CREATING NEW LIFE FOR OLD COMPUTERS CAN SAVE MILLIONS FOR LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS, GRAND JURY FINDS

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May 15, 2014 (San Diego) - California adopted nationally-recommended standards for English-language arts and mathematics in 2013 as a condition for receiving federal education funds. These state standards are generally referred to as the Common Core curriculum that all California schools must now follow. While there are many benefits that can be attributed to the new curriculum, one downside is that beginning with the 2014-2015 school year all future statewide student achievement testing must be done on-line, utilizing computers instead of manually completed pen-and-ink forms.

And that presents a problem, according to a report released by the 2013-2014 San Diego County Grand Jury today. School districts will need to make substantial investments to meet the minimum technical requirements (hardware, software and bandwidth) needed to support the testing, at a time when most school districts are struggling financially. The new testing begins with the 2014-2015 school year.

The good news is that there is a cost effective alternative available that will allow schools to utilize old computers that would otherwise be discarded to administer the tests. It is a software product, Neverware™, which is already in use in New York City schools. In essence, Neverware™ and other similar software turns old computers into “dumb terminals” consisting of a keyboard, a monitor, and a connection to a network through which the test is administered. These terminals have no independent data processing capability, and are 100% secure, since any unauthorized changes are erased with every logout.

The Grand Jury recommends that all school districts in San Diego County investigate the Neverware™ system and other similar software for possible use in conducting on-line Common Core student testing, and look to civic organizations and businesses for donations of old computers to further defray any cost impact of this testing requirement.

The complete report can be found by clicking here.

 


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