The debate about the effectiveness of putting laptop computers into the hands of all students continues. While many districts are implementing laptop programs or pilots, others are backing away, citing the high costs of repairs and students' misuse and abuse of the computers.

In Maine, the oldest of the statewide laptop implementations, where every 7th and 8th grader has a computer, support remains strong. Educators report little abuse of the equipment and only the typical attempts to get around the Internet filters. Last year when the state renewed the program for another four years (at a cost of $41 million), every middle school in the state elected to continue to participate. Fourteen districts have extended the program to the high school level, using their own money. But like everyplace else, the goal of improving student achievement has remained elusive, with students' reading and math scores on the Maine Educational Assessment staying flat over the last four years.

That may be about to change, however. Research from the Maine Education Policy Institute at the University of Southern Maine, to be published this summer, shows academic gains. Students in classrooms taught by math teachers who had received two years of training to help them adapt the laptops to their teaching, tested up to four months ahead in mathematics skills compared to students with teachers who had no professional training.

Similar improvement was seen on writing scores when teachers knew how to use the laptops as a tool for editing and revising, not simply as a word processor. Researchers also point out that the writing test is the only portion of the state test in which students are called upon to use the problem-solving and analysis skills that benefit from effective laptop learning.

Source:The Portland Press Herald.