Dispatches from the school technology frontier
June 1997

Study shows technology-achievement link

Does access to technology really lead to improved student achievement? In recent years, educators have struggled to convince a skeptical public of a strong link between the two. But the research educators cited to support their arguments was primarily anecdotal, focusing on motivation rather than on definitive measures of academic success.

Now a new 198-page study conducted by an education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, appears to show that where there are more computers, student academic performance improves. Although the study was confined to New York state, education analysts believe the research by Professor Dale Mann is extensive enough that its findings can be generalized beyond New York.

"[The results] don't surprise me at all," says Steven Kidder, a research associate with the New York Education Department. "When the focus is on technology-inspired school reform, the entire community seems to get behind the effort, and there are results."

Mann's Long Island-based consulting group--Interactive Inc.--spent six months compiling and analyzing data from 4,041 teachers, 1,722 students, 159 principals, and 41 superintendents.

The survey cost $87,500 and was commissioned by the Mohawk Regional Information Center, a technology assistance consortium for New York's Madison, Oneida, Herkimer, Jefferson, and Lewis counties. The five-county region invested $14.1 million in computer technology and training over three years. As a consequence, the region ended up with a computer-student ratio of seven students per computer, compared to a 10:1 ratio in the state.

"We wanted to find out: Has the money done any good?'" says Jackie Carll, technology director for the Mohawk Regional Information Center. "And we wanted to see what specifically it had done or how could we rationalize all this money to the taxpayers."

Using testing data beginning in 1993, when the region began investing in educational technology, Mann found a measurable jump in student performance, notably in English and math. In schools where more computers were available, the number of students who took and passed the state's English Regents examination increased by 12 percent. For the state's Math Regents, that number jumped by 42 percent for students in schools with more computers.

And, the survey found, the more teachers and principals believe in the effectiveness of technology, the higher the percentage of students who take and pass the state's Regents exams.

"We're tremendously encouraged by [the study's] findings," says Rick Timbs, superintendent of New York's Oriskany Central School District. "The study certainly validates the considerable effort put forth by area school districts in the areas of technology, planning, training, and implementation."

Educators say more studies that are not limited to a single state are necessary to confirm the link between technology and student achievement. And some say schools should be careful not to view technology as an educational silver bullet as a result of the new findings. For now, though, Mann's survey will serve as a rallying cry for those who believe technology is an integral tool for improving student achievement.

Let your cursor do the walking

Looking for a project that will teach students how to type and use computers; improve their speech, listening, and note-taking skills; and increase their knowledge of the community? An Iowa teacher has discovered just the thing--a local business directory to be posted on the Internet.

Fifth-grade teacher Pat Hancock at Wellman Elementary School had her students create a business directory for the town of Wellman. The directory, which was to be online in May, includes a brief description and history of every business and organization in the town.

Hancock's and another fifth-grade class sent out letters to 40 businesses. The students made follow-up phone calls and went in groups of two to interview business owners. After the interviews, they designed the directory, chose background colors, and typed in the information themselves, says Hancock. Next, Hancock took pictures of the businesses and had her students scan them in.

Dale Bennet, owner of DJ's Casual Cafe, says the students seemed to know what they were doing. "I think it's a good experience for kids," he says. "If nothing else, it's a chance for them to learn about businesses and the community, and it shows them how useful a computer can be."

Fixit shop behind bars

Idaho superintendents are cautiously supporting a state plan to train convicts to fix school computers--and pay for the service with the schools' technology budget.

"If they [convicts] come out with a trade, they're less apt to cost us money as taxpayers," state schools Superintendent Anne Fox told north-central Idaho superintendents. Fox is a member of the Governor's Technology Council, which proposed the program.

The council is checking to see whether state law allows education money to be spent on the project, which would require $167,000 in start-up costs.

The plan is modeled after a Boise State University program in which a trainer and two college students have repaired 2,000 computers over two years for Boise schools. It would pay for trainers at two sites: the Idaho State Penitentiary near Boise and the Women's Correctional Institution at Pocatello.

Another aspect of the program is having inmates work on equipment donated by businesses. AT&T has agreed to solicit donations, Fox said. The program would have to be approved by the state Board of Education.

Just in jest, but nobody's laughing

Two Massachusetts high school students have learned a sobering lesson about cyberspace: Joke on-line about killing the president, and you'll get a visit from the Secret Service.

Federal agents paid a call to Marshfield High School after two students left a death threat against President Clinton on the Internet. The students sent the threat, signed under the name of Marshfield High School Principal Peter Deftos, as a joke during computer class.

"Kill Bill, signed Mr. Deftos," the message said.

The students were suspended for five days.

The Secret Service also investigated similar errors or pranks at five North Dakota High Schools. At Hazen High School in Hazen, N.D., one student wrote an e-mail threat and another sent it to the White House via the Internet, says Hazen Superintendent Jerry Enget. The students went to their teacher as soon as they realized what had happened. They weren't suspended, but their Internet privileges were revoked for six weeks.

A real threat to the president is a federal offense and carries a penalty of a five-year prison sentence.

"It was good they turned themselves in right away, but it's still a foolish thing to do," Enget says. "There's a lesson to be learned here."

One lesson, says Secret Service Agent Richard Oliver, is that schools need to do a better job of preparing students to use computers. "In most cases," he says, "the kids don't fully appreciate or respect the capabilities of the technology they're using."

