School Level BYOD Initiative

Evaluation Plan

Prepared by:
Kathleen Keller
North Carolina State University
(Dr. Sherry Freeman Instructor)

April 9, 2016

1. Introduction
Cary High School (CHS) is part of the bigger Wake County Public School Systems
(WCPSS) Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiative. BYOD is defined in WCPSS as students
bringing their own electronic devices into a school for use as an educational support or tool
for learning. CHS was one of 13 original schools of various instructional levels to pilot the
BYOD paradigm in the 2014-2015 school year. CHS began the initiative school wide on the
first day of that school year. BYOD is now in its second year of the initiative and all students
and classrooms have the opportunity to partake. While it is a county wide initiative
individual schools, for various reasons, have implemented BYOD into more tailored
approaches which they believe best improve learning at their particular school, so there is
no one prescribed model of implementation from WCPSS.
CHSs BYOD program was designed to satisfy three main goals: the reduction of
technology costs related to hardware, the increase of student based instruction, and
improved communication/collaboration between teachers, students and community. This
impacts all staff, students and the community members of CHS. Basically, CHS leverages
technology access to push staff towards use of student centered instruction in the classroom
to increase communication and critical thinking skills in students.

2. Overview of Evaluation
The cost to bring technology assets into all classrooms is astronomical and the
advancements in technology will have schools constantly playing catch-up with the newest
designs. One goal of BYOD lies in an effort to defray the costs related to those types of
technology initiatives and speed up the access to technology in public schools along with
instructional changes to focus on the student. WCPSS decided to implement BYOD to satisfy
this goal along with the goal of executing an instructional paradigm shift towards student

centered style learning. WCPSS proposed a formal program of BYOD and created an
application for a set of pilot schools to gather intel of effectiveness of such a program within
a school and to identify design models for implementation of BYOD environments in future
schools at the various academic levels.
All pilot schools were required to attend workshops; both administration teams
(identified by the school) and a teacher core from each school (CHS team had four members
from various disciplines), throughout the school year. As the year went on, we noticed that
the conversations about how each school rolled out their BYOD pilot varied significantly,
especially the differentiation from elementary and secondary level. Pilot schools were
designing much of their own program to fit their individual schools needs and goals. In
other words, the county was using the pilot schools to create models for future BYOD
schools to follow. While the county did evaluations with all the pilot schools the
implementation variations within each school were not explored. CHS would like to conduct
an evaluation that shares effectiveness of designed BYOD initiative activities towards
achievement of goals.
All CHS classrooms (regardless of subject) were part of the program with the goal in
mind that every teacher would use the heightened level of access to electronics as a tool to
become more student centered in their instruction. The CHS BYOD initiative has been
integrated through a purposefully planned process deployed school-wide from day 1 of the
school year. This deployment included (1) creation and adherence to technology plan that
aligns with the WCPSS technology plan, (2) PD for teachers before the school year started
related to tools designed for implementation within a BYOD environment (multi-platform
tools), (3) the development of a BYOD website as a reference point for families and the
community, (4) creation of policy/agreement to be signed by students, (5) design of
classroom posters to help identify BYOD procedures in every classroom, (6) purchase of

inexpensive Android tablets for inequity balance for 5% population (120 tablets) as well as
the conversion of teacher laptops to student, (7) building a network of teachers to
collaborate and share BYOD lessons, (8) shift of budgeting from hardware to software, web
tools and peripheral technology, and (9) ongoing planned PD related to technology and the
teaching paradigm shifts (move to student centered instruction) that are conducive to
instruction in a BYOD environment.
The goal of this shift was to increase student engagement of instruction and
learning. Along with the shift of instruction was the redirection of spending on technology
from hardware to software and online tools for improved instruction. BYOD related tools
delivered through PD focused, not only on the instructional shift, but on the capacity for
communication and collaboration within the classroom and in professional learning
environments. This evaluation is to ascertain the effectiveness of the actions and activities
introduced at Cary High School, relative to the improvement of student engagement,
learning outcomes, communication and collaborative effort, as well as technology directed
budgeting.

