Technical Report – North Carolina School Connectivity ... · A Student Learning Conditions Survey...

Technical Report – North Carolina School Connectivity Initiative Evaluation

Submitted to: The North Carolina State Board of Education

Submitted by: Trip Stallings, Ph.D.

Jenifer O. Corn, Ph.D. Glenn Kleiman, Ph.D.

The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation College of Education NC State University

Other Contributors: Phil Emer

Lee Sartain

September, 2010

1890 Main Campus Drive Raleigh, NC 27606 919.513.8500 www.fi.ncsu.edu

School Connectivity Initiative Technical Report September 2010

FRIDAY INSTITUTE Reports i

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .............................................................................................................1 Frame ...................................................................................................................................3 School Connectivity – Current Status (Technology Backbone) ..........................................5 Recommendations ..............................................................................................................15 References ..........................................................................................................................17 Appendix


FRIDAY INSTITUTE Reports 1

Executive Summary As part of the School Connectivity Initiative, the Friday Institute has completed this Technical Report, which assesses the state’s progress toward meeting the K-12 technology infrastructure goals set for the School Connectivity Initiative. Purpose of this Report 1. To inform NC policy makers about the current status of the K-12 School Connectivity

Initiative (SCI) and the state’s progress toward meeting the K-12 technology infrastructure goals set for the SCI.

2. To provide data and information, about multiple aspects of the SCI that can help to guide the

State Board of Education (SBE) as it formulates future SCI policy recommendations and sets state goals. The report also includes questions for which the data necessary to address were not available.

Major Guiding Question for this Report To what extent has the SCI met its three-year technical and infrastructure targets? Current Status of School Connectivity Statewide and Major Accomplishments, 2008-2010 The primary goal of the School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) was to connect all local school administrative units via a statewide network that could ensure long-term, equitable broadband connectivity to all schools and classrooms. The chief mechanism for achieving this goal has been the development and sustained operation of the NC Education Network (NC EdNET). The NC EdNET is designed to ensure that all learners in North Carolina public schools have optimized access to existing and emerging rich and interactive content. As of Fall 2010: District and School Connectivity – All 115 LEAs and three charter schools are connected to

NCREN; 83 LEAs and three charter schools rely on NCREN for their Internet Service Provision; carrier contracts have stabilized and lowered per-school monthly connectivity costs; all WANs updated in underserved LEAs; all LEAs have access to network usage monitoring tools.

Services – LEAs are provided with state-level, centrally-managed network services and are

benefitting from related cost savings; MCNC has provided initial network health assessments for every LEA, and it has begun more in-depth assessments at individual LEA request; an E-Rate service bureau (the Connectivity Services Group) and a network consulting service bureau (the Client Network Engineering Group) are both fully operational and accessible by all LEAs;

Collaboration Levels – The SCI team supports and maintains several collaboration

relationships across all school leadership levels, and several state-level connectivity working groups have been formed.



Governance – DPI houses a Connectivity Lead who advocates for LEA connectivity needs. Funding – Work to maximize ongoing resource allocation and to stabilize LEA costs

associated with connectivity has been successful and is ongoing.

Growth – NCREN network usage has expanded nearly ten-fold since 2008. Recommendations The state should carry the work of the School Connectivity Initiative forward, and it should do so by: Providing wireless access to the classroom/device level;

Providing planning support for LEAs and schools as they expand their connectivity usage; Migrating to shared services, primarily by creating a regional support model and proceeding

with the K-12 Education Cloud as described in the NC Race to the Top proposal and funded by the Race to the Top federal funding;

Sustaining steady-state connectivity, by continuing to support expansion of statewide carrier

contracts via ITS, sustaining E-Rate and Network engineering core services, completing detailed health assessments for every Local Area Network in all LEAs, maintaining the E-Rate service bureau and the Network consulting bureau, and continually updating the strategic funding plan; and

Ensuring connectivity data reliability and availability, by completing a thorough data audit

for all areas of connectivity, eliminating redundancies when possible and working to ensure data accuracy and availability for all pertinent connectivity-related topics.



