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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hechinger Report | As some schools plunge into technology, poor schools are left behind

Hechinger Report | As some schools plunge into technology, poor schools are left behind:

As some schools plunge into technology, poor schools are left behind

A student works on her memoir in a computer lab at Bronzeville Scholastic Academy High School on Chicago's South Side (Photo by Nick Pandolfo)

CHICAGO – On a recent Friday morning, 15-year-old Jerod Franklin stared at his hands as he labored to type up memories of the first time he grilled steak. Next to him, classmate Brittany Levy tackled a piece about a trip to the hospital.

The Bronzeville Scholastic Institute ninth-graders were working on writing assignments in the school’s homework lab, whose 24 computers are shared by nearly a thousand students from the three schools that occupy DuSable High School’s campus on the South Side.

“The ratio of computers to students is absurd,” said English teacher Andrew Flaherty, a veteran educator who