Ratio of 1 per 8 students tied for lowest in area

Tucson Unified School District falls far below national and state averages in providing computers for students.

The second largest school district in the state has an average of one computer for every eight students. But the state average is one for every 4.3 student. Nationally, the average is one for every 3.7 students.

While the 1-to-8 ratio is equal to the state requirement for public school districts, some local educators say more computers are essential to learning.

The Arizona Department of Education says getting every student and teacher in the state connected to high-speed Internet service would cost $50 million to $67 million up front.

Although the ADE formed a plan in 2002 to fully integrate technology into the curriculum from kindergarten through high school by 2006 – the Legislature provided no money to do it.

In 2005, the Legislature considered a bill to spend $1.1 billion over four years to convert from textbooks to high-speed online learning, but it was deemed too costly.

Since then, lawmakers have twice considered a pilot project to create model classrooms for electronic learning throughout the state. But although the bills passed, the money for them was pulled for other projects before the legislative sessions ended.

TUSD’s student-to-computer ratio can work, said Brian MacMaster, director of technology services for the district.

Although individual classrooms may lack multiple computers, there are labs with 30 to 40 computers set up where teachers can bring students, reducing the ration to about 1 to 1.

There are at least two sets of eyes on each of the 15 computer screens in the computer lab at Carrillo Magnet School, 40 S. Main Ave.

One computer for every two students would be far above any acceptable average. But the school’s 310 students share those 15 computers.

Only Marana Unified, among Tucson-area school districts, has one computer for every two students districtwide.

Research shows students learn faster – and at less cost – through Web-based courses as opposed to textbooks. But currently only one traditional high school in the Tucson area – Empire in Vail Unified School District – offers them.

“Empire, the first public school in the country to completely substitute laptops and digital instructional material, is now in its fourth year of operation,” said Vail Superintendent Calvin Baker. “It is no longer an experiment. It is a proven, successful school.

He said it cost several hundred thousand dollars more to build Empire than traditional high schools, mostly because of a “more robust” computer network that had to be built to accommodate all the laptops.

“But we did save some money,” he said. “We didn’t have to have a bookstore and we didn’t need all that storage space for textbooks we didn’t have to buy.”

Regardless of the cost, which Vail funded with money from a land trade and savings from not having to buy textbooks, the result was worth it, he said.

Still, the initial cost of a high school such as Empire is a major reason it is not being widely duplicated across the state.

So school districts have had to fend for themselves.

Many have better student-to-computer ratios than TUSD and Sahuarita Unified, which also is at one computer for every eight students.

Vail Unified has an overall ratio of one computer for every 4.1 students.

Sunnyside Unified, which has a ration of 1-to-3.2, has started “Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage.” It offers a free laptop computer to each high school freshman this year who by winter break has at least a 2.5 grade-point average, at least a 95 percent attendance rate, no major suspensions and has participated in at least one extracurricular activity, such as a sport or club.

Sophomores through seniors must fulfill the same requirements, but have at least a 3.5 GPA.

Sunnyside officials hope the influx of computers and increase of wireless connectivity will put their students on a more level playing field with other students across town.

But TUSD’s low ratio doesn’t mean students never get face time with computers, district officials say. It just takes better time management, they say.

At Carrillo, and most TUSD schools, computer lab class times are staggered.

The second-graders from Cynthia Maldonado’s class, who were learning about abbreviations earlier this month, go to the lab once every week or two.

They did not appear to be concerned about sharing a computer with a classmate.

Marco Altamirano, 7, said his partner can help him log on to the computer if he gets stuck.

The students love the break from the classroom routine, their teacher said.

“There are some fun games and I learned the ABCs on the computer in first grade last year because I didn’t know them,” said Eduwides Cordova, also 7. “I wish we could come here more.”

The computerized lessons are different and fun for the students, and sometimes – when they get done early – they get to play games.

Daniel Canalez’s favorite is “Piggy Number Land.”

“We’re learning when we’re playing, too. We learn compound words, patterns, greatest-to-least,” he said.

When he and his computer partner for the day, Ciana Romero Valencia, get all five answers to the abbreviation test correct, Daniel yells ‘yeaaaa’ and the two 7-year-olds do a secret handshake.

Maldonado said she often uses computer lab time to focus on students’ individual needs.

“It can give them additional practice and can be directed to their specific needs,” she said.

There also is a computer in each classroom, and Maldonado says she sometimes does lessons on that computer – or brings her own laptop from home – both of which she can hook up to apparatus that lets her project the computer screen on a board.

There are exceptions to the 1-to-8 ratio within TUSD.

At Brichta Elementary, Miles Exploratory Learning Center and Howenstine High Magnet School, some students are using laptops loaned to them through a 1:1 Learning Initiative, a concept of one laptop computer for every student and teacher in a school.

Those schools are the closest in computer availability to Vail’s Empire High.

Vail Superintendent Baker said the primary reason for success at Empire “is the quality of the teaching staff and the leadership at the school. Technology, in and of itself, does not make a school successful. Rather, technology makes it possible for excellent schools to do their jobs even better.

“One of the most important benefits of schools that make a high use of technology is that students are able to experience an environment similar to a work environment,” he said.

“In Vail, we are in the middle of a huge initiative to increase our use of digital instructional material,” Baker said.

