What is the outlook for achieving Internet access by 2000?

Administrators from schools of all types in all regions of the country reported moving to secure the new technologies. Data from 1996 indicated that 87 percent of schools that lacked Internet capabilities reported planning to obtain Internet access by 2000; thus if these schools are able to acquire access, 95 percent of all schools would have Internet access in 2000 ¹ (Table 3). If these expectations are realized, then 93 percent of schools with 71 percent or more poor students would have Internet access by 2000; and in schools where more than half the students are minorities, 91 percent would have Internet access. Over the next 3 years, Internet access in schools and within instructional rooms is likely to continue to increase, as it has in each year between 1994 and 1997. Over the last year, progress has been substantial toward meeting the expectations for Internet access in 2000 that schools reported in 1996. Overall, 43 percent of the difference between actual levels of access in 1996 and the expectations for access in 2000 has been eliminated (Table 3, column 6). Furthermore, this level of progress (40 percent or more of the distance to the goal being achieved) has been accomplished in many different types of schools.

This Issue Brief was prepared by Cassandra Rowand. To obtain standard errors or definitions of terms for this Issue Brief, or to obtain additional information about the Fast Response Survey System or the FRSS telecommunications surveys, contact Edith McArthur at edith_mcarthur@ed.gov. To order additional copies of this Issue Brief or other NCES publications, call 1-877-433-7827. NCES publications are available on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov.

Issue Briefs present information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling variability. All differences are statistically significant at the 0.05 percent level. In the design, conduct, and data processing of NCES surveys, efforts are made to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error. The data reported in this Issue Brief have been combined from 3 separate independent surveys—1994, 1995, and 1996. There is a potential for a small amount of bias associated with the absence of schools built between the administration of each of the three surveys and 1998.

¹ The 95 percent is calculated by adding the 87 percent of the 35 percent of schools which lacked access in 1996 to the 65 percent of schools which had access in 1996.

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