A familiar frustration over Chromebooks resurfaced with members of the Springfield Board of Education, with some board members speaking against buying a device for every kindergartener.
During a study session meeting on Feb. 13, board members reviewed a proposal for Springfield Public Schools to purchase a total of 8,657 Chromebooks at a cost of about $2.38 million. Of those devices, 1,867 of them would be touchscreen devices for use by kindergarten students.
Bruce Douglas, chief information officer for SPS, said the devices were intended to replace older Chromebooks and iPads that are outdated and will no longer receive security updates from their manufacturers. New Chromebooks are intended to replace iPad devices.
A vote on the purchase is planned for the board’s Feb. 27 meeting. Some board members had issues with the school district buying that many, wondering if instead one device could be used by up to four students. They pointed to an effort made in 2022 to reduce screen time for younger children, saying it was detrimental to their development.
“If we’re trying to do less screen time and more one-on-one engaged interaction, more pencil and paper, then why do we need one for every kid?” school board member Kelly Byrne said. “Find a better way to spend our dollars, that allows us to spend money on consumables and other curriculum resources, and things that allow us to promote one-on-one teaching and not screen time.”
A Chromebook is a custom laptop computer powered mainly through Google’s Chrome browser and related Android apps, eliminating the need for a more refined operating system, such as Windows or Mac OS.
In Springfield schools, laptops are used at the kindergarten level for taking tests in preparation for state MAP tests in future grades.
The discussion was similar to 2022, when board members wrangled for weeks over a replacement plan. Originally asked to replace 7,300 devices, the board eventually approved only 5,500. The purchase came with a lengthy discussion about technology use that resulted in limitations on how Chromebooks could be brought home.
A component of the prior discussion circled around concerns of younger children using screens to do most of their school work, instead of learning pencil and paper.
“The students that are most advanced and most digitally savvy are the students who receive technology later in life,” school board member Maryam Mohammandkhani said. “So this idea that, in order to be academically proficient student to advance in fifth, sixth, seventh grade, you need to see a computer in kindergarten is absolutely false.”
Board member Judy Brunner said that during the discussion in 2022, teachers had said in a survey that they preferred for each student to have their own Chromebook. Bruner noted that she was not on the board at the time the votes were taken.
“I don’t remember the ratio, but pretty overwhelmingly, the teachers using these tools said ‘yes, we want the Chromebooks,’” Brunner said. “So I was a bit surprised that night when the board voted to not do that.”
Board member Shurita Thomas-Tate, a member of the board since 2020, said that according to that survey, 88.9% of the responding kindergarten teachers requested one-to-one devices. To counter Mohammadkhani’s point about research, Thomas-Tate said that there was not conclusive research that showed kids who use tech at a young age have less academic achievement.
“If we are saying that we know that teachers are the experts, and that they have the best interest of our students in mind, then I think that we should listen to them,” Thomas-Tate said. “We should value their expertise, their knowledge and their skill.”
The district is also developing a long-term technology plan similar to its strategic plan. Requested by Mohammadkhani, the plan would provide guidance for how SPS would use computers and software, including curriculum applications. A technology plan is expected to go up for the board of education's consideration during the summer of 2024.
