Education’s BRIGHT PROMISE: Two Views of Computers : A High-Tech Way to Keep Students Coming to Class : At San Fernando High School’s vocational program, students can be found tapping away at keyboards, engrossed in schoolwork as early as 7:15 a.m.

San Fernando High School hides behind graffiti-covered walls, locked gates and signs that encourage students to report weapons. It is a typical inner-city Los Angeles high school battling typical Los Angeles problems--gangs, drugs, a high dropout rate.

Fortunately, it has some weapons of its own in the struggle for students’ loyalty: four computer labs, fully integrated with the school’s curriculum.

I went to the school recently to see how the computers were making a difference--or if the computers were making a difference. Since many schools can barely afford computers, let alone the money to evaluate their effectiveness, I wasn’t seeking definitive data. I was looking for the basics: computer-enhanced projects like composing book reports or figuring algorithms.

Like most visitors to Los Angeles schools, I found students and teachers struggling to keep their heads above water. What else is new? But I also found a lot of hopeful signs.

When it comes to computers, the school staff members have done things right. They applied for grants from government and business, trained themselves in the latest computer-aided teaching techniques and altered the school’s curriculum to merge the use of computers and vocational training. The district administration also provided support to San Fernando and several other schools to get the federal grant.

Walking through the halls, I could hear keyboards clicking as I passed the labs. I could have heard a pin drop, too, since the students were totally involved in their assignments. Teachers talked my ear off about what they had done, were doing or will do with the computers.

The poverty of Los Angeles schools was palpable. Scotch tape holds together cables. When a computer “virus” shuts down an entire bank of terminals, the school can’t afford to fix it immediately. Most of the time, if a computer needs repair, forget it. Maintenance budgets were cut long ago. A college student works four hours a day to assist students and teachers in the labs, but full-time help is desperately needed.

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Despite all of this, there is no question in my or the instructors’ minds that a computer-oriented vocational program is keeping students interested in what they are doing and interested in coming to school.

Arlene Rosenblatt, who chairs the school’s business department, finds a room full of students as early as 7:15 a.m., using the computers to do their schoolwork. The room is also busy during lunch periods and other free time.

Computers are used throughout the curriculum, not just in vocational classes. What’s impressive about the vocational program is that it is working for students who otherwise might leave with no marketable skills.

The training is designed to provide the students with job skills. It’s computer-heavy because so is the workplace nowadays. Students learn three basic things: word processing, data processing and spreadsheet preparation.

Under the terms of the vocational grant that’s paying for it, the job courses must be integrated with academic work. So the pupils use computers in related courses like business English and applied economics.

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Behind all this, of course, is an educational system under attack from outside and full of teachers who can often be heard despairing over their students’ lack of interest in classroom work. San Fernando High School’s dropout rate is about 20%. Teachers need changes in basic instruction to grab their interest, which I’m convinced computers can provide.

“Anything that reduces the amount of time a teacher stands in front of a class and lectures will improve the students’ level of interest,” a teacher told me. “And a computer has infinite patience.”

A coat of paint can’t hide the crumbling support system that threatens the effort put out at schools like San Fernando High. The truth behind this success story is that most of the computers are more than 10 years old. The district can pull the plug on the vocational training program at any time. Without the funds to evaluate the benefit of computers, and thus without convincing data to lay before the high pooh-bahs of the school district, few additional dollars can be expected.

While it’s too early to prove that the integrated program at San Fernando High School is working, there are success stories. One student saw a help-wanted ad for a travel agency. Computer knowledge was a requirement. Full of confidence from her high school training, Marisol Arriaga, then only 17, applied for the job and got it. Today she works full time at the agency.

“This is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” Rosenblatt said. Preparation, though, has a price tag and it’s one the district, state and business community have refused to look at.

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San Fernando High School provides a good argument for state or federally funded computer programs. The majority of students are lower-income members of minority groups. Yet at the moment, the school is in the middle of a frustrating attempt to buy a computerized algebra program. The faculty has gone to great lengths to get the money. But it is $5,000 short, with no donors in sight. That’s a paltry sum, given what’s at stake.

The students at San Fernando High School represent our future. Will it be a productive future or one of joblessness and poverty? One way to avoid the latter is to make an investment in technology and remain dedicated to its potential.