“Kids are coming to school with iPhones that have more computing power than the laptops we opened Empire with,” he said. “We’re having meetings with Sunnyside on how to use all that computing power kids have.

“And all the debate over infrastructure may go away as Internet access changes. There’s a plan to do a national wireless system at some point.”

TUSD’s MacMaster said there are other computer issues that should take top priority.

He’s more concerned about an aging computer system that cannot handle the demands of current software and other programs.

“The aging of systems is restaining our ability to introduce newer, 21st-century learning into the classroom,” he said.

“Some of the new program need so much memory, so much processing power, and we just don’t have the power,” he said, adding TUSD is looking at how to best use the money it has to make the most beneficial technical changes.

Districts working to boost Net speed

As computers become a greater part of the school day, area districts are in various stages of increasing computer bandwidth.

Bandwidth is the range within a band of frequencies or wavelengths that indicates the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.

The lower the bandwidth, the slower the process.

At Tucson Unified School District, it will cost $15 million to $20 million in the next five years to increase bandwidth to an adequate level, officials say.

“It’s like trying to fit 1,000 cars going 60 miles an hour on a 1-mile, one lane, dirt road,” Brian MacMaster, TUSD director of technology services, said of the district’s bandwidth.

Many of TUSD’s computers run on a 1.5-meg bandwidth connection. An average home connection is 5 to 10 meg, he said.

The TUSD expansion plan, already approved by the district’s governing board, anticipates that E-rate funding would cover 72 percent of the cost and the district would have to come up with the remaining 28 percent. E-rate funds technology infrastructure, the behind-the-walls wiring, for example.

E-Rate is a Federal Communications Commission program that provides eligible kindergarten-through-12th- grade public schools and libraries with discounts of 20 percent to 90 percent on approved telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections costs.

Over the summer, Tanque Verde Unified School District upgraded its connections to be eight times faster, said Superintendent Tom Rogers. He said the district also installed point-to-point microwave, a wireless system, between schools and the district office that increased the speed of the network.

Also over the summer, Sunnyside got $460,000 from the Joint Technological Education District for wireless connectivity at its two high schools – Desert View and Sunnyside. And Tucson Ward 5 City Councilman Steve Leal is working to get free wireless connectivity to all neighborhoods – not just schools – within Sunnyside boundaries, officials said.

At Catalina Foothills, Superintendent Mary Kamerzell said, “Our issues relate to what is attached to the Internet. We have insufficient multi-media tools available to all of our teachers and students to support the 21st-century teaching and learning we think is critical. That’s why we are proposing a capital outlay override that makes every classroom a 21st-century learning center so these tools are at teachers’ and students’ fingertips.”

Two years ago, Marana Unified School District, which has a 1-to-2 student-to-computer ratio, implemented a high-speed wireless broadband network that gave high schools a connection speed 66 times faster than the older network; middle schools a speed 32 times faster; and elementary school, 12 times faster, said spokeswoman Tamara Crawley.

“Also, our provider, Trillion, gives us the flexibility to transfer bandwidth throughout the district at our discretion based on areas of need,” she said.

TUSD officials say their five-year plan establishes infrastructure standards for new construction and remodeling, and that all classrooms and other structures built with 2004 bond money will meet standards.

Meanwhile, MacMaster said, “Technology is available in our schools. There’s just not enough bandwidth to allow free and unfettered access.”

Bandwidth also is the main concern at Amphitheater Public Schools, said Associate to the Superintendent Todd Jaeger.

“That’s one of the things that we hope to address through the bond program that our voters approved in November 2007. The bonds include a program of technology infrastructure improvements (mostly through cabling) that helps enable us to expand our bandwidth.”

Jaeger said the district also is pursuing capital funds necessary to get equipment needed to increase the bandwidth.

“For us, it’s not a lack of access (to the Internet). . . . The bigger issue is bandwidth.”

But, he said “We do believe we can improve on our access and the bond will also help do that. But it still takes more equipment, which our bond cannot be used for. These issues can certainly have an impact on the experience children are able to have at school with regard to the Internet.”

Jaeger said the “recurring loss of state capital funding is dramatically impacting our ability to maintain our facilities and equipment. We’re fortunate to have the support of our taxpayers for technology infrastructure, but we still require state funding for computers that has been lacking.”

The Arizona Republic contributed to this article.

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Computer-to- student ratio

AZ 1 to 4.3

U.S. 1 to 3.7

DISTRICTS

TUSD 1 to 8*

Sahuarita 1 to 8

Flowing Wells 1 to 4.2

Vail 1 to 4.1

Amphi 1 to 4

Catalina Foothills 1 to 3.5

Sunnyside 1 to 3.2

Tanque Verde 1 to 3.2

Marana 1 to 2

*including teachers

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Age in years of school district computers

District student staff

Amphi 6.7 6-7

Cat. Foothills * *

Flowing Wells 2 3

Marana 5 5

Sahuarita <3 <3

Sunnyside 10 3

Tanque Verde 3.3 3

TUSD 5-10 4-8

Vail 3 3

* 45 percent are > 4 years old.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Education, Local, Special. Tags for this post: Breaking News, Downtown, Education-K-12, Education-K-12-Local, K-12, Local-Downtown, Mary Bustamante, page-a01, Special-Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.