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The Brawley family name adorns about a half-dozen businesses around Mooresville, N.C., including a furniture store on the corner of Broad Street and Iredell Avenue, at the edge of a cute but quiet downtown.

The two-level white brick structure, a transformed agriculture depot bought in the late 1960s, still holds some of the time-capsule allure of the days when Jason Brawley鈥檚 grandparents first bought the place and found leftover bales of cotton in the basement. Business goes on much the same as it did more than 40 years ago, when the roads south to Charlotte weren鈥檛 clustered with housing developments and fast-food joints.

鈥淭hey still do handwritten tickets, and they have not wanted to get into the future,鈥� Brawley says of his grandparents, who still own the store that he helps manage. 鈥淲e finally got laptops a year or two ago. 鈥� With bookkeeping and everything, I know [using laptops] would be easier. Luckily, I don鈥檛 have to do it, so I don鈥檛 have to worry about it.鈥�

But while Brawley spends his days in a world of cherry headboards and magic-marker price tags, his 4th grade daughter spends hers at school working with a laptop issued by the 5,500-student . Her computer is part of a 鈥渄igital conversion鈥� program that some educators hope is the wave of the future.

Creating a Digital Culture

Mooresville High School Principal Todd Wirt talks about maintaining the school鈥檚 culture in the midst of new technology programs.

Yes, 1-to-1 laptop programs have become increasingly popular across the country, along the way drawing criticism that the results of those efforts are not justifying the substantial investments. But the Mooresville district, which in its fourth 1-to-1 year has stretched its program to reach all students in grades 3-12, appears to be a model of how to do it right, and in a community whose roots are more akin to Mayberry than the state鈥檚 Research Triangle region.

Since the digital conversion began, the district has seen an improvement of 20 percentage points鈥攆rom 68 percent to 88 percent鈥攊n the portion of its students who scored 鈥減roficient鈥� on all core-subject state exams, in the subjects of reading, math, and science. Six of eight schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, up from two of seven schools during the conversion鈥檚 first year. And its 2010-11 graduation rate rose to 91 percent, up 14 percentage points from four years ago.

All of those gains have occurred while the district sat at 99th of the state鈥檚 115 districts in per-pupil funding, at $7,463 a year, as of last spring, not including about 10 percent of the budget that comes from funds for capital outlays, before- and after-school programs, and child-nutrition programs. And while Mooresville鈥檚 population is by no means impoverished, the gains came during an economic downturn that has seen the proportion of the district鈥檚 students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch rise from 31 percent to 40 percent since 2007-08.

Staunch opponents of assessment-driven education may dispute the merit of some of Mooresville鈥檚 success. But other educators are asking how the district鈥檚 approach differs from that of less successful 1-to-1 initiatives, why it鈥檚 working, whether it can be replicated, and if it鈥檚 worth the sacrifices to do so.

Mooresville鈥檚 district leaders stress the reason for their success, in their eyes, is that their 1-to-1 implementation made up just a part of a districtwide reform to make teaching and learning more contemporary. And while the district hosts monthly open houses to welcome visitors interested in following the model, the leaders of Mooresville鈥檚 conversion say only districts with leaders who see budget and procedural restrictions as obstacles to be conquered, not feared, are capable of pulling it off.

鈥淲e have visitors all the time,鈥� says Scott Smith, the district鈥檚 chief technology officer, who was hired by Superintendent Mark Edwards during the conversion鈥檚 planning phase in 2007. 鈥淲hen they leave, we鈥檙e like, 鈥榊eah, they can do it,鈥� or 鈥楴o, they can鈥檛 do it, because they have the wrong person in charge.鈥� 鈥�

Higher Expectations for Teachers

When the principal of Mooresville High School, Todd Wirt, took that job in November 2007, he did so bent on changing what he recalls as a 鈥渃omplacent鈥� attitude among teachers and other staff members in a school where achievement data were average. As he walks the halls nearly four years later, he takes perhaps his greatest pride in seeing most of the same faces standing in classroom doorways.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 great about going from [68 percent] to [88 percent] in four years鈥� time is, primarily, it鈥檚 the same folks that were here four years ago,鈥� Wirt says of his staff. 鈥淭he true leaders of the staff are the same.鈥�

While many school leaders wary of introducing new technology approaches cite teachers who may be reluctant to comply, by all accounts Mooresville鈥檚 teachers were given little choice but to join a new culture where 6,000 district-issued laptops to students and staff served as the centerpiece of Superintendent Edwards鈥� educational improvement strategy. Similar compliance was also expected in accompanying changes to curriculum, teacher collaboration expectations, and even staff conduct, all of which began to be implemented in the fall of 2008.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think 鈥榯hreatening鈥� is the right word鈥擨 think 鈥榚xpectation鈥� is the right word,鈥� says Judy Maupin, an 8th grade social studies teacher at Mooresville Middle School, who admits she rejected the 1-to-1 model at first. 鈥淭he expectation is, 鈥楬ere is your laptop, and you will learn how to use it. You will make it an integral part of your classroom, and you will incorporate it into 21st-century teaching.鈥� 鈥�

At the high school, Wirt charged each of his academic department chairs with unifying each department鈥檚 curriculum during the year before laptops were introduced, and creating schoolwide formative assessments to test progress in that curriculum eight times a year.

