This fall, freshmen entering any of the five Little Rock School District high schools will have their own tablet for the remainder of their high-school career.
About 1,900 students will be armed with free take-home tablets, along with 3 gigabytes of high-speed Internet a month, thanks to a Sprint initiative called the 1Million Project, the district and the communications company announced Thursday. The project's goal is to place free tablets, smartphones and Internet services in 1 million students' hands nationally over the next five years, said Jon Blitz, Sprint's president for the south-central region.
The district will be one of the first in the nation and the first in Arkansas to roll out the program.
"I hope that everyone leaves this, and the folks who get to watch this on TV tonight or read about it in the paper tomorrow, take stock that this is a school district that's on the move," district Superintendent Mike Poore said during Thursday's announcement.
"It's on the move to go make a difference for kids each and every day, and we're constantly trying to find a way to make our district better in terms of our delivery and then, of course, in our output, so that ... young people are prepared for their future."
Sprint first tested out the project in late 2016 along the East Coast and is starting to roll out the initiative now, Blitz said. The company, which has not announced how many schools nationally will participate in the program, recognized that many students don't have access to high-speed Internet at home, Blitz said.
"In fact, there's more than 5 million U.S. families with school-age children that just don't have home Internet, but yet seven out of 10 teachers across America require homework to be done that requires the use of a tablet or Internet services," he said. "So we recognize the fact here at Sprint that ... it causes a lot of stress at home, and we want to help resolve some of that here."
Under the partnership, Sprint will provide tablets and Internet to incoming freshmen at Central, Hall, J.A. Fair, McClellan and Parkview high schools over the next five years. Sprint will pony up for the services for those on the free and reduced lunch program, while the district will pay for the remaining students to have the services, Poore said.
About 71 percent -- 16,108 of 22,759 -- of the district's students in the 2016-17 academic year have free and reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program, which determines eligibility based on income.
The district did not know Thursday how much the initiative would cost it because it does not yet have a count of students on free and reduced lunch for the next school year.
Over the last few years, the Little Rock district has purchased Chromebooks for its kindergartners through 12th graders, but it doesn't have enough for everyone, nor does it allow students to take the devices home, Poore said. Its neighbor -- the Pulaski County Special School District -- has finished equipping all students in its schools with Chromebooks and iPads.
Giving take-home tablets to incoming ninth graders will free up other tablets for those in other grade levels, Poore said.
The announcement at McClellan included Gov. Asa Hutchinson, principals of the high schools and eighth graders from Cloverdale Middle School.
Hutchinson said the initiative highlights the importance of technology in the school system and is aligned with his push for students to learn coding and computer science. He said school leaders need to continue the technology drive in part by making the devices -- and technological support -- available to every student.
"We have to have high-speed Internet in every school, and so we have invested in that as a state," he said. "And soon Arkansas will be one of only three states in the nation to have high-speed Internet access to 100 percent of our schools. And finally we have to have trained teachers."
He called on the students to "create the demand" for computer science education and for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in high schools.
"Your demand will inspire teachers to do what they need to do to meet that demand of the students in our future," he said.
Central High Principal Nancy Rousseau said Sprint's gift would help high school students get equal access to devices at a time when home connectivity is "almost" a prerequisite to student success.
Turning to the students, Rousseau said the devices would mold them into inquisitive, creative and engaged learners.
"It will help you, for example, to master the basic skills of every single subject you take," she said. "Online resources, as we all know, are abundant, and your tablet and your Wi-Fi use will connect you to the whole world. These tablets will help you when more information is needed to complete homework assignments. It will enhance your knowledge of technology, which is so necessary in today's everyday society. It'll give you so many more options to explore subjects that you find interesting, and you [will] want to learn more."
After the announcement, Cloverdale eighth graders buzzed about the tablets they will receive next semester.
"I'm trying to learn how to code," said George Tucker, 14.
Regan Young, 14, said she thought the initiative is "great" because some of her peers aren't able to access materials online that they need for school. Those peers usually go to libraries or try to finish up that assignment during the class period.
It would make all the difference for Jordan Harris, 14, who said he has a smartphone and spotty Internet at home.
"With this new tablet, I'm hoping to get all my assignments done on that because sometimes I'm not able to do it," he said. "Sometimes I try to do it the next day at school when it's probably due. I'm just ready for them."
Metro on 05/05/2017