Are U.S. students prepared to learn online when schools need to be closed?
In March 2020, the U.S. education system resorted to online learning when schools were closed to ensure students’ health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic. As the fall approaches and the pandemic is still a concern, it is likely that the use of digital tools for remote learning will continue for many students. As such, it is vital to explore the feasibility of U.S. students using digital tools for learning both now and in the future.
Using survey data from the NAEP 2019 assessment for grades 4 and 8, this blog presents a snapshot of the current state of online learning in U.S. schools, exploring whether students have the resources and experiences necessary to learn from home under the direction of their teachers, whether all teachers have been adequately trained to teach using digital tools, and whether schools could lend students mobile tools (such as laptops or tablets) to utilize for remote learning.
The 2019 survey results presented here suggest that not all of the nation’s middle and elementary school students are prepared to fully participate in online learning. These data suggest that both the availability of digital tools and access to the Internet need improvement if the nation’s students are to be expected to learn remotely while school buildings are closed.
Grade 8
In 2019, when eighth-grade students across the nation were asked about their
access to and use of digital tools at school, 33 percent reported using a desktop or laptop in most classes, compared to 5 percent who reported never using one. Among the various types of digital devices, tablets were used less frequently at school, with 65 percent of students reporting that they never used one.
When eighth-grade students were asked about
access to digital tools at home, 90 percent reported they had access to a digital device such as a desktop, laptop, or tablet, leaving 10 percent who reported not having access (see Figure 1). For the question about
Internet at home, although 97 percent reported having access, 3 percent of the nation’s eighth-graders reported that they did not have access to the Internet at home (see Figure 2). When asked about
use of the Internet at home for homework, 20 percent of eighth-grade students reported never using the Internet for homework.
The percentages of eighth-grade students reporting availability of digital tools and access to the Internet at home also varied by school type and jurisdiction (Figures 1 and 2, respectively).
The percentages of students with
digital tools available at home greatly varied by socioeconomic status, locale, and state.
- Across levels of student eligibility for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), used as an indicator of poverty, the difference in access was stark. Fifteen percent of eligible students reported having no digital device available to them at home, compared to 5 percent of noneligible students reporting such a lack.
- Across schools in different locales, more students attending rural schools or city schools (11 percent in both cases) reported not having digital devices available at home for their use than students attending suburban schools (8 percent).
- Across states, the percentage of students who reported not having a digital device at home ranged from 6 percent in New Jersey to 17 percent in New Mexico.
Similarly, there were some noticeable differences in
access to the Internet at home.
- More NSLP-eligible students than noneligible students reporting not having access to the Internet at home (5 percent vs. 1 percent).
- Access to the Internet at home did not vary much by the urbanicity of the school attended. Five percent of students attending a rural school and 3 percent attending a city school reported not having access to the Internet at home compared to 2 percent of those attending suburban schools.
- The percentage of students who reported not having access to the Internet at home ranged from a low of 1 percent in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey to a high of 7 percent in Arkansas.
Teachers and school administrators of eighth-grade students participating in the 2019 NAEP survey were also asked about the
availability of digital devices for their students. Nationally, teachers of nearly all eighth-grade students (99.7 percent) reported that one or more types of digital devices were available for students at school.
- School administrators of 71 percent of eighth-grade students nationwide reported that the ratio of
availability of mobile digital devices (such as laptops or tablets) to students was one-to-one (i.e., at least one digital device per student). Across large urban districts participating in NAEP, this ratio varied widely, however, from 16 percent of students in Hillsborough County (FL) to 99 percent of students in San Diego.
- When asked about prior training in these technologies, teachers of 82 percent of eighth-grade students reported that they had received
training to integrate computers and other technology into classroom instruction or that they were already proficient in these skills. Alternatively, 18 percent of eighth-grade students had teachers who indicated that they had not received such training, nor had proficiency in these skills.
Grade 4
The 2019 NAEP survey also asked the nation’s fourth-grade students about the
availability and use of digital devices in their classrooms. Twenty-two percent reported using a desktop or laptop in most classes, and 11 percent reported never using one. Similar to eighth-grade students, fourth-grade students reported using a tablet less frequently than a desktop or laptop, with 60 percent reporting that they never used a tablet in class.
When asked about their home environment, 88 percent of fourth-graders reported having
access to a digital device (including a desktop, laptop, or tablet) at home (see Figure 3), and 90 percent reported having
access to the Internet at home (see Figure 4). That is, 12 percent of the nation’s fourth-grade students reportedly have no access to a digital tool, at home and 10 percent have no access to the Internet at home.
The percentages of fourth-grade students reporting availability of digital tools and access to the Internet at home also varied by school type and jurisdiction (Figures 3 and 4, respectively).
As was true at eighth-grade,
access to digital tools at home also varied by socioeconomic status, locale, and state.
- The 2019 NAEP survey data also showed that the percentage of students who had access to a digital device varied widely by NSLP eligibility, with more eligible students reporting not having access to a device at home than noneligible students (16 percent vs. 8 percent).
- Like eighth-grade students, more fourth-grade students attending rural schools (14 percent) and city schools (13 percent) reported not having a device available for their use at home compared to students attending suburban schools (10 percent).
- Across states, fourth-grade students who reported not having a device at home ranged from 8 percent in New Jersey to 20 percent in New Mexico.
Differences in
access to the Internet at home were also apparent.
- Despite 90 percent of fourth-grade students reporting having access to the Internet at home, 29 percent reported that they frequently
used the Internet for homework, with more than half (54 percent) reporting that they never used it for homework.
- Similar to differences among eighth-grade students by NSLP eligibility, more fourth-grade students who were eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program than students who were not eligible reported having no Internet access at home (13 percent vs. 6 percent).
- Among students attending schools in different locales, more students attending rural schools (13 percent) or city schools (10 percent) than those attending suburban schools (8 percent) reported not having Internet access at home.
- Across states, the percentage of fourth-grade students who reported having no Internet access at home ranged from a low of 6 percent in New Jersey to a high of over 14 percent in Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
Teachers of nearly all of the nation’s fourth-grade students (99.7 percent) reported that one or more types of
digital devices were available to the students in their school.
- Similar to the findings at eighth-grade, school administrators of 62 percent of fourth-grade students reported a one-to-one ratio of
availability of mobile digital devices to students. Across large urban districts participating in NAEP, this ranged from less than 7 percent of students in Miami-Dade to over 97 percent in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and San Diego. Similar again to the findings at eighth-grade, this suggests that based on the resources available in 2019, there were likely large differences in terms of schools’ ability to lend their fourth-grade students a laptop or tablet when coronavirus pandemic hit and students needed to learn remotely.
- Although teachers of the majority of the nation’s fourth-grade students (82 percent) reported having received
training in the integration of computers and other technology into their classroom instruction, or reported prior knowledge of it, 18 percent indicated that they neither were proficient nor had such training.
It should be noted that the data presented here on digital access and familiarity were collected in the spring of the 2019 school year and may not reflect the resources that schools, teachers, and students have in 2020 due to the need created during the coronavirus pandemic. The data on students, teachers, and principals for the nation include public and private schools; the state data include that of public schools, including charter schools; and the district data include public schools and those charter schools that contribute to the district’s Adequate Yearly Progress report to the U.S. Department of Education. All data are reported here at the student level, rounded to the nearest integer or tenth of a decimal. Apparent differences in percentages noted in the text may or may not suggest statistically significant differences.
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