Howard Blume reports that Superintendent Cortines now says, "I don’t believe we can afford a device for every student." (LA Times 2/20/15)

Commontary -

Cortines already suggested that the expensive Pearson software would no longer be part of the project and than schools could opt for inexpensive Chromebooks instead of the iPads. These changes should have drastically reduced the cost of the program - yet now he is saying there is not enough money. That seems unlikely. More likely the administration has lost their nerve on this program which had the potential to be a huge benefit for underserved students in the district.

The district has already purchased the devices needed to do the online testing (a key motivation behind the original program). This move will allow the district to be in complience with the new testing (and administrators to keep their jobs), but do little for students. If true this will be an unfortunate end to a glimmer of hope in LAUSD.

bfoley

The former, Common Core Technology Project is now the Instructional Technology Initiative. This is to show the emphasis of the project on instruction rather than testing.  Either way we welcome any progress on getting working devices into the classroom (and better bandwidth).

you can follow ITI @iti_lausd

Contrary to popular belief, the LAUSD iPad project is still moving forward (probably without the Pearson software/curriculum). The latest twist is that schools will be able to pick iPads or Chromebooks (any kind).