During the 2002-2003 school year, North Carolina school systems applied for grants to transform the instructional practices at one of their schools under a state program called IMPACT--a comprehensive model for infusing technology into teaching and learning. North Carolina State University (NCSU) and its Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, as well as the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) Center at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, have been evaluating these IMPACT grant projects in 10 Title I schools and 10 comparison schools over the past three years. We've learned that successfully implementing instructional technology in schools requires more than just hardware and software; it seems effective leadership is the real key to success.

Through the competitive portion of North Carolina's Enhancing Education Through Technology federal grant, each IMPACT school was awarded $450,000 a year for three years. The goal was to infuse instructional technology completely into the life of students and teachers in these schools. The grant funded the hardware, software, connectivity, personnel, and professional development needed to transform instruction, based on recommendations found in the North Carolina Educational Technology Plan and IMPACT: Guidelines for North Carolina Media and Technology Programs. Though each grant recipient was free to design its own technology-rich environment, all of the grants provided for the hiring of a technology facilitator who partnered with the state-funded school library media coordinator in each participating school. Together, these professionals provided the supportive, resource-rich collaborative teaching and learning environment envisioned for each school.

The IMPACT model itself is predicated upon shared leadership. Principal leadership is always critical, but under this model the principal is joined by the technology facilitator and school library media coordinator. Both are responsible for providing professional development and helping teachers by modeling best practices in teaching, particularly with technology. Because these two individuals are most likely to understand the whole-school and individual teacher changes necessary to integrate technology tools into instruction, it is only natural that the school community would look to them for leadership. Thus, it seemed only natural to study the leadership characteristics of the entire leadership team: principal, technology facilitator, and school library media coordinator.

Researchers at NCSU measured "transformational" leadership practices (Kouzes & Posner, 2003), which in this case included:

"Challenging the Process: Willing to take risks and question the status quo;

"Inspiring a Shared Vision: Setting a clear and stimulating vision for others to buy into;

"Enabling Others to Act: Encouraging and engaging in cooperative decision making;

"Modeling the Way: Matching actual practice to stated values; and