L.A. School Superintendent Folds on Laptops-For-Kids Program

Posted by timothy on Saturday February 21, 2015 @09:16AM from the but-they-were-only-tax-dollars dept.

In an announcement yesterday reported on by Ars Technica, [Los Angeles school superintendent] Ramon C. Cortines said that the city can't afford to buy a computer for every student. The statement comes after intense controversy over a $1.3 billion initiative launched by Cortines' predecessor, former superintendent John Deasy, in which every student was supposed to be given an iPad loaded with content from educational publisher Pearson. (That controversy is worth reading about, and sparked an FBI investigation as well.)

1 of 139 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Pearson: No profit left behind by theodp · 2015-02-21 10:09 · Score: 4, Interesting

No profit left behind: Across the country, Pearson sold the Los Angeles Unified School District an online curriculum that it described as revolutionary - but that had not yet been completed, much less tested across a large district, before the LAUSD agreed to spend an estimated $135 million on it. Teachers dislike the Pearson lessons and rarely use them, an independent evaluation found.