950 Families Close Digital Divide

Tamra Green couldn’t afford a computer. Now her daughter is exploring the planets, online.

Green’s is one of 950 New Haven families who are closing the digital divide through an innovative program.

Green got a flyer about the program, Concepts for Adaptive Learning, from Timothy Dwight School almost three years ago when her daughter Amber was in second grade there. She also has two older sons.

The program has been fixing up people’s old computers and giving them to families like Green’s since 2003. They don’t just give out the computers; they teach families how to use them. The program just reached a milestone, distributing its 1,000th computer in the state. (Most, not all, are distributed in New Haven.)

Since Green (pictured) couldn’t afford to buy a computer, she was happy to attend six weekly classes to learn how to operate it in exchange for a refurbished computer.

The family bought a printer and paid for internet service, allowing them to cross over the divide that separates some low-income families and communities from wealthier, connected neighbors.

Her sons, Justin and Jameson, both students at Hillhouse High School, use the computer for their written assignments. Little sister Amber (pictured at the top of the story in the library at Troup School) has perhaps been the most computer-creative.

“I do a lot of research on the computer,” she said. ​“Sometimes I just do it for fun. If I’m bored, I say, ​‘Let’s do some research.’” One topic she has explored is the solar system.

Her mother proudly elaborated on Amber’s computer wizardry using PowerPoint to create a 40th birthday commemoration for her dad, complete with music.

Dad Ronald Green said he sometimes gets to use the computer, too.

“It benefits the whole house. The way things are going, it seems like everything is on-line and on computers. It’s good for the children,” he said. ​“I see a lot of kids in the city of New Haven don’t have computers, so my kids have a jump on something other kids don’t have.” He is disabled, and Tamra works just part-time in an after-school program.

Curtis Hill (pictured setting up computers in the library at Troup) spent 30 years working in the world of information technology, retiring in 2002. Drawing on that experience, he took over the fledgling Concepts in Adaptive Learning. He provided the ​“mission, vision, strategy, tactics and program,” and, as the volunteer executive director, began in July 2003 to help public school students improve their education.

On Friday, he lugged ten laptop computers up a few flights of stairs to Troup’s library, where he and his wife held a celebration for the 10 students whose families, like the Greens, all got computers three years ago when their second-graders attended Timothy Dwight School.

Hill said the original plan had been to give a laptop to the top performing student at the end of fourth grade. But Dwight School closed and the children scattered. The party reunited them, and all ten of them got new computers.

“They were ecstatic,” Hill said.

“We use technology as a motivator to make instruction more engaging,” Hill said, ​“to help parents increase their involvement in their children’s education, and to extend learning beyond the classroom.”

He seeks foundation grants, which make up the $100,000 budget. The largest is from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which provided training for 300 families. Hill has expanded his program to an additional 300 families in Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury.

Some education experts criticize dependence on technology, saying an over-reliance on it has not delivered significant improvements in students’ educational attainment. Hill is the first to agree technology is not a panacea. But he insists — passionately — that it’s a necessary component of success in today’s world.

“Education starts at home. We need good parents, and we need parents involved in their children’s education. Going beyond the home, that student is now in the classroom, and that’s where we need the talent of a teacher, and the talent of a teacher makes all the difference in the world. So between the parent and the teacher, that is a formidable team that helps children improve their education. So I can’t underemphasize the important role that the teacher has in that classroom.

“But they also need tools. All these people who may be naysayers, try taking their computer away for a week, and see how they survive.”

Hill said an independent third party works with the Yale Child Study Center to evaluate the program every six to nine months. ​“What we’re finding through these studies is that 80-plus percent of participating parents indicate they’ve increased their involvement in their children’s education. Seventy-seven percent indicate their children’s grades have been improved in school. So those are two key measures that we target as we have had this program underway for nearly six years now.”