We’re seeing some extremely positive results with the at-risk students who are using the iBooks.

— Dr. Joe Lewis

Results with At-Risk Students Encouraging

Once the teachers were up to speed on their new Macs, BASD started a 1 to 1 laptop pilot program for students. Lewis says the initiative provided some exciting insights.

“We took 150 of our highest at-risk kids in the fifth grade — kids who have really struggled in the past — and gave each of them an iBook laptop at the beginning of the 2002 school year,” recalls Lewis. “We’ve been tracking them ever since, and they’re doing incredibly well. Now, was that 100 percent due to the laptops? Probably not … but it has to be one of the main variables. Our goal was to advance these students two to three years in their reading and math levels. So far, we’re seeing some extremely positive results with the at-risk students who are using the iBooks in both areas.”

Lewis adds that the pilot program sparked a newfound sense of responsibility in the new laptop owners. “In the test group,” he reveals, “we found that the students were very careful and protective of the iBook computers. They watched over them, carried them carefully, and didn’t leave them lying around. We felt that if our test group was demonstrating this kind of care, then the rest of the student population would be fine when they got their laptops.”

An iBook for Every Sixth Grader

Thanks to the success of the iBook pilot program, BASD has since acquired more than 4000 iBook laptops running Mac OS X. The purchase also included Mac OS X Server, and licenses for iWork. While the initial vision was to have students lease the machines, the response from parent-teacher focus groups and BASD’s school board led Lewis to consider another option.