Carmen Arace Middle School is situated in the pastoral town of Bloomfield, Conn., but four years ago it faced many of the same problems as inner-city schools in nearby Hartford: low scores on standardized tests and dropping enrollment . Then the school's hard-driving headmaster, Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher to use, in school and at home. What's more, the board provided wireless Internet access at school. Total cost: $2.5 million. Now, an hour before classes start, every seat in the library is taken by students who cannot wait for getting online. Fifth-grade teacher Jen Friday talks about different kinds of birds as students view them at a colorful website. After school, students on buses pull laptops from backpacks to get started on homework. Since the computer arrived, enrollment is up 20%. Scores on state tests are up 35%. Indeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City also hope to follow Arace Middle School's example. Governor Angus King had planned using $50 million to buy a laptop for all of Maine's 17,000 seventh-graders - and for new seventh-graders each fall. In the same spirit, the New York City board of education voted on April 12 to create a school Internet portal , which would make money by selling ads and licensing public school students. Profits will also provide e-mail service for the city's 1.1 million public school students. Profits will be used to buy laptops for each of the school system's 87,000 fourth-graders. Within nine years, all students in grades 4 and higher will have their own computers. Back in Bloomfield, in the meantime, most of the _ have been worked out. Some students were using their computers to visit unauthorized websites. But teachers have the ability to keep an eye on where students have been on the Web and to stop them. "That is the worst when they disable you," says eighth-grade honors student Jamie Bassell. The habit is rubbing off on parents. "I taught my mom to use e-mail," says another eighth-grader, Katherine Hypolite. "And now she's taking computer classes. I'm so proud of her!"
Which school did the program initially begin at?
Where is it located?
Who headed it?
What did it purchase for everybody?
Are other educational institutions planning on doing the same?
Where?
When did New York approve their program?
For how many pupils?
How many are in the fourth grade?
How much did the first program cost?
What problems was it fixing?
Did it work?
How much did it improve enrollment?
What about scores?
Who approved the plan in Maine?
What office does he hold?
How much did he budget for it?
Which pupils is he planning to fund first?
How many?
Were there difficulties encountered by the program?
Carmen Arace Middle School
Carmen Arace Middle School
Bloomfield, Connecticut
Carmen Arace Middle School is situated in the pastoral town of Bloomfield, Conn
Delores Bolton
 Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer
laptop computers
buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher
yes
 school systems in rural Maine and New York City also hope to follow Arace Middle School's example
rural Maine and New York City
Indeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City
April 12
the New York City board of education voted on April 12 to create a school Internet portal
1.1 million
service for the city's 1.1 million public school students
87,000
the school system's 87,000 fourth-graders
$2.5 million
Total cost: $2.5 million
low scores on standardized tests and dropping enrollment
 problems as inner-city schools in nearby Hartford: low scores on standardized tests and dropping enrollment
yes
 Since the computer arrived, enrollment is up 20%.
by 20%
enrollment is up 20%
by 35%
Scores on state tests are up 35%
Angus King
Governor Angus King had planned using $50 million to buy a laptop for all of Maine's
Governor
Governor Angus King
$50 million
Governor Angus King had planned using $50 million
seventh-graders
using $50 million to buy a laptop for all of Maine's 17,000 seventh-graders
17,000
17,000 seventh-graders
yes
most of the _ have been worked out