History

The Arizona Learning Technology Partnership has seven parents:
-  ASPED* from Strategy #1 of the Human Resource Foundation
-  Phoenix Future Forum and the Learning/Research/Enterprise
-  Arizona Telecommunications Foundation of GSPED**
-  Arizona Software Association
-  Community Information and Telecommunications Alliance (Tucson)
-  Center for Software Excellence (Tucson)
-  The Arizona Education and Information Technology Council (now defunct).

ALTP, as it exists today, was founded in the summer of 1996. By the fall of that year, consensus of ALTP charter leadership was to focus on the state’s greatest area of need, K-12 schools.

In January, 1997, ALTP held a 2-day, 200-person exposition and strategic planning meeting and by May, 1997, launched a state-wide planning process to construct a vision and high-level plan to make Arizona a national leader in the adoption of technology into its learning environments.

By June, 1997, ALTP was awarded GSPED** status and continued its all-volunteer effort to complete the state-wide plan. In the fall of that year, ALTP wrote and sponsored House Bill 2490 to begin to raise state funding for K-12 schools to the levels necessary to bring Arizona schools to the "Technology Rich" level in five years.

In December, 1997, ALTP hired an executive director. With the addition of its first full-time paid staff, ALTP looks for 1998 to be a year to:
-  expand, structure and develop its volunteer organization and its presence
-  complete the State-Wide Strategic Plan for the adoption of technology into the K-12 schools
-  champion state funding to support making Arizona a leader in learning technology adoption and use
-  conduct regular forums for the exposure and discussion of learning technology issues and policy

*  = Arizona Strategic Plan for Economic Development
** = Governor’s Strategic Partnership for Economic Development