Frame As part of the School Connectivity Initiative, the Friday Institute has completed several assessments of North Carolina’s progress toward ensuring effective incorporation of technology in K-12 education. These assessments, each provided in a separate report, focus on three interconnected aspects of successful technology incorporation – Infrastructure, Policy, and Usage. These reports both describe progress to date and provide frameworks and baseline information that will enable us to assess progress in North Carolina in the coming years. In addition, we also have developed and validated a Student Learning Conditions Survey (SLCS), which will provide data on middle school and high school student perspectives at the school, LEA, and state levels. The SLCS data will enable analyses of changes in student perspectives across years, which will help determine whether technology-enabled initiatives impact students’ views of the learning conditions in their schools. The four products that constitute the Friday Institute’s work on the School Connectivity Initiative evaluation as of September 2010 are as follows: A Policy Report – Assessment of state policies that impact, support, or impede the effective

use of technology; This report, the Technical Report – Assessment of the state’s progress toward meeting the

K-12 technology infrastructure goals set for the School Connectivity Initiative; A K-12 Technology Usage Status Report – Overview of the state’s transition to the effective

use of technology in schools, and recommendations for future connectivity-related research and evaluation; and

A Student Learning Conditions Survey Report – Development, validation, and piloting of a student-focused statewide survey that measures student perceptions of their learning conditions.

Purpose of this Report 1. To inform NC policy makers about the current status of the K-12 School Connectivity

Initiative (SCI) and the state’s progress toward meeting the K-12 technology infrastructure goals set for the SCI.

2. To provide data and information, about multiple aspects of the SCI that can help to guide the State Board of Education (SBE) as it formulates future SCI policy recommendations and sets state goals. The report also includes questions for which data necessary to address them were not available.

Major Guiding Question for this Report To what extent has the SCI met its three-year technical and infrastructure targets? In particular, this report assesses the degree to which the SCI has secured district and school connectivity, along with the services, collaboration levels, governance, and funding necessary to sustain the level of connectivity achieved. These focus areas are aligned with several of the connectivity-dependent initiatives outlined in North Carolina’s successful Race to the Top proposal (such as the Education Cloud Computing initiative, the Virtual Public School



expansion, and the online professional development initiative), as well as the Governor’s Career and College: Ready, Set, Go! agenda. In addition, this report offers recommendations for sustaining the statewide K-12 connectivity and supporting its ongoing evolution.



School Connectivity – Current Status (Network Backbone) Background1 The Business and Education Technology Alliance’s (BETA) 2006 report, Developing Regional Education Networks, called for the creation of a statewide education network to support preK-12 public schools. The report recommended specific actions including: • Providing a common network backbone; • Establishing the NC Education Network; and • Planning a 3-year Implementation Timeline. For Fiscal Year 2007, the NC General Assembly appropriated $6 million to address the recommendations presented in the report. Pursuant to the legislation, the State Board of Education, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, and the Office of the Governor initiated a School Connectivity Planning Project. The Planning Project generated a School Connectivity Initiative Implementation and Operating Plan, which provided a business framework and operational model, governance and advisory structure, E-Rate consortium plan, and funding strategies for moving toward the goals of the BETA report. The primary goal of the School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) was to connect all local school administrative units via a statewide network that could ensure long-term, equitable broadband connectivity to all schools and classrooms. The chief mechanism for achieving this goal has been the development and sustained operation of the NC Education Network (NC EdNET). The work has been carried out by the SCI Team, which during planning and deployment included the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the e-NC Authority, MCNC, and North Carolina Information Technology Services (with additional human capital support from Cisco Systems), and now during the current phase includes the Department of Public Instruction, MCNC, the Friday Institute, and NC ITS. The SCI project team based its work on: a) criteria established by the School Connectivity Advisory Group; b) results from surveys conducted in nearly 40 North Carolina Local Education Agencies (LEAs); c) interviews with representatives from existing K-12 statewide networks; and d) discussions with peer state and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) leaders about consortium possibilities via the FCC’s Universal Service Fund Schools and Libraries Program (commonly called E-Rate). SCI also initiated four connectivity demonstration projects across the state. Today, the NC EdNET backbone connects NC educators and learners to instructional content, regardless of the source of the content or the location of the user. The NC EdNET is designed to ensure that all learners in North Carolina public schools have optimized access to existing and emerging rich and interactive content.

