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Mich. laptop program shows early success
From eSchool News staff and wire service reports
 

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Supporters of Michigan's one-to-one computing project are citing marked improvements in standardized test scores in reading, writing, science, and math as reasons to restore funding to the program. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, had eliminated most of the program's funding from the budget she proposed to state law makers.

Michigan's Freedom to Learn (FTL) initiative, produced in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp., aims to provide middle school students and teachers with access to wireless laptop computers. FTL is one of the largest programs of its kind in the country, with some 20,000 middle school students and 1,200 teachers participating from 188 schools across 95 districts.

Though most students just got their laptops last fall, supporters already are crediting the program with improving grades, motivation, and discipline in classrooms across the state:

  • In Bendle Middle School in Burton, Mich., reading proficiency scores on the Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) test administered in January reportedly increased from 29 percent to 41 percent for seventh graders and from 31 percent to 63 percent for eighth graders;

  • In 2004, 53 percent of Leland Middle School students were proficient in MEAP writing, six percentage points above the state average of 47 percent. This year, 87 percent were proficient--a jump of 34 percentage points, and well above the state average of 53 percent;

  • Across the Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD, student proficiency on standardized tests reportedly has increased in science from 68 percent to 80 percent and math from 57 percent to 67 percent in just one year; and

  • Seventh grade reading scores in the Flint school district reportedly jumped from 29 percent to 41 percent, and eighth grade math scores increased from 31 percent to 63 percent.

    "Usually, such overwhelmingly positive results like this aren't seen for three or four years out," said Bruce Montgomery, executive director of the FTL program at Ferris State University. "Clearly, FTL is doing what it is designed to do for our school children--enhance student learning and achievement in core academic subjects."

    Sandee Lowthian, a fifth-grade teacher at Bendle Middle School, could have retired from teaching when the school year ended this spring, but she's having too much fun to leave now. The 51-year-old educator told an Associated Press reporter that her renewed passion for teaching came from the FTL program.

    "I've been teaching for a lot of years, and I've never seen students work so well as what I am seeing now," she said. "I am so excited about the students learning that it's really hard for me to even think about retiring."

    The program was the brainchild of former state House Speaker Rick Johnson, a Republican, who wanted to see it eventually provide laptop computers to all sixth graders in the state.

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