Laptops: School Use and Student Outcomes The need for a quality and successful education system has become all too evident in today's society. The need for technological skills is also obvious. Schools across the nation are now trying to achieve both of these goals by providing a laptop to every student. Principal John Kozusko, an administrator at one of these schools, says: “It's like a world apart. It has changed the way teachers teach… the way they think about children.” (Chute, 2000 ¶4) According to Speaker Rick Johnson of the Michigan House of Representatives, “Students have gone from learning about computers to learning from them.” (Johnson, 2003,18) This article will look at how laptops are used in schools and the effect they have on student achievement. Participation The movement to use laptop computers to provide a world-class education to all students has rapidly spread around the world. nation. Across the United States, Microsoft has more than 125,000 students and teachers at 800 schools participating in such programs. (Chute, 2000) While researching this topic, I found documentation of programs in elementary, middle, and high schools in several states. These states include, but are not limited to, New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, and Texas. Some schools fund the program themselves, often starting with a pilot program and expanding as funding becomes available. (See is, n.d.) Others partner with companies like Microsoft and Netschools. (Chute, 2000) Additional funding came from sources such as corporate donations, personal money, federal funds, and bonds. (Corcoran, 2002) Use of Laptops The cases described in this paper all include schools that provided laptops to students and/or teachers so that the student to computer ratio was 1:1. As already mentioned, for some schools this was done with a pilot group, while other schools provided computers to all students. Students are then required to bring their own laptop to class, ready for use, as well as textbooks, pencils and other necessary materials. (Chute, 2000) They are also responsible for charging the computer battery and transporting the computer to and from school every day. Computer equipment varies depending on the brand of computer, operating system and firewalls installed by schools.