RTFM, people
Quote of note:
Some board members now are questioning the decision to equip classrooms with the costly Waterford computers. With $50 million, the district could have built three new elementary schools, kept primary grade class sizes at 20 students for a year or refurbished all middle and high school science labs.
Reading Program Didn't Boost Skills
L.A. Unified's nearly $50-million Waterford computer system comes into question.
By Duke Helfand
Times Staff Writer
February 7, 2005
The Los Angeles Unified School District spent nearly $50 million on a computer reading program that failed to improve student reading skills and in some cases hindered achievement because schools did not use it properly, according to records and interviews.
The district bought the Waterford Early Reading Program four years ago to supplement language arts instruction in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.
Supt. Roy Romer, calling Waterford "the Cadillac of all systems," promoted it as a promising new tool for raising test scores at low-performing elementary schools with large numbers of children who spoke limited English.
But two district evaluations found that teachers didn't have enough time for the demands of the computer program as they struggled to cover a rigorous reading curriculum, introduced by the district only a year before. Teachers were forced to devote most of their mornings, and some afternoons, to those scripted lesson plans.
Many teachers, moreover, did not know how to fully use the Waterford system, which came with computers, videos, booklets and additional materials. Other instructors couldn't use it because the computers froze or headsets broke.
In their 2002 and 2003 reports, the district researchers found that Waterford made no difference for students who used the program, and that it had a "negative impact" on some kindergartners whose teachers were using it in place of their primary reading lessons.
These findings and others were presented to school board members and senior district officials last year. As a result, the district ordered schools to drop Waterford from daily language arts instruction and instead reserve it only for students who needed extra help.
