DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020526

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: SEATTLE                           LENGTH:   33 lines

COMPUTER BOOM CONTINUES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

More computers, newer computers, faster computers, better linked computers and more versatile computers are online in the nation's public schools.

There were 6.3 million computers available to students in 1996-97, a 23.5 percent increase for the year and a 186 percent jump over the 2.2 million machines in 1991-92, according to statistics compiled by Market Data Retrieval of Shelton, Conn.

At the same time, the Dun & Bradstreet subsidiary's ``Technology in Education - Advance Report,'' released Tuesday at the National Educational Computing Conference, show minority and low-income kids are the most likely to be stuck without so much as a C-prompt.

``Most public schools, despite factors such as busing, greatly reflect the socio-economic status of the community in which they are located,'' the report said.

Project manager Kathleen Selph Brantley said the survey provides little data on computer-literate personnel or accessibility, such as the hours a computer laboratory is open and how often a technology coordinator is present to guide the mouse clicks and keystrokes.

``A lot of the schools will tell you, `We have this great equipment but we don't have anybody out there who knows how to use it,''' Brantley said.

The survey found more than two-thirds of the nation's schools have Internet access, but other studies have indicated the connection reaches fewer than 10 percent of all classrooms, labs and libraries. KEYWORDS: PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMPUTERS

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