride in the promising technology practices in their districts – but they also admit that effective, system-wide use of technology to support student achievement remains an elusive goal for a variety of reasons, ranging from inadequate infrastructure and funding to uneven community support and educator capacity.
• Superintendents are keenly aware that disparate deployments of new technologies could divide schools between the haves and have-nots – and they worry that their own districts and students could fall behind on their watch.