1 Excerpted, modified, and updated from: School Connectivity Initiative Implementation and Operating Plan, School Connectivity Team (June 29, 2007), pp. 4-8



Figure 1 illustrates the NC EdNET connectivity model, which provides reliable and secure high-bandwidth services to every LEA.

Figure 1: NC EdNET Connectivity Blueprint

Previously, high-bandwidth connectivity was confined to certain areas of the state and was either not available to or cost-prohibitive for 39 (mostly rural) LEAs; of those 39, 12 were without any high-speed connectivity at all. A core element of the NC EdNET is its provision of a shared network backbone that connects all K-12 schools to each other, to the Internet, to administrative systems like NC WISE, to online course content like that provided through the NC Virtual Public School, and to the state’s higher education institutions. The core network is comprised of two components that predate the work of the SCI – the NC Research and Education Network (NCREN) and NC Information Technology Services (ITS) network and data center facilities. This use of existing infrastructure has helped to provide an efficient and cost-effective model for core connectivity. “Last-mile” providers connect an LEA’s schools to that LEA’s wide area network (WAN). These last-mile providers also provide connectivity from the LEA’s WAN to the NC EdNET backbone. When contracting with last-mile providers and with Internet access services, LEAs benefit from connectivity discounts provided by the federal E-Rate program.2 Each LEA’s network access is supported via centrally managed services, including E-Rate and network engineering support. E-Rate support to LEAs includes help with management of the

2 Note: While all charter schools also are eligible for E-Rate discounts, the small size of many charters makes it infeasible for them to apply, given the complexity and resulting administrative costs associated with managing the E-Rate process.



processes associated with requesting and bidding for services, as well as with filing for E-Rate discounts. The network engineering support provides network consulting resources to LEAs to support network design, deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and other technical needs based on the instructional and administrative needs of the LEAs, the schools, and the classrooms. School Connectivity Initiative Technical Goals The SCI development process focused on six primary goals: 1. Provision of equity of access for all K-12 schools; 2. Optimization of E-Rate utilization statewide; 3. Establishment of a structure that enables and fosters public-private partnerships; 4. Development of a sustainable funding model; 5. Construction of a centrally-coordinated organization structure that leverages existing

resources and organizations and that is funded efficiently and effectively; and 6. Achievement of a steady-state structure within 3 years. The rest of this section briefly assesses the degree to which SCI has met these goals. Current Technical Status of the SCI3

The 2007 School Connectivity Initiative Implementation and Operating Plan provided a three-year scope of work for the SCI, with specific deliverables in the following categories: connectivity, services, collaboration, governance, and funding. The base deliverables specified in the resource plan, along with current status for each, are as follows: Connectivity (SCI Technical Goals 1, 5, and 6) All LEAs are now connected to the NCREN backbone; the final connection (for Madison County) was established in October of 2009. In addition, three charter schools (Voyager Academy, American Renaissance, and Vance Charter) also are connected. As of August 2010, 83 LEAs and three charter schools rely on NCREN for their Internet service (Figure 2; also see Appendix for connectivity maps).4 Currently 32 LEAs continue to maintain Internet service provision through other companies. All other charter schools maintain suitable connections through independent contracts with service providers that conform to typical charter school facilities situations

3 Some text in this section has been modified and updated from text in: Emer, P. (September 17, 2008). School Connectivity Initiative: Fiscal Year 2008 Year-End Report. 4 All charter schools receive a connectivity allotment from the state that is calculated based on the per-student equivalent allotment provided to their home LEAs. All charter schools have the option to receive assistance to connect to NCREN via MCNC.



