The effective use of learning technology has led directly to significant gains in math, reading and language arts skills in West Virginia, according to a new study released by the Exchange.
The study, conducted by Professor Dale Mann of the Teachers College at Columbia University, Professor Charol Shakeshaft of Hofstra University, and a team of education researchers, marks the first time that a long-term statewide learning technology program has been assessed for its effectiveness. The researchers examined West Virginia’s Basic Skills/Computer Education (BS/CE) program, whose objective was to use the computer as a tool for improving the basic skills and to provide comprehensive teacher training on utilizing computers in the classroom. The program’s ten-year history makes it the nation’s longest-running state program for the implementation of technology in education.
"West Virginia’s BS/CE program deserves our scrutiny because of its scale, consistency and focus," said Cheryl Lemke, executive director of the Milken Exchange. "The issues of system design, training, technology capacity, technical support, and means of measurement are all powerfully present in the West Virginia experience, and provide important lessons for other states making investments in learning technology."
Included in the study was a survey of West Virginia teachers, 48% of whom saw technology as the key reform that resulted in higher achievement in the areas of math, reading and language arts.
The West Virginia BS/CE gains in basic skills complement the findings in "Technology Counts ’98," a joint project by the Milken Exchange and Education Week released in October 1998. That report links computers to higher scores by eighth-graders in problem-solving and critical thinking, but only if the technology is placed in the hands of trained teachers who use it in the most productive ways. The two studies taken together show that learning technology can advance both the basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics as well as students’ ability to think critically and creatively.
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| The effective use of learning technology has led directly to significant gains in math, reading and language arts skills in West Virginia, according to a new study released by the Exchange. | |
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Another significant aspect of the study was that the educational gains achieved by West Virginia’s learning technology program proved to be cost-effective. In fact, an analysis of effect sizes conducted by Dr. Lew Solmon, senior vice president and senior scholar of the Milken Family Foundation, revealed that the implementation of learning technology was significantly more efficient than other popular interventions such as class size reduction.
"Governors and legislators must often decide among a variety of interventions," said Dr. Thomas C. Boysen, senior vice president of education at the Milken Family Foundation. "It is important for them to know what they might get from their investment in learning technology."
West Virginia’s technology program also increased socio-economic and gender equity. The Milken Exchange study found the state’s BS/CE program to be highly successful in equalizing opportunity for low-income and rural students, and revealed that the greatest improvement in total basic skills was achieved by children without computers at home.
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| "The goal of the Exchange in commissioning the study was not to praise or criticize West Virginia’s program, but to understand it and to make that understanding known to others." | |
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West Virginia’s program was also found to be effective in providing girls — widely reported to be at a disadvantage in learning technology programs — with equal access to computers; as a result, computer use was equal among boys and girls.
The study identifies several reasons West Virginia’s program is effective:
Rather than isolating computer skills from academic learning, West Virginia’s BS/CE program integrated technology into the instructional program. In other words, the technology was a means of learning the basics, not an end in itself.
The report revealed that the computers inside classrooms were more effective than centralized computer labs in producing basic skill gains in students and in promoting the confidence and technological competence of teachers.
The report also revealed the importance of timely and comprehensive teacher training as a key factor in the success of West Virginia’s technology program.
The Milken Exchange urged that the West Virginia findings be interpreted cautiously by educators and policymakers because:
BS/CE was launched before powerful computers, high-speed transmission lines and the Internet were available in schools. Today’s technology can support a much wider array of instructional applications.
BS/CE was designed to accommodate the learning and teaching realities of West Virginia. That does not make it appropriate for every district or state where the characteristics of learners and teachers may be quite different.
"The goal of the Exchange in commissioning the study was not to praise or criticize West Virginia’s program, but to understand it and to make that understanding known to others," said Lemke.