Wirt also established the district鈥檚 program, in which teachers are asked to greet students with a pat or a handshake, and open the classroom to details about the good things happening in students鈥� lives, in an effort to make the school culture less teacher-centered. That program eventually trickled down to Mooresville Middle School, and in varying ways, principals say, Edwards has mandated collaboration鈥攂oth electronic and face-to-face鈥攂etween teachers at all levels.

Widespread staff attrition that was feared because of the digital conversion never materialized, administrators say, though Wirt suggests that layoffs that came in two waves鈥攁 large one after 2008-09, and a smaller one after last school year鈥攎ay have been a blessing in disguise. Layoffs that occurred were strategic, rather than adhering to policies such as 鈥渓ast hired, first fired鈥� that in many districts protect teachers on the basis of seniority.

鈥淭o be honest, this school was staffed incredibly well when I first came, so much so that I wasn鈥檛 exactly sure what some people did,鈥� says Wirt, whose school has lost nine teaching positions between layoffs and attrition as part of an 8 percent to 10 percent cut to the district鈥檚 operating budget since 2008. The district lost 50 to 60 positions because of those cuts, Edwards estimates, including 25 teaching positions.

鈥淔or some people, it was an opportunity to make some adjustments that needed to be made to our staff,鈥� Wirt adds.

Rebecca Snyder, the president of the local chapter of the , the state鈥檚 teachers鈥� union, took no position on the method of the layoffs, but said it was public knowledge that opposing the digital conversion would make a teacher more vulnerable.

But the proportion of turnover in the district鈥檚 leadership has been greater. Wirt is one of six principals in the district鈥檚 eight schools who were not on staff when Superintendent Edwards was hired in early 2007, though two just departed since 2010. Edwards, who previously led a 1-to-1 program as superintendent of the Henrico County, Va., school system, outside Richmond, brought in Smith from the Burke County, N.C., school system as his chief technology officer to lead the conversion. Terry K. Haas also came on board as chief financial officer in 2007.

鈥淚 think a lot of his decisions are based on leadership,鈥� Smith says of Edwards and his management. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to have the right people on the bus, but not only that, they鈥檝e got to be on the right seats on the bus.鈥�

Reallocating Resources

A summer institute has become an annual feature of the Mooresville district. That鈥檚 where the district hosts others interested in learning more about its practices and also offers sessions for its own teachers鈥攆or example, on programs like iMovie and Comic Life鈥攖o learn or refine skills for their digital arsenals.

And every year, Haas, the finance chief, offers visitors advice, but no silver bullet, on how a 1-to-1 program lives within its means.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really just looking at your budget in extreme detail and saying, 鈥極K, do we need to continue this?鈥� 鈥� Haas says. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not helping student achievement, and it鈥檚 not keeping the lights on, do we really need to be doing this?鈥�

Edwards estimates the district has eliminated 95 percent of its spending on print textbooks, thanks in part to state policy that allows districts flexibility in how they spend state funding. Those textbooks that remain typically reside in science classrooms and don鈥檛 travel home with students.

The district has also reduced spending on calculators, encyclopedias, and maps, all resources that can be found embedded within a laptop and an Internet connection, says Haas. And it has reapportioned or cut positions for computer-lab coordinators.

Edwards says Mooresville spends roughly $200 per student per year on hardware, software, and maintenance costs for its laptops鈥攚hich this year are newly unveiled MacBook Airs鈥攚ith $35 of that covering digital content through subscriptions to services like Silver Spring, Md.-based content service.

The district leases its laptops rather than buying them, selling its lease back after two or three years to a third-party buyer that refurbishes the laptops for resale, Haas says. And while Apple machines are typically priced higher than their PC counterparts, Haas and Smith both say the cost is made up on the back end.

鈥淭he thing about Apple is they own the hardware and the software. And it鈥檚 user-friendly. And again, it just works,鈥� says Smith, who heads an eight-person technology department he says would need more staff if the district was PC-oriented.

鈥淭here鈥檚 not nearly the technical issues to deal with on a Mac,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o from a total-cost-of-ownership standpoint, I don鈥檛 have to have as many people to help support it.鈥�

The district鈥檚 2010-11 total budget was $46.4 million, and district officials say parsing out expenses solely for the 1-to-1 program is nearly impossible because of its integration within overall district spending.

