School districts are always feeling the need to take advantage of new technology in their curriculums, but the Los Angeles Unified School District has committed one of the most expensive blunders yet--and it's refusing to pay any more.
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The area's Board of Education passed a $1.3 billion deal for iPads to be provided for every student alongside a specific curriculum meant to take advantage of the devices for the 2013 school year. The L.A. Times reports that the endeavor has been nothing short of a failure, and L.A. Unified is seeking to recoup its millions of dollars in losses.
The Board of Education is in particular displeased with Pearson, the developer of the specific curriculum packaged with the iPads. The initiative began as a way to allow low-income students the chance to use high-end devices that may normally only be accessibly to wealthier families, and more than 43,000 iPads were ordered with Pearson's product. Another 77,000 were later bought separately, at $768 each--the curriculum added about $200 to each order. Teachers and principals did not take to the program, and it has not succeeded in its goals.
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"Only two schools of 69 in the Instructional Technology Initiative...use Pearson regularly," the L.A. Times quotes from an internal March report by project director Bernadette Lucas. "Any given class typically experiences one problem or more daily. Teachers report that the students enjoy the interactive content--when it's available. When it's not, teachers and students try to roll with the interruptions to teaching and learning as best they can."
Pearson has defended its product, but the implementation remains extremely lackluster. No tools or data were provided to analyze the program to see how often it's used or how well it's doing, and materials are not adaptable for students who are not native English speakers. Tests are all still provided on paper with no online tools to guide the process, either.
L.A. Unified will not be paying for more iPads or the program, and is asking for a refund. The board would still like technology to be available, or for Pearson to deliver on the program described in the preview that led to the board selecting its plan.
