School Dropouts, Results and Computer Instruction

The following appeared as part of a newspaper editorial:

"Two years ago Nova High School began to use interactive computer instruction in three academic subjects. The school dropout rate declined immediately, and last year’s graduates have reported some impressive achievements in college. In future budgets the school board should use a greater portion of the available funds to buy more computers, and all schools in the district should adopt interactive computer instruction throughout the curriculum."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

I do not agree with the above reasoning.

Decline in school dropout rate can be due to a variety of reasons. A particular state saw its dropout percentage going down from 49% to 3% when the state government provided a wide array of scholarships and incentives to study. This included building social awareness on benefits of education. At the end of the day dropouts is more of a social and economic problem. Simply enhancing the instruction medium cannot hope to solve it alone.

Achievements of graduate students can be partly attributed to making the instruction medium more interactive. I agree that such an improvement can help the students to understand and grasp things faster. This can ultimately translate to better results. However at the end of the day the main credit goes to the students who worked hard to achieve the results and the teachers who used the medium effectively. 

I believe that computers are tools. They are only as good as the people who use them. Hence using computers would entail some level of training for the people involved besides buying computers. Not all schools may be in a position to make that kind of investment and may have other priorities. So even though it may be desirable to have more computers for interactive instruction, forcing it down the throat of all district schools may not be a very good idea.

Concluding, interactive computer instructions can make a subject easier to grasp and more interesting. However attributing every positive event to one single change and forcing it on a huge group based on the back of such a weak reasoning can be counter-productive.