Figure 2: NCREN Backbone and ISP Connectivity History

Once an LEA is connected to NCREN, the schools (via the LEA’s WAN) also are connected to NCREN. However, an LEA must opt in to change its schools’ Internet Service Provider to NCREN. MCNC estimates that between 12 and 17 of the 32 LEAs not currently subscribing to NCREN as their Internet Service Provider plan to make the transition during the 2010-11 academic year. In addition, individual school connectivity speed is now almost universally optimal: 94% of all schools are connected via metro-e fiber, which provides 100 mbps or better connectivity; an additional 5% are connected via wireless at 100 mbps. As of August, 2010, SCI is working to overcome the final hurdles (often geographical) that are preventing the remaining 24 schools from being connected at high speeds to NCREN. Fourteen of these schools are in Franklin County, an LEA that continues to use its own private wireless solution for linking schools to the backbone. SCI has recommended that Franklin County switch to leased fiber lines, but as of this writing, they have opted to stay with their LEA-owned wireless solution.



SCI also has met or is in the process of meeting all other connectivity goals outlined in the 2007 report: 1. Establish statewide carrier contracts to stabilize prices across all LEAs

By Fall 2008, the SCI team had leveraged statewide carrier contracts managed by North Carolina Information Technology Services (ITS) to accommodate the connection of nearly 80 LEAs. As of Fall 2010, all LEAs are now connected with a stabilized, predictable last-mile fiber connections from various providers. Since 2008, the standard monthly rate for all providers has fallen, in part due to the coordination efforts of ITS. For example, before SCI negotiations began, the average monthly rate per school via CenturyLink for 10 Mbps was $635, for 100 Mbps was $1,158, and for 1 G was $3,264. In 2010, comparable CenturyLink rates are now $623, $1,039, and $2,745, respectively, with most LEAs migrating to 1G. These savings have allowed more than one half of all schools to upgrade their connection speed since 2008, with a minimal increase in overall cost to the state. Future upgrades will continue to incur near-zero additional costs to the state, as a result of ongoing collaboration with providers and effective pursuit of available federal support.

2. Upgrade WANs of underserved LEAs (LEAs without available, commercially provided last-

mile connectivity services), where feasible The SCI program invested $1M during FY2007-2008 to advance connectivity in specific LEAs and regions. Additional high-priority districts were included in FY08-09 ($2M) and FY09-10 ($1M). Also, GoldenLeaf Foundation grants provided connectivity investments for a number of other high-priority districts, particularly in the northeast region of the state. As of Fall 2010, WANs have been upgraded in all 39 LEAs initially identified by SCI in 2008 as being underserved.

3. Upgrade NCREN network as necessary to interconnect with local service providers, the LEA

ISPs, and residential ISPs and transition LEAs to NCREN where feasible In May 2008, ITS entered into a 3-year agreement with MCNC to provide and support the connection of all LEA wide area networks to the NC Research and Education Network (NCREN). As of Fall 2010, all LEAs have been connected.

4. Develop and deploy a sustainable measurement process for meaningful and repeatable

performance analysis of school connectivity Individual school and LEA bandwidth needs and usage patterns change as schools and LEAs purchase new network-dependent products and expand their use of available online resources. In order to sustain equity of access as network usage trends change, it is important to outfit the education network with measurement and monitoring capability. Specifically, it is important to measure the usage and delay characteristics of school and LEA network connections.

As of Fall 2010, all LEA technical staff have access to tools that provide usage and latency data measured from the network router that is located at their LEA central offices but is



managed by MCNC. Also, MCNC has developed and deployed a broader and more sophisticated tool set to all LEAs. Finally, each LEA now has access to EdSpace, which allows each LEA to view how much bandwidth it is using, how it is being used, and what delays exist between the LEA and any other state end-point. In addition, NCREN provides online tools that allow individual LEAs to monitor bandwidth usage and other network performance metrics. Monitoring is two-way, with backbone connections monitored continuously by DPI and MCNC to alert them when bandwidth usage exceeds 50 percent (indicating the need to increase bandwidth capacity for a given LEA).

