Mooresville’s Shining Example (It’s Not Just About the Laptops)

Parent Cafe
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<p>Is the cost-effective Kahn Academy independent study model – in which basic course content is delivered to students one-on-one using laptop video and/or interactive textbooks with classroom teacher acting primarily as tutor and question-answerer rather than lecturer – the next logical step in the evolution of education?</p>

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<p>Mooresville’s Shining Example (It’s Not Just About the Laptops)</p>

<p>[Excerpts]</p>

<p>Attendance is up, dropouts are down. Mooresville ranks 100th out of 115 districts in North Carolina in terms of dollars spent per student — $7,415.89 a year — but it is now third in test scores and second in graduation rates.</p>

<p>“I’m not a very social person, but I have no problem typing on a keyboard,” said one of those shy ones, Chase Wilson. “It connected me with other students — opened me up and helped me with talking in public.”</p>

<p>“There’s a tendency in teaching to try to control things, like a parent,” said Scott Allen, a high school chemistry teacher in South Granville, N.C. “But I learn best at my own pace, and you have to realize that students learn best at their own pace, too.”</p>

<p>Mooresville still has some growing pains. … One fourth grader, having to complete 10 multiplication questions in two minutes for the software to let her move on, simply consulted her times tables, making the lesson more about speed typing than mathematics. And those concerned about corporate encroachment on public schools would blanch at the number of Apple logos in the hallways, and at the district’s unofficial slogan: “iBelieve, iCan, iWill.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>They had middle school class sizes of 18?</p>