Classroom computer use may lower student test scores
The Ohio legislature has committed more than $500 million to computer technology in public schools since 1994 with the expectation that it will improve student achievement. A recent study of computers in the classroom, however, suggests that this is unlikely. [1]
Economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hebrew University in Jerusalem examined computer-aided instruction (CAI) in Israel from 1994 and 1996. The Israeli State Lottery provided funds to purchase 35,000 computers for 905 schools during that period under Israel’s so-called "Tomorrow-98" plan. [2]
The researchers found that fourth and eighth graders with CAI showed no improvement or even worse performance on achievement tests after CAI began. Fourth graders showed sharply lower math test scores. [3]
"The results reported here do not support the view that CAI improves learning, at least as measured by pupil test scores," reported the researchers. [4]
The argue that the "theoretical case for the CAI is not well-developed, and there are good reasons to believe that computers can actually be a diversion," taking resources from other educational resources. [5]
The Israeli Ministry of Education spent about $105 million on the computers during the three-year period. The researchers estimate that this amount alternately could have funded about 3,500 Israeli teachers for one year. [6]
Since 1994, Ohio has spent $95 million under the SchoolNet program, $433 million under the SchoolNet Plus program, and $27 million under the Power Up for Technology program to wire public school classrooms and to purchase about 194,000 computers. [7]
Notes
[1] Joshua Angrist and Victor Lavy, "New Evidence on Classroom Computers and Pupil Learning," NBER Working Paper 7424 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, November 1999). Both researchers have published widely on education issues. See for example Joshua D. Angrist and Victor Lavy, "Does Teacher Training Affect Pupil Learning? Evidence from Matched Comparisons in Jerusalem Public Schools," Journal of Labor Economics (forthcoming 2000); Joshua D. Angrist and Victor Lavy, "Using Maimondies’ Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Student Achievement," Quarterly Journal of Economics (May 1999); Joshua D. Angrist and Bill Evans, "Children and Their Parents’ Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size," American Economic Review (June 1998); Joshua D. Angrist and Victor Lavy, "The Effect of a Change in Language of Instruction on the Returns to Schooling in Morocco," Journal of Labor Economics (January 1997); Victor Lavy, "School Supply Constraints and Children’s Educational Outcomes in Rural Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, vol. 51 (December 1996), pp. 291-313; Joshua D. Angrist, "The Economic Returns to Schooling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," American Economic Review (December 1995); Joshua D. Angrist and Alan Krueger, "Split-Sample Instrumental Variables Estimates of the Return to Schooling," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics (April 1995); Joshua D. Angrist, "The Effect of Veterans’ Benefits on Veterans’ Education and Earnings," Industrial and Labor Relations Review (July 1993); Joshua D. Angrist and Alan Krueger, "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?," Quarterly Journal of Economics (November 1991).
[2] Ibid., p. 4.
[3] Ibid., p. 11.
[4] Ibid., p. 17.
[5] Ibid., p. 2. The authors note that "[a]lthough CAI has been around for decades, there are few empirical studies that meet a rigorous methodological standard" (p. 2). One previous study found both positive and negative effects from CAI. See Harold Wenglinsky, Does It Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics, Policy Information Center, Research Division, Educational Testing Service (Princeton, New Jersey: September 1998). For critical surveys of classroom computer use, see Todd Oppenheimer, "The Computer Delusion," The Atlantic Monthly (July 1997), pp. 45-63; and L. Cuban, "Computers Meet Classroom: Classroom Wins," Teacher’s College Record, vol. 95 (1993), pp. 185-210.
[6] Ibid., p. 18.
[7] Ohio SchoolNet website, www.ohioschoolnet.k12.oh.us/programs/common/frameset.asp?program=power. www.ohioschoolnet.k12.oh.us/common/frameset.asp?program=schoolnet. The state plans to spend an additional $100 million under the ONEnet Ohio program to complete construction of an education network linking classrooms to each other and the Internet.
