14 Million Study Proves Student Laptops Ineffective Academically
by Donna Garner, July 14, 2006

Our country has been waiting for a scientifically conducted study on laptops. Now we have it. Presented below are excerpts from the $14 Million Texas Technology Immersion Pilot (April 2006 report -- funded by the U. S. Department of Education) which is supposed to prove whether student immersion on laptops by middle-school students will raise their academic achievement. So far as I know, this study is one of a kind and is much needed since technology companies are pushing their laptops into classrooms through aggressive marketing tactics.

No expense was spared in this study. The 22 Texas schools which participated were given the best technology available, and their staffs were extensively trained. "Package costs ranged from about $1,100 to $1,600 per student. Of the 22 immersion sites, 6 middle schools selected the Apple package, 15 selected the Dell package, and 1 school selected the Region 1 ESC package (Dell computer)." As stated in the report, "Technology immersion encompasses multiple components, including a laptop computer for every middle school student and teacher, wireless access throughout the campus, online curricular and assessment resources, professional development and ongoing pedagogical support for curricular integration of technology resources, and technical support to maintain an immersed campus."

To find out the results after the first year, please read the following comments which have been taken directly from the newly released April 2006 report. I will give you a clue: The technology companies won't like the results.

Also, please read the comments which I wrote on August 3, 2005, when our Texas legislature was running hell-bent to push laptops on every student and teacher in Texas at an estimated price tag of $3 Billion. The leader of that political movement was Rep. Kent Grusendorf, and thankfully he was unsuccessful in his attempt to force laptops on our Texas schools. He also was unsuccessful in his attempt to get re-elected last November to the Texas House.

For those of you who have questioned the huge expenditures of time and effort to bring laptops into your local school districts, this study will give you scientifically based evidence to prove that everyone needs to step back and take a hard look at the educational value of student laptops. I think it is particularly interesting that the authors of the study stated, "...there were no positive effects on students’ personal self-directed learning, and based on classroom observations, the availability of laptops did not lead to significantly greater opportunities for students to experience intellectually challenging lessons or to do more challenging school work."

Donna Garner

wgarner1@hot.rr.com

EVALUATION OF THE TEXAS TECHNOLOGY IMMERSION PILOT
Excerpt from this study:

We found that after one academic year of implementation, there were no positive effects of immersion on either reading or mathematics scores. After controlling for prior achievement and other important student characteristics, there were no significant differences in the spring 2005 reading or mathematics TAKS scores of students in immersed and control schools. In fact, students in immersed schools had slightly lower scores than comparison students.

http://www.txtip.info/projectevaluation.html

http://www.txtip.info/images/06.05.06_eTxTIP_Year_1_Report.pdf

"Preliminary Results on TAKS Tests from Laptop Immersed Schools"
by Donna Garner
August 3, 2005

On August 1, 2005, the Texas Education Agency announced their accountability ratings for the 2004-05 school year. I called the Texas Center for Educational Research (TCER) today to get the names of the middle schools in Texas which are immersed in laptops for this 2004 - 2006 study. Even though the TCER won't have their preliminary results out until probably January 2006, here are my findings based upon the TAKS scores of the laptop immersed middle schools:

19% of the schools had worse scores in English Language Arts this year than last year.
57% of the schools had worse scores in Writing this year than last year.
38% of the schools had worse scores in Social Studies this year than last year.

0 of the middle schools were ranked Exemplary.
2 of the middle schools were ranked Recognized.
15 of the middle schools were ranked Academically Acceptable.
4 of the middle schools were ranked Academically Unacceptable.

Are these the kind of academic results which should spur our Texas Legislators to want to pour $900 Million more down the bottomless pit of technology?

Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Texas Education Agency 2005 Accountability Ratings

"HB: 2 -- Putting the Cart Before the Horse"
Monday, July 25, 2005
by Donna Garner

Texas HB 2 (as crafted by Rep. Kent Grusendorf with the help of an Apple computer executive) was filibustered to death on July 20, 2005. However, on July 21, Rep. Grusendorf refiled HB 2 again. Now we Texans need to request that our Legislators vote down parts of HB 2 for the third time.

A Legislator's first priority should not be to provide more jobs for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple employees by forcing schools to provide laptop computers for every Texas public school student. The first and most important priority for our tax dollars should be to make sure that our Texas children improve their academic achievement. Is there any research on the subject of laptops vs. test scores? As a matter of fact, there is; but the results are not ready yet.

On May 20, 2003, Gov. Perry signed SB 396. This piece of legislation (Technology Immersion Project -- TIP) established a laptop immersion pilot project in the Texas public schools. The Texas Education Agency received a federal research grant which they awarded to the Texas Center for Educational Research (TCER) to monitor the TIP project.

The TIP project is for two years -- 2004 - 2006 although TCER is hoping to get funded for a longitudinal study. In the fall of 2004, TCER started following sixth graders in 44 schools -- 22 in laptop immersion schools and 22 in a control group.

One of TCER's research-design questions (#6) tracks students' academic achievement on the TAKS tests in the four core academic areas -- math, science, social studies, and language arts/reading. There will not be any results released regarding Question #6 until at least January 2006 if even then. If this is the case, then why is the Texas Legislature running ahead of the research?

Here is an excerpt from TCER's "Preliminary Findings from the Evaluation of the Technological Immersion Project, 2004-05" which was released last month:

Improvement in academic achievement is inconclusive. Although most administrators and teachers are hopeful that technology immersion will positively impact student academic performance (i.e., improved TAKS scores), they are doubtful about an increase in the first implementation year. In fact, some feared that student performance might decline during the initiation phase of the project. A few teachers expressed concerns about negative impacts of laptop access on basic skills and student performance in general. Some students in focus groups, however, reported that their grades have improved since receiving their laptops. At one middle school, students attributed their improved grades to being able to find better information online, and being more interested in online resources than they were in paper resources. Although increased student achievement is the overall project goal, it is far too early to draw conclusions about outcomes.

Since the federally funded TIP project is costing taxpayers $12 Million, why in the world don't our Texas Legislators wait for the results before they decide to throw huge amounts of money into the bottomless pit of technology?

HB 2 is worded in such a way that the word "textbook" will be no more. Instead the term "instructional materials" is used and is defined in Section 31.002 (1)(2)(4) as "a medium or a combination of media for conveying information to a student. The term includes a book, supplementary materials, a combination of a book, workbook, supplementary materials, computer software, magnetic media, DVD, CD-ROM, computer courseware, on-line services, or an electronic medium, or other means of conveying information to the student or otherwise contributing to the learning process through electronic means." This legislative language throughout HB 2 basically means "wireless laptops" will replace traditional textbooks.

If you wish to receive a copy of the pdf of the above-mentioned TCER preliminary report, please e-mail me; or you may contact the Texas Center for Educational Research, 7703 N. Lamar Blvd., P. O. Box 679002, Austin, Texas, 78767-9002; 1-800-580-8237.

According to TEA figures in 2004, Texas had 2.9 computers per classroom in Texas with 96% of them having Internet access. The national average for Internet-connected classrooms was 64%.

How much money has Texas already spent on computer technology? How come our Texas students are not showing vast increases in academic achievement if computers are supposed to be the answer to education reform? To see a partial list of the grants already awarded to Texas schools for technology over the last several years, please go to:

Target I

Target II

Taxpayers want all Texas children to be given opportunities to excel academically, and we want our dollars spent wisely. Instead of spending even more dollars on technology, let's fix the discipline in schools, make sure teachers have quality curriculum, and support their efforts to direct the instruction of their students.