Spending for computers and Internet links in classrooms is surging, despite the lack of research on the effect of high tech on student performance.

• The market-research firm Quality Education Data estimates that in the 1997-98 school year elementary and high schools spent $5.2 billion on computers, Internet access and network technology -- up over 60 percent from just three years earlier.

• According to Education Week, three out of four public school classrooms have at least one computer; more than half of classrooms are connected to a local area network; nearly half are connected to the Internet; and 85 percent of schools have some Internet access.

• After comparing math scores of fourth-graders and eighth- graders, Educational Testing Service researcher Harold Wenglinsky concluded that how students use computers is often more important than how often they use them.

• William Rukeyser, director of the research group Learning in the Real World, has found the use of educational technology works better with older students who have a solid educational foundation to start with.

Experts point out that costs are an important consideration. Two years ago, a RAND Corp. study estimated it would cost between $8 billion and $20 billion a year over five years to equip all classrooms with multimedia, networked computers.

Source: Anna Bray Duff, "Can High Tech Save Schools?" Investor's Business Daily, December 15, 1998.