The move means middle school students will get new MacBooks for the 2023-24 school year, and all students and staff currently equipped with iPads will get new ones, according to board documents.

Devices get replaced every few years

• MacBook laptops used in the district are refreshed every four years, and iPads are replaced every three years.
• Those timelines offer “the optimal balance” between the lifespan of the devices and their potential resale value, according to board documents.

Device reset is separate from tech program evaluation

• South area board member Jessica Hembree asked for clarification on whether the move to replace devices was separate from a look at the academic and instructional impacts of the district’s 1:1 technology program, which was launched with some controversy in 2014.
• Superintendent Michelle Hubbard confirmed to Hembree that an overall technology program evaluation was done separately, with the last one happening in November 2021.
• Hubbard said the program evaluations happen every other year, which would mean the next evaluation would happen this coming fall.

New devices could make instruction easier

• The district listed several “expected outcomes” that would result form updating students’ devices.
• Those include less time and money spent on repairing devices, more timely feedback given by teachers using devices and less instructional time lost to technology issues.
• The district expects better battery life and performance to result from updating the devices, too.

Go deeper: Read up on Shawnee Mission’s controversial, 2014-approved 1:1 technology initiative.