by ROBBIE FEINBERG, NPR
Welsch learned what a lot of teachers, researchers and policymakers in Maine have come to realize over the past 15 years: You can’t just put a computer in a kid’s hand and expect it to change learning. Research has shown that “one-to-one” programs, meaning one student one computer, implemented the right way, increase student learning in subjects like writing, math and science. Those results have prompted other states, like Utah and Nevada, to look at implementing their own one-to-one programs in recent years. Yet, after a decade and a half, and at a cost of about $12 million annually (around one percent of the state’s education budget), Maine has yet to see any measurable increases on statewide standardized test scores. That’s part of why Maine’s current governor, Paul LePage, has called the program a “massive failure.”
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