New Data/Report Examines Student Access to Digital Learning Resources Outside of the Classroom

From the National Center for Education Statistics:

In 2015, some 94 percent of children ages 3 to 18 had a computer or smartphone at home and 61 percent had internet access at home. The percentages of children with computer and internet access at home in 2015 were higher for children who were older, those whose parents had higher levels of educational attainment, and those whose families had higher incomes.
The National Center for Education Statistics released Student Access to Digital Learning Resources Outside of the Classroom today (April 4), a congressionally mandated report that draws upon nationally representative data sources, existing research, and relevant state and local intervention efforts to provide a comprehensive picture of student access to digital learning resources outside of the classroom.
Other key findings from the report are:

• In 2015, a higher percentage of 5- to 17-year-old students in suburban areas had fixed broadband access at home (84 percent) than did students in rural areas (71 percent). The percentages of students in remote rural (65 percent) and distant rural areas (66 percent) with fixed broadband access were lower than in other locales, with percentages ranging from 70 percent in distant towns to 85 percent in large suburbs.

• Within locale types, there were additional gaps among students of different poverty levels and racial/ethnic groups. For example, in remote rural areas the percentage of students who had either no internet access or only dial-up access at home in 2015 were higher for Black (41 percent) and Hispanic students (26 percent) than for White (13 percent) and Asian students (11 percent).

• In 2015, the average National Assessment of Educational Progress reading scale score was higher for 8th-grade students who used a computer at home (268) than for those who did not (247). Similarly, the average reading scale score was higher for 8th-grade students who had access to the Internet at home (267) than for those who did not (242).

The report also includes other key findings on topics related to digital learning resources outside of the classroom.

Direct to Full Text Report (HTML)
Direct to PDF (238 pages)

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