(2009-07-22) Math Computer School Of One

Middle School-131 in NYC's China Town is running a "SchoolOfOne" pilot program over the summer. The program, conducted in a converted library, consists mainly of students working individually or in small groups on laptop computers to complete math (Basic Arithmetic) lessons in the form of quizzes, games and worksheets. Each student must take a quiz at the end of each day; the results are fed into a computer program to determine whether they will move on to a new topic the next day. (Educating Kids In Nyc, Educational Technology) Hard to tell from the article, but actual content sounds rather unremarkable.

Sept'2012 update: it *had disappointing results in its first year — and was abandoned at two of the three schools where it was implemented, the DailyNews has learned.

School of One, championed by former city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and named as one of Time magazine’s 50 best inventions in 2009, didn’t help kids improve on the state math exams any more than regular math classes, a recent study found.

Stuyvesant High School math teacher Gary Rubinstein, who recently wrote about his visit to School of One early in the pilot program, said he wasn’t surprised. “Even if they got results, I wouldn’t be impressed because it looked like all they were learning how to do was do better on a Standardized Test,” he said.*