PORTLAND (AP) - Maine's program to give every middle school student a laptop computer is leading to better writing. 4real!

Despite creating a language all their own using e-mail and text messages, students are still learning standard English and their writing scores have improved on a standardized test since laptop computers were distributed, according to a new study.

And the students' writing skills improved even when they were using pen and paper, not just a computer keyboard, the study says.

"If you concentrate on whether laptops are helping kids achieve 21st century skills, this demonstrates that it's happening in writing," said David Silvernail, director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine.

The study authored by Silvernail and Aaron Gritter is the first in a series in which educators aim to evaluate Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program.

The laptop program, which seeks to eliminate the so-called "digital divide" between wealthy and poor students, kicked off with distribution of more than 30,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in public schools in 2002 and 2003.

The study focused on eighth-graders' scores on the Maine Educational Assessment to see if the standardized test results backed up the perception of both students and teachers alike that laptops have led to better writing skills.

Education Commissioner Sue Gendron said it represents the first concrete evidence that backs up what most educators already feel - that the laptop program known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative is working.

"It's about enhancing learning opportunities, and the evidence and the data we've received in this report substantiates that this is the right approach," she said.

Maine Education Assessment scores indicate 49 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in 2005 in writing, compared to 29 percent in 2000.

And it wasn't just a function of taking the writing portion of the test using a computer and keyboard. Students who used pen and paper and students who used a computer keyboard showed similar improvements on the test, Silvernail said.

During the same period, math scores were unchanged and science scores grew by 2 points, while reading scores actually dropped 3 points, Silvernail said. Writing showed the biggest improvement of 7 points, from 530 to 537, he said.

Silvernail said it's unrealistic to expect big increases on standardized tests tied to laptops, but writing is the exception.

Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer's cramp, he said. And it was important, he said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper.

Virginia Rebar, principal at Piscataquis Community Middle School, was not surprised by the results because language skills are being developed every time the computers are used, in social studies and other subjects beyond language arts.

"It's just a lot easier to edit, to self-critique. Our teachers engage students in a lot of peer-editing. Not only are they helping themselves but they're helping each other as they get to their final projects," she said.

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