ACRONYM KEY:
BYOD = Bring Your Own Device
FI = Friday Institute
ITLMS = Instructional Technology, Library Media Specialist
LMS = Learning Management System
PD = Professional Development
TF = Technology Facilitator
WCPSS = Wake County Public School System
% = Percentage
# = Number

Logic Model

3. Evaluation Design

Instructional Goal

Evaluation Questions

#1 What is the scope of the

technology facilitators
role in the
implementation of
BYOD? What factors
support or hindered
their work?

#, % of time spent 1:1 with teachers on lesson

development and technology implementation
#, % PD programs that the staff utilize to improve their
classroom instruction, professional responsibilities and/or
in their jobs discovered through online surveys that are
shared throughout the school year
# hours TF has spent directly working on BYOD initiative
instruction - Time logs
PD exit ticket information exit tickets are taken by
teachers after their PD sessions and returned at the end of
the following week

Instructional Goal

#2 To what extent are the

lessons/ideas generated
through the various PD
experiences used in the
classroom. Did one type
of PD deliver a better
learning opportunity for
teachers?

#3 To what extent do
teachers utilize BYOD
opportunities for
student centered
learning.

Budgetary
Goal

#4 How has the

budget/spending been
affected by BYOD
environment?

Communication Goal

#5 To what extent has the

timeliness of learning
feedback improved?

#6 To what extent have

supplemental materials
supported the
implementation of the
BYOD initiative?

#, % of teachers reporting these types of activities are

present in their classroom
#, % of teachers responding to request for suggestions in
format of PD
#, % of teachers taking advantage of non-protected
workday PD options (online)
#, % of PLTs sharing executed lesson evaluations through
online minutes (we host PLT minutes on our staff website)
#, % of classes demonstrating changed paradigm which
can be seen through online shared lesson plans
#, % of PLTs reporting shared assessments/lessons
related to student centered learning
#, % of administrators observing student centered
learning during classroom visits
Compliance with technology plan through observation by
TF and administration
$ available for peripheral spending
#, $ of additional software/web tool opportunities made
available to staff increase of tools that are added to
systems within the school for both teacher and student use
# of books purchased in electronic form for media center
(% of total ebooks ordered verses print)
# of teachers demonstrating improved turnaround based
on a 50% increase in their current grading turnaround
time through use of technology
#, % of teachers accessing grading tools that post directly
to their gradebook, user data from our GradeCam program,
Google Classroom, and Canvas LMS
#, % of students increasing the awareness of grades
through the traffic statistics on time spent viewing and # of
visits to that particular section within PowerSchool
#, % of classrooms effectively utilizing BYOD stoplight
poster through observation and survey of both staff and
students
# of hits on the BYOD website (statistics shared by the
website host are gauged on the # of new visitors and total
# of visits)
#, % of students that have returned the BYOD Acceptable
Use form, properly completed

Stakeholder Needs

Who will use the evaluation findings?

What do they need to learn from the evaluation?

How will the findings be used?

What do intended users view as credible information?

Evaluation Approach

What is the approach for this evaluation?

Why was this design selected?

4. Data Collection
This section provides information on how you will collect/compile data for your evaluation.
Provide information on methods by which you will collect/compile data, and how those
methods/instruments are related to the evaluation questions you identified.

Data Collection Methods

Will new data be collected/compiled to answer the evaluation questions or will

secondary data be used?

What methods will be used to collect or acquire the data?

What data collection instruments will be used?

Data Collection Method Evaluation Question Link

How does each data collection method relate to the evaluation questions proposed?

Table 1: Evaluation Questions and Associated Data Collection Methods

Evaluation Question

Data Collection Method

1.
2.
3.
4.

5. Data Analysis and Interpretation

In this section provide information on what indicators and standards you will use to judge
success, how you will analyze your evaluation findings, and how you will interpret and justify
your conclusions.

Indicators and Standards

What are some measurable or observable elements that can tell you about the
performance of what is being evaluated?

What constitutes success? (i.e., by what standards will you compare your
evaluation findings?)

Table 2. Indicators and Success

Evaluation Question

Criteria or Indicator

Standards
(What Constitutes
Success?)

1.
2.

Analysis

What method will you use to analyze your data (e.g., descriptive statistics,
inferential statistics, content analysis)?

Provide example table shells, if applicable.

References
Pelavin Research Institute. (1997). Investing in school technology: Strategies to meet the
Funding Challenge. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.