Services (SCI Technical Goals 2 and 5) 5. Identify and prioritize set of core services

E-Rate and Network engineering services are the primary services required to sustain equity of access. The connection of all LEAs to a statewide education backbone has enabled the provision of centrally-managed network services that previously were deployed or procured as local LEA services, if at all. Focus groups and formal and informal surveys identified network services needs, which led to the development of a shared-services approach to providing services such as e-mail, learning management systems, and data center services, thus enabling LEAs to access lower-cost services and providing more consistent and reliable services. For example, during the last school year (2009-10), SCI has helped nine LEAs migrate from internally-hosted e-mail services to GoogleMail, at a cost savings of between $15,000 and $100,000 annually per LEA.

6. Conduct LEA LAN (local network) health assessments

As of Fall 2010, MCNC has provided network health assessments to every LEA. These health assessments include physical school-site surveys of internal wiring, equipment, support staff, and maintenance and trouble-shooting processes. In addition to identifying needed repairs, upgrades, and areas for improvement, approximately 40 LEAs have requested additional, more detailed assessments (regarding issues such as security, wireless, and enterprise information technology assessments).

7. Establish E-Rate service bureau

The E-Rate Service Bureau – now called the Connectivity Services Group – is a part of the NC DPI Technology and Information Services division. In FY2008, the SCI team managed a competitive bid for an E-Rate services provider contract, supported the hiring and initial training of the new state E-Rate coordinator at DPI, and provided E-Rate training and support services to LEAs. The SCI team facilitated focus groups and planning sessions and ultimately developed the NCREN backbone E-Rate strategy based on input from E-Rate Central and from a group of LEA advisors.

In early FY2009, the NC DPI SCI Program Lead (and State E-Rate Coordinator) hired a pair of E-Rate Analysts to provide regional E-Rate support services to LEAs.



In addition, the Connectivity Services Group has worked with MCNC and the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill to develop a customized, ongoing training program for LEA technology directors that includes training on the E-Rate program processes. During the 2009-10 school year, 34 LEA technology directors completed the program, and the Connectivity Services Group will continue to provide this ongoing training. The Group anticipates working with the same number of directors each year until all are trained.

8. Establish network consulting service bureau

In 2008, MCNC established the Client Network Engineering Group, hired a Client Network Engineering Lead and two network engineers as the initial support team. In 2009, MCNC added an additional network engineer. The bureau, housed at MCNC, contracts with DPI through ITS to provide on-demand network consulting services for all LEAs.

Collaboration (SCI Technical Goals 3 and 5) 9. Implement strategic collaboration plan

In FY2008, the SCI team coordinated collaboration with leadership teams in every LEA, with a large contingent of telecommunications service providers, and with policy makers. The SCI team attended regional and state gatherings of technology directors, technicians, instructional technologists, superintendents, and legislators. During these gatherings, SCI team members presented status reports, collected input, and collaborated on logistical issues. The SCI team also managed and supported the meeting of the Joint Legislative Technology Commissions in April 2008.

The SCI team continues to maintain an information website5 that shares general project information, presentations, memoranda, information packets, and frequently asked questions. DPI and MCNC maintain websites6 that provide service interfaces to the LEA community for their respective services. The Joint Legislative Technology Commissions meets annually. The Friday Institute maintain an SCI site with archives of SCI planning documents and materials, and it provides data associated with the technology evaluation work specified in Session Law 2008-107, House Bill 2436 §§ 7.6.(a).

Finally, DPI, the Friday Institute, and MCNC facilitate several state-level working groups charged with addressing topics of interest that are generated at the LEA level. These working groups include: Shared Services Digital Content Management and Usage Collaborative Applications Federated Identity Management Data Capture Learning Management System

5 http://connectivity.fi.ncsu.edu 6 www.ncpublicschools.org/connectivity/ and http://edspace.mcnc.org



Governance (SCI Technical Goal 5) 10. Implement strategic organization plan

Currently, a Connectivity Lead (the manager of the DPI Connectivity Services Group) serves as an advocate for LEAs, the business officer for the SCI budget, and the policy interface to oversight groups. The Lead is accountable to the NC State Board of Education and acts as an agent of the SBE to provide required annual reporting to legislative oversight groups. The Lead also provides and oversees services and funding provided to the LEAs. There are structures and process in place to ensure that decisions related to funding distributions, provider relationships, and service definitions represent the will and expectations of the LEA community.

