Network-Based Education Projects

• Blackstock Junior High (Oxnard, California)
  This school has ten "smart classrooms," including one in which students can use computer-aided design (CAD) software to describe products that are the fabricated using a computer-controlled flexible manufacturing system. Higher test scores and improvements in comprehension, motivation, and attitude have been reported for the predominantly Hispanic student body.

• Carrolton City School District (Carrolton, Georgia)
  Computer technology is used in this school district as part of a novel program that has succeeded in reducing the dropout rate from 19 percent to 5 percent, and the failure rate in ninth grade algebra from 38 percent to 3 percent.

• Carter Lawrence School (Nashville, Tennessee)
  Students in selected classrooms within this Nashville middle school used technology in various ways as part of a program called Schools for Thought, which is based largely on constructivist principles. Sixth-grade SFT participants scored higher on a number of components of Tennessee's mandated standardized achievement test than students in matched comparison classrooms, and demonstrated substantially stronger critical thinking skills in complex performance assessments involving high-level reading and writing tasks. Absenteeism and student withdrawal rates were also dramatically lower among SFT students.

• Christopher Columbus Middle School (Union City, New Jersey)
  Perhaps the most widely publicized example of the successful application of educational technology, this inner-city school in Union City implemented a reform program that (along with other important changes) provided all seventh-grade students and teachers with access to computers and the Internet, both at school and at home. The performance of its 91 percent Hispanoic student population, the majority economically disadvantaged, improved from significantly below to somewhat above the statewide average in reading, language arts, and math.

• Clear View Elementary Charter School (Chula Vista, California)
  A restructureing program involving the use of advanced technology resulted in an increase in standardized achievement test scores from the lowest 10 percent to the highest 20 percent.

• East Bakersfield High School (Bakersfield, California)
  A school-to-work program at this school has made extensive use of technology to provide its 60 percent Hispanic student body (including many students having very limited English proficiency) with the skills required for any of five different career tracks, resulting in increased graduation and job placement rates.

• Northbrook Middle School (Houston, Texas)
  Interdisciplinary teams use computing and networking resources to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills to this student population, which consists primarily of the children of migrant workers, 76 percent of whom are economically disadvantaged. Highly significant increases in test scores have been reported.

• Ralph Bunche School (Harlem, New York)
  Information technology has been used for collaborative work and project-oriented learning by 120 randomly-selected students in this elementary school, which serves primarily low-income black and Hispanic residents of Central Harlem. These students outperformed a control group by ten percentage points in mathematics on New York City standardized exams. Progress has also been rreported on problem-solving skills.

• Taylorsville Elementary School (Taylorsville, Indiana)
  Self-paced individualized learning is the central focus of this suburban school, whose students are drawn largely from lower middle-class white families. Technology is used to support project work conducted by teams that include students of a mixture of different ages. Internet access and sophisticated information retrieval tools are used to support self-directed inquiries. While the program is relatively young, some improvement has been reported in test scores, along with a significant increase in student interest and enthusiasm for learning.

• The Buddy System
  Promoting learning at home through technology, Corporation for Educational Technology, Indiana.

• COVIS
  Learning through collaborative visualization, Northwestern.

• CSILE
  Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment, a network system to provide accross-the curriculum support for collaborative learning and inquiry, Toronto.

• EduTech Institute
  Promoting the use of key technologies to support education, Georgia Tech.

• Home Net
  A study of what compels ordinary citizens to log onto the Internet when access is removed as a determining factor, Carnegie Mellon.

• Learning Technology Center
  A multidisciplinary group of 70 researchers applying technology to education in the areas of mathematics, science, social studies, and literacy, Vanderbilt University.

• LiNC
  Learning in Networked Communities, with pointers to related literature, Virginia Tech.

• Schools for Thought
  An integrated technology-based approach to learning, Vanderbilt University.

• University of Michigan Digital Libraries Project
  Focussing on teaching and learning in earth and space sciences for grades 6-12. Note also the links to other digital libraries including the Reading Room of the Internet Public Library, which has 4000 books in its collection.

• Union City Online
  A massive technology program to reverse abysmal performance in an urban school system. In September 1993, computers were supplied at school and at the homes of all 135 7th-grade students and their teachers at the Christopher Columbus School.