Why the Seventh Grade? Why not start with all the Middle School grades?
The pilot program is designed to assess the long-term feasibility of one-to-one laptops in the Middle School, and for the first year we are looking for an accurate representation of the integration and support issues. The Seventh Grade makes sense in two important ways. First, the students aren’t new to the Middle School (as are sixth-graders), so they are already familiar with the culture and environment. The introduction of the laptops will be a new element for them, but it won’t be combined with a large number of other new elements. Secondly, if the program is extended to a second year, , then we would have an experienced set of students to observe a second year. Currently, there are no plans to extend this program into the Ninth Grade. Some schools have started laptop programs across multiple grades at once, but we prefer a gradual approach. In terms of budget, it would be much harder to purchase (and later replace) 195 laptops in one year instead of 65 per year. Secondly, we want
