How Close Are We to Realizing the Goal of Educational Equity?

Though there have been some encouraging signs of improvement, the digital divide still exists. Though we may be closer to the goal of the President’s Technology Literacy Challenge, which urged that all of America’s students be technologically literate by early in the next century, we are not close enough. Even in some of our best schools, we are far from the 5–to–1 student–computer ratio recommended by the U.S. Department of Education.

A danger lurking in statistics about computers in the schools is that not all computers are equally capable of meeting contemporary educational needs. Many older computers, although adequate for word–processing and other applications, have no multimedia or Internet capabilities. The Secretary of Education noted in his 1996 Letter to Congress that,

Over the last decade, the use of technology in American life has exploded. Yet most schools are still unable to provide the powerful learning opportunities afforded by technology, placing our children at a competitive disadvantage in the new international marketplace of jobs, commerce, and trade.

Although the number of schools reporting Internet access has grown, both poverty and minority status are directly related to Internet access — and the relationship is quite direct: the poorer a school is, or the greater percentage of minority students it has, the less likely the school is to have Internet access. In 1998 63 percent of schools with more than 70 percent of its students eligible for free and reduced–price lunch have Internet access, in contrast to 88 percent of schools with fewer than 11 percent of the students eligible. Similarly, 63 percent of schools with 50 percent or more minority enrollment have Internet connections, in contrast to 87 percent of schools with 6 percent–20 percent minority students (U.S. Department of Education, NCES, 1998).

Gender inequity for computer access and use exists as well. Although a survey by the Harris Survey Unit of Baruch College shows that the Internet is now used by men and women almost equally, a recent report prepared by the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia shows that girls make up only 26 percent of the students in computer science classes at Fairfax County High Schools. This mirrors a national trend showing a low proportion of young females in high–tech classes.

The differences will exist at home, as well, even though the cost of a computer is falling dramatically. Although 60 percent of American homes are expected to have a personal computer by the turn of the century, the typical computer-owning family will have an income exceeding $35,000 per year, leaving many of the minimum wage earners without access to the broader community resources.

There are other opportunities to bring all students into the world of technology and the Internet outside of school. Many communities have after–school programs for disadvantaged students, programs that provide access to technology, and the support and instruction to master it. Other school systems have programs to provide computers to children in economically disadvantaged families, whether through a loaner program, subsidized purchases, or reconditioned computers at a minimum price. Anderson, Indiana, is a community whose schools received a federal Technology Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education that helps families of children at risk of school failure get computers, printers, and Internet connections for the home, as well as training to use technology for learning and personal growth. The community’s public library is providing Internet and computer training for anyone in the city. The schools and the community have been working together to create a common focus on education.