Robert Hall and Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau

VALLEJO, Calif. — Vallejo High School teacher Lewis Brown starts his morning government class with a question of the day that takes advantage of newly assigned iPads. “Today is the one year anniversary of the French magazine terrorist assassination,” Brown says. “What was the name of the magazine?” The seniors type on their tablets. In seconds, 17-year-old SioFilisi Anitoni answers from the back row, “Mr. Brown, Charlie Hebdo.” Vallejo City Unified School District is using increased state funds to assign iPads to each of its roughly 1,000 high school students. The district in a working-class community along the north San Francisco Bay is also hoping to improve classroom learning by raising teacher salaries and spending more than $2.5 million on new computer and science labs.