Address the Digital Divide in K-12 Education

IT will shoulder the burden of digital poverty.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• IT must address the burden of equity in K-12 education as technology becomes a necessity.
• Technology dependency is creating a divide based on the level of education received due to income disparity.
• Students and parents require and expect a device for both classwork and homework.
• The poorest students lack access, not only to a device, but also to the internet.

Common Obstacles

• Many districts are overwhelmed by the challenge of supporting technology beyond the campus.
• Governments may not offer support for providing connectivity.
• Educational publishers are moving away from textbooks and toward a digital subscription model.
• Districts underestimate the funding of a one-device-per-student model.

Info-Tech's Approach

• Leverage Info-Tech's research report on the digital divide to:
• Prioritize different approaches for providing connectivity to students based on the context of the district.
• Identify main components of a one-to-one model for student devices.
• Make the case to executives on the necessity of both devices and connectivity.

Info-Tech Insight

IT must engage early in the discussion of digital poverty in K-12 education, as they will be responsible for implementing any solutions.

The digital divide is defined by both the connection and the device

Broadband access is limiting remote education. The US Census reports that 36 million households do not have a wired broadband service. This affects the poorest demographic the most. Traditional textbook-based education was less affected by the digital divide, but as technology becomes more integral to education, connectivity and an appropriate device become increasingly necessary.

Source: National Digital Inclusion Alliance, 2022

41% of US adults earning less than $30K a year do not have a desktop or a laptop computer. This demographic generally rely on their cellphones (27%) to go online.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2021

Students require access to the appropriate device for learning. While the digital divide is mitigated by widespread mobile adoption, a smartphone is not conducive to completing homework.

Sources: "Mobile Cellular Subscriptions," The World Bank; "Fixed Broadband Subscriptions," The World Bank

The digital divide is most pronounced in education

Technology deprives poorer students of education

The "homework gap" has been the main challenge of the digital divide in education – even before the pandemic.

High school students were surveyed on three challenges for completing homework:

1. Had to do their homework on their cellphone.
2. Had to use public Wi-Fi because they didn't have internet at home.
3. Couldn't complete homework due to lack of access to a computer or internet connection.

Students living in households with less than $30,000 income face two to three times the challenges of those in households with $75,000 income.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2022

Challenges teens "sometimes" or "often" face in completing homework

Source: Pew Research Center, 2022

National governments are funding large scale initiatives to improve connectivity

Canada: Connecting Families

Initiative to encourage ISPs to subsidize costs for eligible families.

• Monthly internet plans of $10 per month or 50/10 Mbps for $20 per month (Government of Canada, 2022)

US: Digital Equity Act

$2.75 billion (over 5 years)

• $60 million for state planning grants
• $1.44 billion for state implementation grants
• $1.25 billion ($250 million a year for 5 years) for competitive grant program

Source: National Digital Inclusion Alliance, 2021

UK: Gigabit Broadband Programme

£5 billion expansion of 4G mobile infrastructure to target under-serviced rural areas.

• The Digital Inclusion Programme enables select local councils to directly support disadvantaged children (Local Government Association, 2021).

Australia: National Broadband Network

A decade-long project is nearing completion to provide affordable connectivity across the nation (Department of Infrastructure, 2021).