Big promises with iPads, but where's the research?
Grant Slater/KPCC
Second graders Mark G. and Brandon C. play educational games on iPads at a charter school in Huntington Park.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy has trumpeted his $1 billion iPad project as transformational. Like many reformers, data is a pillar of the Deasy Administration.
But when asked for evidence that points toward a transformation, Deasy said in an interview that it's all too new. Instead, he listed imperatives.
“If it's good enough for the wealthiest kids, it’s good enough for every kid” said Deasy, who often compares the project to a “civil rights” issue. “They deserve exactly the same. I’m sick and tired of us being concerned that because of the zip code you live in you could possibly have something less.”
Some parents, teachers and researchers are questioning the district's rush toward equipping every child in every school with the pricey tablets. They said the research doesn't back the hype.
“When films came in the 1920s, Thomas Edison predicted there would be no more textbooks at all,” said Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus at Stanford