| This study was designed to determine the degree to which the National Business Education Association's (NBEA) Information Technology Achievement Standards, as presented in the National Standards for Business Education (2nd ed.), have been implemented into Alabama business education courses. Alabama business education teachers were surveyed as to the degree of perceived competency to teach the standards, degree of implementation of standards, factors preventing implementation of standards, and preferred methods and scheduling for professional development.;Data were analyzed with SPSS 10.0 and AMOS 4.0 using the following statistical procedures: Descriptive, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson's Correlation, Cronbach's Alpha, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. None of the 16 (100%) Information Technology Achievement Standards has been implemented at the "thorough coverage" level. Four of the 16 (25%) Information Technology Achievement Standards have been implemented at the "moderate" level and 12 of the 16 (75%) standards have been implemented at the "basic" or "no" level.;Alabama business educators indicated a need for additional Information Technology professional development in order to effectively teach the Information Technology Achievement Standards. As such, educators reported their competency level to teach nine of the 16 (56.25%) standards at the "basic" or "no" competence level. Standards of lowest implementation and lowest competency to teach were programming and application development, communications and networking infrastructure, and computer architecture.;No significant difference (p ≤ .05) occurred among the degree of competency and the highest earned degree (B.S., M.S., Ed.S., Ph.D.) or the location of school (city or county). A positive significant correlation occurred between the degree of implementation of standards and the perceived degree of competency to teach the standards.;The preferred methods of Information Technology professional development for Alabama business educators were hands-on workshops and Internet modules available on demand. The preferred scheduling of Information Technology professional development was Internet modules on demand and during the summer. |
