Here's a comment that was also sent to the author of the laptop piece from a public school technology director:

Dear Megan,

Your reference to our district in your article, “Michigan Rethinks Laptop Giveaway Program” is disconcerting to us here at Leland Public School. Neither the Superintendent nor myself recall discussing the success of our laptop program with you. Although, I would agree with you that many Michigan schools did not fare well with implementation, our district remains a solid model of what can happen when a highly qualified staff is presented with technology that allows all students to reach higher standards. (Note: 5.25.05, there are other districts showing the same positive results across the state.) I think you would quickly come to the same conclusion by speaking to the teachers and parents of these students.

You are incorrect in assuming that implementation of the program was not simple, as we easily deployed over 104 laptops in just five days. Our laptops, given to students in grades 6-8, have operated with little support. Further, any technology coordinator with an ounce of talent could quickly configure the wireless access provided with the grant to simply plug into a network port.

Also, the district had a vision of a wireless campus that the grant allowed us to implement not a wireless ready network. Thanks to our community and their commitment to offering cutting technology through the passage of two bond proposals, our infrastructure was ready and waiting for funding to allow us to complete a wireless initiative. We invite you to visit our classrooms, talk to our students, review our test scores, and see measurable results in person.

Keven Pershinske
Technology Administrator
Leland Public School
231-256-9857
# posted by  farlane : 9:41 AM  

It's been my pleasure to watch Leland's implementation of the Fredom to Learn laptop initiative as a consultant to them through Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. As is true with most generalizations and poor research, the article masks some significant success by many local school districts in the state. In particular, Leland Public Schools has emerged as a model for implementation and they have good data to support it. In a very smooth roll out 5 months ago, Leland put laptops in the hands of 104 middle school students and their teachers. Teachers experienced ongoing technical and instructional support as they’ve integrated the 1 to 1 technology in their classrooms. Five months later, test scores are up in language arts! Recent MEAP results show improvement among Leland’s 7th graders in both reading and writing. Of particular interest is their significant improvement in writing. Last year 53% of their 7th graders were proficient in writing (compared to 47% of students statewide). This year, subsequent to the laptop implementation, writing scores jumped to 87% proficient (compared to 53% statewide). That’s 34% more students proficient in writing this year than last compared to only 6% more statewide. There is no accounting for this beyond the implementation of their laptop initiative. So when the writer makes a statement like “whatever its future, Freedom to Learn is a gimmicky program with no demonstrable results.”, it’s clear that she’s not thoroughly done her research. What makes this poor research worse is the fact that the author lives in Leland’s back yard and never formally visited the Leland School. Although she didn’t, the Michigan Department of Education did, indeed, make a visit this month to the school to audit and review implementation of the program. They were completely astonished with the level of student engagement and demonstrated achievement. Ms. Dwyer would be too.
# posted by  Anonymous : 12:47 PM