On an unseasonably warm morning not so long ago, a young, dark-haired boy darts through the double doors of Chicago's South Loop Elementary School. "Can you call my dad? I left my lunch money on the seat of the car!" he calls to a woman seated at a desk just inside the doors. As other last-minute stragglers trickle into the school, the office worker at the desk calmly picks up the phone to call the boy's father, and another day in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has begun.

South Loop Elementary, one of CPS's 602 schools, is a public neighborhood school centrally located in Dearborn Park, in the heart of Chicago's South Loop. The walls are decorated with murals, an alcove has been turned into a jungle, and "I Can" statements adorn the bulletin boards. These statements are written by the children and serve as goals for the year. One such statement reads: "I can use the internet to research information about a topic."

It's obvious from a quick tour of the building that many of the students are busily working toward that goal. In the media center, seventh graders sit around the periphery of the room, playing games that teach them about history on one of the center's 45 computers. Tables in the center of the room form a block where students gather around laptops, working on science fair projects. A light chatter fills the room as children talk excitedly to each other.

In a fifth-grade classroom, a chart on the wall outlines the rotating schedule of computer use, both in the classroom and in the media center. One child points to the chart and explains the rotation, adding that he is learning to use Microsoft Excel to create graphs and charts. When asked if they like using computers, the answer is unanimous: "Yes!" the students shout. When asked what technology does for learning, a boy in glasses raises his hand and says firmly, "It makes it exciting."

This is a very different atmosphere from the way the school operated when Principal Patrick Baccillieri came aboard four years ago. At the time, South Loop had had six principals in the previous five years. The school was "totally segregated," Baccillieri says, even though it was located in an integrated neighborhood. The only internet access was in the main office, and the computer lab boasted only a few ancient IBMs.

Baccillieri began working toward better technology solutions within the school, buying a new server and upgrading the infrastructure. (In the Chicago Public Schools, each individual school has discretion over its own budget.) Then, through a CPS Office of Technology Services (OTS) program called TECH|XL--which allows CPS schools to lease computers for a reasonable fee that includes maintenance-- Baccillieri was able to bring in the 45 lab computers, plus a laptop cart complete with 15 more machines for classroom use.

He also helped the parents raise money so the school could hire a technology teacher and an assistant, and so it could reopen the media center, which had closed for lack of funding. Then he began to challenge the teachers to learn about technology by making such knowledge part of their expected skill set.