One-to-One Technology and Student Outcomes: Evidence From Mooresville's Digital Conversion Initiative
Primary school (grades 1–6) Lower secondary (grades 7–9) Analog vs digital
Links to claims
Limits (1)
| Claim | Basis |
|---|---|
| C9 | US district 1:1 laptop programme bundled with teacher training and changed teaching: maths +0.13–0.16 SD after four to five years relative to the state trend (published abstract: 0.13), reading smaller; one treated district. C9 weakened 2026-10-08 (programme bound). |
Review state: first-pass draft, pending human review.
Source note
Syntes: Hull & Duch (2019) — Mooresville's laptop-for-every-pupil programme: maths gains after four to five years
Källa: Hull, M., & Duch, K. (2019). One-to-one technology and student outcomes: Evidence from Mooresville's Digital Conversion Initiative. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 41(1), 79–97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373718799969
Verified numbers (authors' working paper of December 2016 read in full 2026-10-08; published abstract checked)
- Programme: Mooresville Graded School District (about 5,800 pupils, seven schools) gave MacBooks to all pupils in grades 4–12 (2008 and 2009), with teacher professional development, a shift to flipped lessons, extended wireless access, and gaming and social-media sites blocked; print textbooks and computer labs cut.
- Design: difference-in-differences with year-specific effects (2008 = base), school fixed effects, student and school controls; standardised End-of-Grade maths and reading tests, grades 4–8, whole North Carolina as comparison; robustness with neighbouring counties as controls and without transfer pupils.
- Maths (SD, Table 2): 2006 −0.010, 2007 −0.035, 2009 +0.019, 2010 +0.054, 2011 +0.086, 2012 +0.140, 2013 +0.162. Reading: 2010 +0.041, 2011 +0.072, 2012 +0.121, 2013 +0.062. Published abstract: short-term effects not significant; maths +0.13 SD in the medium term.
- Behaviour: home computer use up about 9.5 days a month; homework +6.5 minutes a week (base-year sensitive); free reading about −5 minutes a day.
- Authors' caveats: cannot separate which parts of the programme mattered; "We could not give a laptop to every student in a school district and expect the same changes in outcomes without also focusing on changing district culture."
Role for C9
Limits (weaken, 2026-10-08): outside Sweden at least one well-measured 1:1 programme was followed by maths gains, so C9's general no-gain statement is scoped to the Swedish evidence. Not a kill: one treated district, bundled reforms, US context; Swedish (IFAU) and Norwegian (Krumsvik et al. 2021) studies remain null or mixed.
Metadata as recorded
- ID
- DIG-009
- Tier
- quasi/DiD
- Closed-book follow-up
- ja (state End-of-Grade tests in maths and reading, taken without the laptops)
- Titel
- One-to-One Technology and Student Outcomes: Evidence From Mooresville's Digital Conversion Initiative
- Författare
- Hull, M.; Duch, K.
- År
- 2019 (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 41(1), 79–97; working paper December 2016)
- Källa/DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373718799969
- URL
- https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1204852 (abstract); working-paper version https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2017/preliminary/paper/eetrE4yQ
- Typ
- difference-in-differences on North Carolina administrative data (2006–2013, over 4 million student-year observations, about 2,000 Mooresville pupils per year in grades 4–8); one district gave every pupil in grades 4–12 a laptop from 2008–2009 with teacher training, flipped lessons and blocked entertainment sites
- Åldersgrupp
- grundskola-lag;grundskola-hog
- Teman
- analogt-vs-digitalt
- Hämtad
- 2026-10-08
- Paywall
- Sage (closed); working paper open
The original files (PDF or abstract) are kept in the project archive and are not published here.