State laptop program gets high midterm marks

PORTLAND – By an overwhelming margin, seventh-graders who received laptop computers last fall say the laptops have made schoolwork more fun.

Teachers also give the laptops high marks, saying the computers enhanced learning by providing students with access to more extensive, up-to-date information.

Those were some of the findings of surveys included in a new state study on the impact Maine’s unique new laptop computer initiative is having halfway through its first year.

The report released this week by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute found the laptops are having a positive effect in the schools.

Although the researchers caution that the laptops have only been in classrooms for a few months, they say the “midyear evidence indicates that the laptop program is having many positive impacts on teachers and their instruction, and on students’ engagement and learning.”

The report was presented Thursday to the Legislature’s Education Committee, which was considering taking money from the laptop initiative in order to increase general purpose aid to local schools.

The committee recommended using other funds instead, said Rep. Glenn Cummings, D-Portland. “At this point there is no move on the part of the committee to touch the laptops, which I view as a great victory,” Cummings said.

The laptop initiative, launched last year by former Gov. Angus King, involved the distribution of more than 17,000 Apple iBook computers to seventh-graders. The program also calls for distributing more than 16,000 laptops to eighth-graders this fall. The state owns the computers, but students use them throughout the school year.

In addition to the survey, the midyear study of the laptops included interviews, site visits and classroom observation. The study focused on such questions as how the laptops were being used and what their impact is on teachers, students and schools.

Among findings were that 82.7 percent of the students said the laptops improved the quality of their work. For example, one student wrote that “actually, it improved my reading because me, I don’t like to read. And when I got the laptops I just loved reading the stuff online because it’s pretty interesting, more than the textbooks.”