Critics of Maine’s program to provide students with laptop computers jumped on last week’s release of standardized test scores.

For the sixth year in a row, scores on the Maine Educational Assessment tests remained flat. Eighth-graders, who have had access to personal laptop computers for about three semesters, didn’t improve their scores.

It would be a mistake, however, to rush to judgment that the laptop program, which has provided computers to middle school students and will expand to about a third of the state’s high schools this year, has failed to improve student learning.

So far, the state has invested about $15 million in the program. Like any investment, it will take time to see a significant return. Already, however, there are signs that the program is working.

About 60 schools administered the writing portion of the MEAs using computers. Those students, while lost in the overall evaluation of the entire state, showed solid improvement. Teachers and administrators from around the state report that students are more engaged and complete more of their homework.

More than 30 school districts, including Auburn, SAD 43 in the Rumford area and Union 44 based in Sabattus, believe the benefits make expanding the program into high school worthwhile, even though the state will not cover the cost to lease the new computers. These school systems have decided the program is worth spending local tax dollars on, even when facing a difficult economic and political climate.

There’s also a growing body of national data supporting the benefits of putting computers in the hands of students. The Lynch School of Education at Boston College (www.bc.edu/research/intasc/) is collecting research on the use and assessment of technology in the classroom. Early evidence suggests positive outcomes for students who have computers integrated into the classroom on a one-machine-to-one-student basis.

The laptop program also has positive effects that are not measured by current MEA tests. Students become more technologically proficient and computer literate, making them better able to succeed in the Information Age.

Maine has received a $1.9 million federal grant to assess student learning with laptops and to help teachers better utilize computers in the classroom, and the plans to administer MEA exams via computer are progressing. Both should help the state identify areas that need improvement and be able to more quantitatively judge results.

Over the long-term, we believe putting computers in students’ hands will profit the state, its employers and its residents.