When Greenwood High School freshman Jacolby Tucker wasn't home by dusk one day last week, his mother suspected he was up to no good.
"I was worried because I didn't know where he was," said Gwendolyn Tucker.
She was relieved to find that her son wasn't out creating any mischief. He was still at school, working on his algebra.
"When I found out what he was doing, I was excited and glad that's what it was," said Mrs. Tucker. "He didn't come in till a little after 6 p.m."
What kept Jacolby and some of his classmates was I CAN Learn, a computer program tailored to state algebra 1 and pre-algebra benchmarks. Greenwood High was one of four Mississippi schools, chosen by lottery, that received $300,000 grants to set up I CAN Learn labs.
Since the lab opened last Monday, a lot of strange things are happening at the high school.
During seventh period Thursday, the entire lab was dead silent as about 30 students with head sets figured out problems, their faces buried in computer screens. The absence of commotion pleased veteran algebra 1 teacher Vinnie White, who was monitoring each student's performance from her computer station at the front of the room.
"I can see every child in here engaged," said an elated White. "If there were discipline problems, this eliminated them."
I CAN Learn, which stands for Interactive Computer-Aided Natural Learning, uses a combination of animated characters and audio prompts that walk students through the different kinds of equations. The students work through a unit, take a test and, if they pass, move on to the next lesson.
A week into the program, White said she sees progress. After just four days, her students were averaging a lesson a day. Two students had completed 14 lessons. Another, Jacolby, finished the most with 16.
I CAN Learn allows the students to work at their own pace. When a student is finished with a lesson and passes the corresponding test, he or she moves on. The students who complete the course early start studying for the state test.
In 30 years of teaching algebra, White has never seen results like these, she said.
"After four days with it, I haven't seen anything that can beat it. I had students struggling in the classroom, and they came in here and have been able to master it. I believe in I CAN Learn."
The program, invented by JRL Enterprises of New Orleans, has been in city schools there since 1994. Mississippi decided to adopt it because students were learning the material faster and retaining it better, said Lori Hoskins, an I CAN Learn program director at Delta State University, which is in charge of overseeing the program.
The curriculum is better suited for kids who have grown up in the "video game age," she said.
"I think what sets it apart from traditional classrooms is you've got a teacher at a chalkboard and 30 students. And if more than just a few people get behind, it's so hard to get caught back up. This program is one student on one computer. It's a one-to-one ratio, and it's self-paced."
Sharon Crain, a Greenwood High sophomore, already notices an improvement in her math skills.
"It's made a big difference," said Sharon, 17. "I haven't made anything but As and one C. Before, I made Cs and Ds."
The pace of the program is more suitable for her, too, she said. "I don't have to worry about going so fast I can't understand. And it's more interesting because I love computers."
The math scores in Louisiana have been so impressive that the Mississippi Development Authority has promised to put an I CAN Learn classroom in every middle and high school in the Delta, where test scores tend to fall below average. In April, 14 more schools will join Greenwood, Greenville, Yazoo County and Clark County high schools in the program.
Of the four that already have it, Greenwood was the first to get its lab up and running. Hoskins said the teachers at the high school deserve credit.
"On Wednesday, one of the algebra teachers called me right at 5 p.m. and said the kids were still there in the lab, and they were loving it," Hoskins said. "As far as I know, Greenwood is ahead of everybody else."
