I first heard the term “digital divide” when I worked at the U.S. Department of Education in the early 1990s. At the time, the Internet was still in its early stages of development, and I recall participating in many policy discussions about the increasing use of technology in the classroom and the disparities between students who had access to this educational technology and those who did not.
The term digital divide was coined to describe disparities in students’ access to educational technology through the internet, and this opportunity gap was, for me and many others, an educational civil rights issue.
During President Clinton's administration, I served on a team at the Department of Education, along with representatives from other U.S. federal agencies, that worked on policies and programs to address our nation's apparent and widening digital divide.
These conversations ultimately led to a major policy and a new program called E-Rate, formally known as the Universal Service Fund School and Library Program. Under the direction of the Federal Communications Commission, E-Rate was designed to use federal funds to accelerate the construction of the infrastructure needed to provide internet access to America's most rural and underserved communities.
That was nearly 30 years ago. One of the many things the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear is that the digital divide is not closing. In fact, it's widening. The pandemic forced schools to close, students to return home, and transition to distance learning models. It quickly became apparent that a significant number of students were at a particular disadvantage due to lack of internet access at home, shortages of computer hardware, lack of in-person instruction, and a host of other factors that make for a healthy and effective distance learning experience.
Fortunately, the federal government, many states, and local school districts are making meaningful efforts to address this digital divide, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Against this backdrop, education innovation and education technology are accelerating. Over the past four years, there has been a lot of investment in education innovation, especially around AI-generated technologies. Most of this education technology has focused on learning tools to help students accelerate their math skills and similar efforts to improve their understanding of science and literacy. I have personally witnessed some very impressive and effective educational tools being used in classrooms that have come onto the market in recent years and are doing wonders in accelerating student learning.
But what good is great technology without active student engagement? We find that most U.S. public school students aren't taking advantage of these new, effective educational tools.
Credible reports show that only 5 percent of students fully engage with and use these new learning tools properly. Even more alarming, of the 5 percent of students who do use these tools, the students who need the least support are more likely to come from wealthier families and have more active learning styles than the students who need the most educational support.
A recent Education Next article by education innovator and author Lawrence Holt, “The Five Percent Problem,” explains this issue very well: As Holt points out, research shows that high-achieving students with a growth mindset spend more time using technology to improve their skills. These students are the 5 percent.
Unfortunately, given various factors in students' family structures and home learning environments, some students may only have access to technology at school, widening the digital divide between students from more affluent families and those in socio-economically disadvantaged areas.
Policymakers and school system leaders must work with the education innovation community to maximize the availability and effective use of education innovations and ultimately come together to eliminate or reduce the nation's widening digital divide. A mere 5% uptake rate for education innovations, and low uptake among students who need it most, is unacceptable in a country that continues to suffer harmful inequities that limit educational opportunities for many students.
The challenges to public education are many. Among these challenges are ill-considered and harmful political attacks on our education system. Despite these challenges, we need leadership to move our country forward with thoughtful conversations about maximizing the effectiveness of our public education system, fully embracing effective educational techniques that promote learning, and eliminating, to the extent possible, the disparities and inequities that limit learning opportunities for so many students. These disparities limit our country's ability to remain competitive on a global scale. This is another unnecessary disparity that our country cannot tolerate.
