Administrative uses of computers in the public high schools of Colorado

Administrators from 91 randomly selected Colorado public high schools were asked in a mailed survey to indicate on a technological continuum the means of accomplishing specified administrative tasks and to provide other information about computer use. The 91 schools were treated as a whole or as three sub-groups for specific questions.;Analysis of the data showed, among other findings, that: (1) Microcomputers (34.37%), mainframes (31.28%), and manual performance of tasks (24.92%) account for the three most common ways (90.57%) of accomplishing the 52 administrative tasks delineated in the study. (2) Administrative computer use in smaller metropolitan high schools and in outlying cities more closely resembles that of rural schools than that of large metropolitan high schools. (3) The mean district revenue varied significantly in two of the three group contrasts. (4) The greater the disparity between high and low district revenues within the group, the greater the number of significant positive correlations between technological accomplishment of administrative tasks and district revenue. The rural schools had the greatest disparity and the greatest number of positive significant correlations. (5) The preferred change in the administrative use of computers most often reported was a sharp increase in the use of microcomputers with a somewhat parallel decrease in manual performance.;The data findings show that administrative computer use varied with the school group and correlated somewhat with district revenue. The findings also support the national trend found in the related literature toward the use of smaller, building level computer units.;Frequency counts were used to show how the specified administrative tasks were accomplished and to indicate the importance of administrative categories for computer use, desired changes in computer use as well as administrative opinion regarding the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of microcomputers. One-way analyses of variance with post hoc Scheffe group contrasts were used to determine if technological accomplishment of administrative tasks or mean district revenue varied with the group strata. Correlations were used to determine if a relationship existed between technological accomplishment of administrative tasks and district revenue within each group.