Computer Access in County Schools on Rise, Report Says

Two years into a countywide push to integrate new technology into public schools, significantly more students have access to computers and more teachers know how to use them, educators reported Wednesday.

But they acknowledged that the gains continue to be “hit and miss,” and will be until comprehensive standards are established to measure the effectiveness of computers in teaching.

In the second report card on its Technology for Learning initiative, the Los Angeles County Office of Education declined to issue itself a letter grade.

Nor did it provide a comparison of computer availability by school district, in a county where there have traditionally been disparities between districts and even between schools within districts.

Instead, it offered a sheaf of statistics showing that the county’s schools are on course to reach the goal of having a computer for every four students by 2000 and having every classroom connected to a computer network.

According to the report, the average number of computers per school climbed 26% in a year, from 61 to 77.

The ratio of students to computers improved from 14.2 last year to 12.5 this year, placing the county’s schools ahead of the statewide average but still behind the national average of 10 students per computer.

The best news appeared to be the strides made by the county’s schools in acquiring the newer multimedia computers needed to connect with the Internet. After subtracting older models, the county average of 17.3 students per computer was better than the national average of 23.7.

Schools are also getting interconnected. The percentage with local networks connecting computers within a school increased from 29% to 44%, and those with access to a districtwide network increased dramatically from 6% to 50%.

About 10% of all classrooms in elementary and secondary schools are connected to the Internet.

The degree to which teachers feel competent to use computers improved moderately in the past year. Teachers rating themselves as “apprentice” level declined to less than half, while those judging their skills as “emerging” increased from 38% to 40% and “expert” users increased from 13% to 16%. More than 70% of all teachers reported having computers at home.

The Technology for Learning initiative, which is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the Times Mirror Co., was launched in 1995 amid reports that showed Los Angeles County’s 1.6 million students were among the lower tiers in the state and nation in educational technology use and access.

At the unveiling of the second annual report card, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, state Supt. of Schools Delaine Eastin and U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley addressed about 1,000 teachers, students and parents.

The event, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, was also used to announce a detailed study of 170 schools that was undertaken without charge by the educational research firm ETC.

Results will be shared among the county’s 1,700 schools and will help them qualify for grant money, said James S. Lanich, executive director of Technology for Learning.

As part of the report, teams from about 25 schools set up demonstration projects.

Among them was a “paperless” school newspaper put out by students of Arroyo High School in El Monte.

Special education teachers showed off computers that print in Braille and connect students across the country by satellite.

Corey Brock of the Antelope Valley Union High School District handed out an Internet address for free access to her “SHaring Aeronautics” project. Developed with a $1-million grant from NASA, it leads students through aeronautical events from the flight of a glider to a mission of an experimental F-15, with side trips into math, physics and chemistry, Brock said.

Despite the excitement generated by the displays, the summit offered no simple answer to its fundamental question: “Is Technology Making a Difference?”

To date, the answers remain anecdotal because there are no universal standards to measure the success of computers in schools, Lanich said.

Test scores are not adequate by themselves to determine whether students exposed to computers are becoming more employable, more motivated and better educated, Lanich said. To fill the gap, the county office of education is launching a two-year effort to develop an evaluative model, Lanich said.