Funding (SCI Technical Goals 4 and 5) 11. Implement strategic funding plan

Contracts have been developed for backbone and network consulting services. The original three-year agreements have expired, and DPI (with ITS) is re-negotiating the contracts for 2010-2013. The LEA connectivity funding distribution process has been finalized. Every Fall, the Connectivity Services Group determines each LEA’s allotment, which covers all network connectivity expenses not covered by E-Rate. MCNC’s recent successes in securing significant additional federal support for connectivity via the Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP; c. $140 million) will ensure cost stability for each LEA for the next several years, as will the Connectivity Services Group’s continuing ability to monitor the constantly-changing funding and service-provision landscapes and adjust appropriately to those changes.

Summary of Major Accomplishments, 2008-2010 District and School Connectivity (SCI Technical Goals 1, 5, and 6) – All LEAs and three

charter schools are connected to NCREN; 83 LEAs and three charter schools rely on NCREN for their Internet Service Provision; carrier contracts have stabilized and lowered per-school monthly connectivity costs; all WANs updated in underserved LEAs; all LEAs have access to network usage monitoring tools.

Services (SCI Technical Goals 2 and 5) – LEAs are provided with state-level, centrally-

managed network services and are benefitting from related cost savings; MCNC has provided initial network health assessments for every LEA, and it has begun more in-depth assessments at individual LEA request; an E-Rate service bureau (the Connectivity Services Group) and a network consulting service bureau (the Client Network Engineering Group) are both fully operational and is accessible by all LEAs;



Collaboration Levels (SCI Technical Goals 3 and 5) – The SCI team supports and maintains several collaboration relationships across all school leadership levels, and several state-level connectivity working groups have been formed.

Governance (SCI Technical Goal 5) – DPI houses a Connectivity Lead who advocates for

LEA connectivity needs. Funding (SCI Technical Goals 4 and 5) – Work to maximize ongoing resource allocation and

to stabilize LEA costs associated with connectivity has been successful and is ongoing. Growth over Time: Network Backbone Usage Statistics NCREN network usage among the LEAs has grown considerably since the start of the work of the Connectivity Initiative, with average Mbps traffic readings jumping from the low 100s in 2008 to well over 1,000 at the start of the 2010-2011 school year as LEAs were added to the NCREN backbone (Figure 3).

Figure 3: NCREN Network Usage, 2008-09 – 2010-11

In most cases, usage at the LEA level is immediate and steadily increases. For example, in Madison County, network usage spiked as soon as NCREN was adopted as its ISP (in mid-October, 2009), and usage has grown steadily across all school-year months since that time (Figure 4, next page).



Figure 4: Example of NCREN Usage and Growth after Adoption of NCREN as ISP

The companion K-12 Technology Usage Status Report provides an outline of the development of and usage growth for specific new and extant technology- and connectivity-dependent programs and projects.



Recommendations As the data in this report indicate, the School Connectivity Initiative has met each of the technical goals set in 2007, and school- and LEA-level connectivity usage continues to grow. The state should capitalize on these successes by extending the School Connectivity Initiative to address the following issues:

a. Provide wireless connectivity to the classroom and device levels – LEA and school

connectivity will be underutilized until connectivity is extended universally down to the device level. As has been the case with carrier contracts (detailed above), the direct costs for such connectivity should remain the responsibility of each LEA, but the state should serve an assistance and facilitation role by establishing standards for device-level connectivity, negotiating contracts for that connectivity, and providing regional support.

b. Provide next-step planning support to LEAs – The state has provided technical engineering support for connectivity to all LEAs through MCNC. As evidenced by the experiences of early LEA adopters, LEAs also will need assistance as they transition to innovations such as 1:1 programs, online content management systems, and the development of wireless infrastructures. Such planning assistance currently takes place, but not in a systematic and proactive manner. The success of ambitious LEA-level projects will depend upon thoughtful and coordinated planning that anticipates future needs.

