This article originally appeared in the October 27, 1998 edition of The Washington Post © 1998 The Washington Post

Boston Becomes 1st Big City to Link Entire School System to Web By Pamela Ferdinand Special to The Washington Post BOSTON TODAY BECAME THE FIRST LARGE URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICT in the country to link all its public schools, libraries and community centers to the Internet. When President Clinton issued a challenge two years ago to wire every school in the nation to the Internet by the year 2000, Boston had one computer for every 63 students. Now the city possesses one computer for every 10 students in each of its 128 schools, providing unparalleled access to economically disadvantaged children who will compete for education and career opportunities in a technology-savvy world. The $125 million project, which aims to provide one computer for every four students by 2001, represents a significant step for public education in a region already renowned for its academics and private universities. A partnership between government and private industry spearheaded by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the effort has so far raised more than $26 million in outside funding -- including $3.5 million from Intel Corp., the largest school donation the company has made. "Here in the education city, there are no information haves and have-nots," said Menino during a celebration at Mather Elementary School, the oldest public elementary school in the nation and one of the schools most recently wired for high-speed Internet access. "Our teachers can use this new technology to help teach their classes in innovative ways. Every public school child in Boston will now receive a state-of-the-art education." An estimated 10 percent of the district's 64,000 students had access to computers outside school and Massachusetts was among the lowest-ranked states in classroom computer technology when Menino launched the initiative in 1996. Nationwide, the vast majority of American families with incomes over $50,000 own computers at home, and suburban schools generally outpace urban districts in equipment and training. According to Menino, $50 million in capital funds was earmarked to change the situation in Boston, with additional donations from partners such as Intel and Microsoft Corp., labor unions, cable and networking companies and government agencies. As of today, each Boston public school has at least one computer lab and additional computers in at least four classrooms. In addition, an estimated 60 percent of the school district's 4,800 teachers have received basic training for using computers as instructional tools in their classrooms. Each school has been supplied with software to prevent students from accessing inappropriate information, but many schools are debating whether to allow students to maintain individual e-mail accounts. "They could go haywire," mused one teacher. Eventually, an expert teaching corps will receive special technology training and vocational programs will be offered for students interested in technical support careers, Menino said. Teachers will able to pull up an Internet site including lesson plans, student work and academic standards, and a study will be conducted in collaboration with the federal Department of Education to help determine the long-term impact of computers in schools, he said. Bringing technology into the classroom appears to have made a huge difference for a struggling institution such as Jeremiah E. Burke High School in the city's Dorchester neighborhood, the first school in Boston to be outfitted with new computers. With more than 300 computers scattered through the school's classrooms and offices, Burke students are plunging into computer-assisted research, Web page design and computer programming. The key to effective education is combining a strong curriculum with computers, which are only one instrument -- albeit flashy ones -- in the learning process, teachers said. "I haven't met a student yet who doesn't want to learn something about computers," said Carol Moore, the assistant headmaster in charge of technology support at Burke. "It's easy to engage them. The challenge is to make sure that what we're engaging them with is worth their academic time." During a tour of the school this morning, health class students gathered information on cancer from Internet sites while a computer applications class organized a database modeled on the state Registry of Motor Vehicles. Down the hall, another group of students used the Web to research papers on Nobel Peace Prize winners and to plan virtual vacations for fictional travelogues. "It's a big difference compared to books," said Jason Nichols, 14, as he surfed the Internet for information on lung cancer. "Some books have the information that you want and others don't. But you can always go into a computer and get the articles you want."