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It's not often that schools, violence, and technology are mentioned in the same sentence in The New York Times, except perhaps when someone newsworthy complains about the effects of video games on the crime rate. In an op-ed piece entitled The Blackboard Jungle: Tamer Than You Think, by John M. Beam of Fordham University, published on January 20, 2004, and based on a recent study of rates of attendance and crime in New York City public schools, Beam concludes that:

Schools with higher attendance rates tend to have lower rates of suspensions, major crimes and police incidents. Schools with fully functioning libraries and modern computers average better attendance.

You can access the article at the Times Web site at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/20/opinion/20BEAM.html

School attendance is cropping up more and more as a problem. Fewer students are completing high school these days, and more students are developing negative attitudes toward the value of school. (See To Cut Failure Rate, Schools Shed Students from the Times of July 31, 2003, and the National Center for Educational Statistics report on student atitude toward high school from 2002.) So when we see a correlation between computers and dropouts -- especially a negative one -- we read further.

The full report from Fordham, available at http://www.ncscatfordham.org/, explains the finding in detail:

At elementary and middle schools with computers equipped with CD-ROM drives or Internet access,
average daily attendance was 92.3 percent, compared to 89.9 percent at schools without such capacity. This difference translates roughly to an extra week of school per year.

School Reform

A key indicator of success in the school reform movement is an increase in attendance rates. Can technology actually have such an effect?

In the case studies of education reform published on the Web site of the U.S. Department of Education, we find Northbrook Middle School, where "65% receive free or reduced lunch; 25% are classified as LEP or NEP; and 11% receive special education services. The majority of the student population is Hispanic (59%), followed by 29% Caucasian, Non-Hispanic; 6% African American; and 6% Asian/Pacific Islander. Only about 5% of the students have computers at home." Northbrook's reform efforts focused on technology, including the provision of 400 computers for its 640 students, almost a 1 to 1 ratio. What do they do with all this technology? According to the USDE,

Students' higher-level thinking is promoted by multifaceted activities that teachers plan using technology. For example, in a seventh-grade math project on the use of spreadsheets, students estimated and collected measurements of body dimensions, entered data on spreadsheets, explored ways of representing the data graphically, and wrote a brief narrative at the word processor describing their approach and results.

In industrial technology classes, students worked in collaborative groups to design and produce a variety of products. Projects as long as a semester are interdisciplinary, involving reading (e.g., reviewing manuals, conducting market research), writing (e.g., technical reports and project descriptions), math (e.g., drafting and scaling product designs, calculating costs of materials), science (e.g., studying physics as it relates to the performance of materials), and design (e.g., computer-assisted drafting and design). Students formed companies and produced products for sale. They are encouraged to access outside information via the state education network or from CD-ROM.

Clearly, this kind of activity grows from careful and creative teacher development and a strong support system for the computers. The result of this reform is clear:

• An attendance rate of 97%, high by local as well as national averages.
• A second-place score in the district math test, despite the school's 6th (out of 7) ranking in socioeconomic status.
• Above-average scores on the state assessment test.

Technology Experiments

According to a report published by the Council of Great City Schools, a group looking to stem the dropout rate, technology has proven itself to be a positive force. At West High School in Columbus, Ohio, 120 students and nine teachers were selected randomly to work in a set of classrooms

designed to provide students and teachers access to technology tools that support group work. ... with a Macintosh computer on each student's desk for more individualized work. These four classrooms are also equipped with scanners, cartridge drives, MIDI equipment, laser printers, videotape players, modems and selected software programs tiles.

After several years of working in this technology-intensive environment, these experimental students were compared with their peers in normal classrooms. Significant differences emerged:

• Compared to the general student population at West High School, which has a 33 percent dropout rate, these students have a 0 percent dropout rate.
• While 15 percent of West High School students are college bound, 90 percent of the experimental students are college bound.
• Compared to non-technology students, these students not only wrote more, but they also wrote more effectively.

What's the attraction?

The technology in these schools and cities seems somehow to have kept the students in school and increased their skills and attitudes. It could be because so few of them enjoyed the technology at home, and school was the only place it was available. It might stem from the creative and practical ways that the teachers and students used the computers, more like the ways they are used in business and industry. Or perhaps the technology provided a spark and a focus that lit up an otherwise dull academic environment.

Technology can be more than a tool to increase our productivity and make our research more efficient. It can also improve the overall the learning environment of our schools and enhance the engagement of our students so that they feel more connected to the school and stay there longer. Used creatively, technology attracts.