c. Where possible, migrate to shared services – With the establishment of reliable and abundant connectivity at the school level, it is now possible for the state to transition to a cost-effective approach to information technology (IT) that capitalizes on the economies of scale available via services that are shared (or aggregated) across LEAs. In addition to the budgetary benefits of aggregating purchasing at the state level, a shared services approach also will allow for more reliable and consistent IT services statewide. There are two main components to this approach: Transition to a regional support model – As the number or devices, applications, and

services grow in each LEA and across LEAs, many LEAs will not be in a position to support the scale and complexity of the infrastructure required to maintain them. Regional support models, in which resources and expertise are pooled and shared across LEAs, will address this deficiency. Specific implementation details likely will vary by region and may take advantage of partnerships with community colleges and universities.

Establish a K-12 Education Technology Cloud Computing platform – As detailed in the companion K-12 Technology Usage Status Report, the state’s Race to the Top award will provide approximately $34 million in one-time funding to deploy infrastructure and services that will form the core of an NC education cloud platform, which will become the service-delivery platform for the shared services approach. The state should work to ensure that the K-12 Education Cloud is completed in a timely fashion.

d. Monitor and sustain the current level of steady-state connectivity

Funding – Even with connectivity in place for every LEA and school, the state will need to ensure a baseline level of recurring funding for SCI in order to maintain the current level of connectivity. MCNC’s BTOP awards, combined with changes to E-Rate that



broaden the definition of services covered by the program (announced on September 23, 2010), will help to offset funding needs for several years, but as the usage of the network increases, even with these financial supports, it is possible that the cost to sustain network capacities eventually will exceed the current annual recurring funding level (c. $21 million).

Infrastructure – Many of the other components required to sustain steady-state connectivity have been met, as detailed in the Current Technical Status of the SCI section, above. In general, the state should: o Continue to support expansion of statewide carrier contracts via ITS; o Sustain those E-Rate and Network engineering core services that are identified and

prioritized by the LEAs; o Complete LEA LAN health assessments for all LEAs (all initial health assessments

included a baseline LAN health assessment; approximately half of all LEAs still require a more extensive and detailed assessment);

o Maintain the E-Rate service bureau and the Network consulting bureau; and o Continually update the strategic funding plan.

e. Ensure connectivity data reliability and availability – Many data points relevant to the

assessment of school and LEA connectivity are readily available and reliable. In some cases, however, such data are hard to obtain, and their reliability is uncertain. In addition, some data are collected redundantly using different methods (and thus perhaps yielding different results); for example, most of the connectivity data collected via the self-reported Annual Media and Technology Report (such as data about connection speeds and average bandwidth usage) no longer require annual completion by each LEA, now that MCNC monitors many of these metrics. The state should complete a thorough data audit for all areas of connectivity, eliminating redundancies when possible and working to ensure data accuracy and availability for all pertinent connectivity-related topics. More specific recommendations about data needs, especially with respect to evaluation of various components of school connectivity, are outlined in greater detail in the companion K-12 Technology Usage Status Report.



References Business and Education Technology Alliance. (2006). Developing Regional Education Networks.

http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p249901coll22&CISOPTR=46221&REC=2

Emer, P. (September 17, 2008). School Connectivity Initiative: Fiscal Year 2008 Year-End

Report. http://www.connectivity.fi.ncsu.edu/resources/reports/sbe092008/SCI%20FY2008%20Report%2009172008.pdf

School Connectivity Team, (June 29, 2007). School Connectivity Initiative Implementation and

Operating Plan. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/stateboard/meetings/2007/revisions/07tcs01addtional.pdf


FRIDAY INSTITUTE Reports

Appendix – LEA Connectivity to NCREN and of LEA Adoption of NCREN as ISP, by School Year 1. LEA Connectivity to NCREN


FRIDAY INSTITUTE Reports

2. LEA Adoption of NCREN as ISP

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