The district also saves money by resisting the purchase of e-textbooks from major publishers in most subjects; instead, it tells teachers to seek their own content and align it to the subject curriculum. Teachers are expected to share lessons with colleagues electronically via ANGEL, the district鈥檚 content-management software, created by Washington-based Blackboard Inc., and all four schools in the district鈥檚 1-to-1 program each employs a technology facilitator to aid that process. The district鈥檚 three elementary schools only began distributing laptops to its third graders this year.

Still, the job description for teachers is decidedly more labor-intensive even though Snyder says there are positive tradeoffs, such as the lessening of time spent grading.

鈥淚 would say the biggest challenge teachers have is the lack of time,鈥� says Marsha Rhyne, the technology facilitator at Mooresville Intermediate School. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a constant challenge for teachers to go out and to find new innovative resources and what actually matches the new curriculum they need.鈥�

But the scariest specter for districts looking to follow Mooresville, says Haas, may be that such a drastic change to the traditional model is usually a one-way portal.

鈥淲hen you stop and think about all the things we would have to go back and purchase to be able to go back to the way teachers used to teach, if we didn鈥檛 have the computers,鈥� Haas says, 鈥済oing back is not really an option.鈥�

Following the Mooresville Model

Walk the halls at Mooresville High School, and you鈥檒l see more than a few T-shirts devoted to Blue Devils football.

The back of one depicts an aerial view of the new turf field and rubber track installed in 2008 at what last year was renamed Coach Joe Popp Stadium, after a local legend who led the school to its only state title, in 1961. The front of another reads, 鈥淔riends don鈥檛 let friends go to Lake Norman,鈥� a jab at the local rival that sits only across town, but belongs to the separate, countywide Iredell-Statesville school system.

Allegiance to the town, and the school system, is big here鈥攕o much so, says the Mooresville district public-information officer Tanae McLean, that some people who purchase property on the edge of the town seek to have it annexed into the town limits. And among many locals, the school system鈥檚 successes, including those in its digital conversion, are attributed to the liberty it enjoys as a one-high-school district and one of only 15 city-based school systems in the state.

鈥淚t allows them to make choices,鈥� says district parent and alumnus Jason Brawley, whose family owns the furniture store. 鈥淕rowing up here and going through it myself, I never knew how good it was.鈥�

Mooresville鈥檚 leaders, from Superintendent Edwards to his central-office staff to his principals, acknowledge that the district鈥檚 modest size was a key factor in helping it change its culture and improve its achievement so quickly. Further, with the proximity of larger districts like the neighboring 20,000-student Iredell-Statesville system and the 134,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg a few miles south of town, Mooresville鈥檚 reputation and relatively few open positions could put it at a labor advantage, with many of its teachers having jumped across district lines for their current jobs.

鈥淎 lot of people want to work here,鈥� McLean says. 鈥淥n the flip side, 鈥� we have a lot of our teachers who, let鈥檚 say, if their husband takes a job somewhere else, they鈥檙e highly employable鈥� because of skills they鈥檝e learned in the digital conversion.

Mooresville鈥檚 school leaders also point to a growing list of districts, big and small, that are citing the district as their inspiration. The number of districts visiting at monthly open houses has been steadily increasing, with 17 attending a March event, according to the district鈥檚 website.

Alan Lee, the superintendent of the 28,000-student Baldwin County school system in southern Alabama, brought more than three dozen of his staff to observe Mooresville in action at one of its monthly open houses. This fall, he launched a pilot for a similar program at one of his district鈥檚 seven high schools, saying the digital-conversion model 鈥渕ay be the one last great hope for our nation.鈥�

Then there is Edwards, a soft-spoken but no-nonsense Tennessean who is in his third district as a superintendent, and whom Karen Cator, the director of the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 office of education technology, has praised for an ability to 鈥渟et high goals and then maintain a laser focus on them.鈥�

In the Mooresville district, Edwards has assumed a role that at times resembles that of a university president. He established a private education foundation to help raise funds for district projects and has pulled in Mooresville鈥檚 business community, especially during the digital conversion鈥檚 launch.

Edwards helped persuade Lowe鈥檚 Cos. Inc., which has its corporate headquarters in Mooresville, to contribute $250,000 in startup money toward installing a broadband Wi-Fi network in the district capable of handling 1-to-1 access, and also recruited local Internet provider to offer a $9.95-per-month home broadband service for financially disadvantaged students.

And in 鈥淩ace City USA,鈥� whose claim to fame is serving as the home for more than a dozen NASCAR auto-racing teams, Edwards has gained national attention for his district, attracting PBS news cameras, Wall Street Journal reporters, and even an invitation to speak at a panel at the White House this past September.

Colleagues insist any such effort in other districts must be led by a superintendent in the same mold.

鈥淗e just doesn鈥檛 allow anybody around him to make excuses or build obstacles,鈥� Principal Wirt of Mooresville High says of Edwards. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not his ride at all.鈥