Organizational Behavior and Technology Adoption in Primary Education: Budgetary Trade-Offs and Economic Implications of iPad Purchases
Abstract
A one-to-one device program does more than place hardware in classrooms; it converts a purchase decision into a multiyear operating commitment. This article examines whether school districts absorb that commitment through new capacity, displacement of existing services, or both. Financial, enrollment, demographic, procurement, and assessment records from 610 Pennsylvania and Ohio districts provide 3,000 district-year financial observations and 1,175,000 student-years. Treatment begins when a district crosses a prespecified threshold for large-scale iPad deployment. Because implementation occurs in different years, the primary analysis estimates cohort- and time-specific effects using Callaway and Sant’Anna’s approach, with district-clustered inference; conventional two-way fixed-effects estimates and Goodman-Bacon diagnostics serve as transparency checks. Adoption reduced instructional spending by 1.85 percentage points and teacher compensation by $280.40 per pupil while increasing information-technology operating cost by $145.80 and capital expenditure by $310.20 per pupil. Mathematics achievement declined by 0.045 standard deviations, attendance fell by 0.35 percentage points, and suspensions increased by 0.42 percentage points. The reading estimate was small and statistically imprecise. Robustness estimates were directionally stable, and joint pre-trend tests did not reject parallel pre-adoption trends. The findings support a capacity-centered account of educational technology: returns depend not simply on device access, but on whether districts can finance recurring obligations, adapt work systems, and preserve core instructional inputs during implementation.
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