It's not easy being red-legged

The 21st century might be just a hop, skip, and a jump away, but a little frog is keeping it from reaching Half Moon Bay, Calif., and the Cabrillo Unified School District.

The district and many Silicon Valley workers who live in the area are counting on Pacific Bell to install a state-of-the-art fiber-optic cable across the coastal mountains. The telephone company, eager to comply, planned to bury the cable in a trench along a 15-mile stretch of Highway 92 across the mountains between San Mateo and Half Moon Bay.

But that route, Pacific Bell discovered, includes the habitat of the endangered red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake. It also crosses the Crystal Springs Reservoir, and the San Francisco Water District worried that excavation could affect the city's water supply. The water district joined the San Mateo County Planning Department, the California Coastal Commission, and the Department of Fish and Game in raising questions about the new cable.

"The whole project is being sent back and rethought and rethought again in light of environmental considerations," says county planner Sam Herzberg.

The school district needs the cable to upgrade Internet connections at its middle school, high school, and four elementary schools, says Anne Bailey, Cabrillo's technology coordinator. But she says the district is sensitive to its resident reptiles and amphibians and is confident a solution will be found.

"It isn't us against the environment," Bailey says.

Space lady in Ririe

You might expect to see a $4 million NASA training simulator at a high-profile museum like the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. But a schoolteacher in Idaho has managed to snag one for her own fledgling museum. Tina Andersen, a third-grade teacher, is leading the effort to build a National Aeronautics and Space Administration museum, IMAX theater, and Space Camp in her town of Ririe, population 800.

Last year, NASA gave Andersen the simulator, which was used to train astronauts for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. That donation led to another offer of several retired NASA aircraft, to be delivered after ground is broken for a museum building in the next year or two.

Andersen, mother of four children ages 13 to 20, has been persuading organizations to donate items and time to help with the museum, which, once built, will put tiny Ririe on the map. Her enthusiasm and optimism have had a big payoff.

"She's very straightforward, very up front. It's refreshing," says Gerry Brown, NASA's manager of Research and Support Aircraft in Washington. "She's sincere, and she's doing it for the benefit of the community and the kids. People recognize that and want to help. We certainly do." In October, the story of the little town shooting for the stars made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Andersen teaches a space unit to her third-grade class. This year the kids got to talk via ham radio with an astronaut aboard the space shuttle, a product of Andersen's new relationship with NASA. Always interested in math and science, Andersen says she became obsessed with space three years ago after she was awarded scholarship trips to teachers-only space camps in Colorado and Alabama. "Now I'm known as the space lady up in Ririe," she says.

The buzz on spelling

It's i before e except after c. But if the word is too tough, the Internet can help. Organizers of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee have gone into cyberspace to help would-be contestants practice their spelling. Computer users can turn to the spelling bee's web site to find practice words, get their definitions, and even hear them pronounced.

"If a child has never heard [a word] correctly before, it can be very confusing or disconcerting in the competition," says Paige Pipkin, director of business and public affairs for the Scripps-Howard spelling bee.

The site went online in February 1996, and use of the page has skyrocketed. In February 1997, Pipkin says, the site registered some 60,000 hits. The page also includes word origins, results of last year's spelling bee, bee rules, and study tips.

Two years ago, bee officials put the pronunciations and definitions of 3,000 practice words on cassette tapes and made them available for sale. Last year, they created the web page and put an updated version of the pronunciation tapes on the site.

Those who call up the words on the web site hear Alex Cameron, a University of Dayton English professor who has been the pronouncer at the national bee since 1981. Hearing the word pronounced correctly gives spellers a way to visualize it, says Cameron. "They, otherwise, will have a lot more trouble recognizing the word when it comes up," he adds.

This year's bee was held in May in Washington, D.C.

Look up your relatives

The family tree of all creatures is branching out over the World Wide Web, within easy reach of students and science teachers.

The "Tree of Life," a project of two University of Arizona professors--entomologist David Maddison and his twin brother, Wayne, an evolutionary biologist--will chart the primitive ancestry and evolutionary history of every living thing on earth.

"In my opinion, it's the most worthwhile thing on the web," says David M. Hillis, a University of Texas evolutionary biologist.

Worthwhile, but far from complete. So far, the brothers and hundreds of other scientists have assembled 1,150 Tree of Life web pages housed in 15 computers. The goal is to chart the estimated 10 million species alive today and the several hundred thousand extinct species. That's about 12 million to 14 million pages (including orders, suborders, families, genera, and species).

There is extensive information on frogs, spiders, and other groups. But there are also some huge gaps, including no pages for birds and mammals. The scientists hope to have a first version of pages for all the major groups online by late summer--not bad for a process that took 3 billion years.

How schools really use computers

What courses are computers used for?
Vocational skills	53%
Language arts	52%
Science and health	35%
Mathematics	33%
History and social studies	20%
Extracurricular activities	22%
Art and music	10%
What would make school technology more effective?
More effective professional development	45%
Up-to-date computers	26%
Software designed for specific academic objectives	15%
Access to telecommunications resources	11%
What's the effect of computer use on test scores?
Small improvement	48%
Great improvement	22%
No improvement	19%
Don't know	12%
Source: 1997 poll conducted by Jostens Learning Corp. and the American Association of School Administrators

E-Wire is prepared with Associated Press (AP) reports.