Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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In this day and age, technology is moving from being supplemental in the classroom to an absolute requirement. Curriculum that used only paper and pencil 15 years ago now has instruction online in addition to the teacher-taught lesson. Students don't just count blocks on their desk, they log in to interactive programs for diagnostic assessments and instruction on their level. Not only do they practice their handwriting, but students in lower elementary grades now need typing practice daily to prepare them for typing an essay by the end of 3rd grade on the SAGE test.
It is difficult to ensure that enough time is spent on crucial academic content when a class of 12 students has access to only a handful of computers. We frequently run into the problem of the computers are full but someone needs to log on, so I'm left prioritizing which student's online academics are going to get done for that group. Even if we were to have enough computers, we run into the problem of where to put them.
If my class had access to Chromebooks (small, convenient, don't take up a lot of room) and were all able to log in at the same time, it would free up some flexibility in our schedule and allow us to spend more time where it matters, not just equal time in rotations. There would never be a question each day of anyone's online academic time not being met and we could focus more on the quality of teacher- and staff-led group instruction. My students log in anywhere from 60-90 minutes per day, so the benefit of everyone having their own device to log into would be felt immediately.
About my class
In this day and age, technology is moving from being supplemental in the classroom to an absolute requirement. Curriculum that used only paper and pencil 15 years ago now has instruction online in addition to the teacher-taught lesson. Students don't just count blocks on their desk, they log in to interactive programs for diagnostic assessments and instruction on their level. Not only do they practice their handwriting, but students in lower elementary grades now need typing practice daily to prepare them for typing an essay by the end of 3rd grade on the SAGE test.
It is difficult to ensure that enough time is spent on crucial academic content when a class of 12 students has access to only a handful of computers. We frequently run into the problem of the computers are full but someone needs to log on, so I'm left prioritizing which student's online academics are going to get done for that group. Even if we were to have enough computers, we run into the problem of where to put them.
If my class had access to Chromebooks (small, convenient, don't take up a lot of room) and were all able to log in at the same time, it would free up some flexibility in our schedule and allow us to spend more time where it matters, not just equal time in rotations. There would never be a question each day of anyone's online academic time not being met and we could focus more on the quality of teacher- and staff-led group instruction. My students log in anywhere from 60-90 minutes per day, so the benefit of everyone having their own device to log into would be felt immediately.