Case Study: Desert Sands Unified School District achieves district-wide 1:1 computing and simplified IT with Samsung Chromebooks

Samsung Chromebooks Democratize Learning in Diverse School District

Desert Sands Unified School District, serving nearly 30,000 students in California’s Coachella Valley, needed to provide equitable, affordable computing access for a diverse, largely low‑income student population and to support online Common Core (CAASP) assessments — all with tight budgets and a very small IT staff. To meet those goals the district selected Samsung Chromebooks.

Samsung supplied over 17,000 Chromebooks to 4th–12th grade classrooms, enabling widespread 1:1 access for keyboarding, collaboration and online testing while cutting acquisition and support costs (about $300 per Chromebook vs. >$700 per traditional PC). The cloud‑based Chrome OS and management console let a three‑person IT team manage the entire fleet (≈5,666 devices per technician), dramatically simplified deployment and updates, and led to higher student engagement, easier device swaps, and district readiness for online assessments.

Desert Sands Unified School District

George Araya

Director of Instructional Technology