Broadband and Student Performance Gaps is the result of a project designed to understand the repercussions of poor or no home Internet access on student performance and the associated costs to society. The Quello Center at Michigan State University (MSU) and Merit Network, in December 2018, brought together the K12 Citizen Science Working Group, a small group of stakeholders from Michigan school districts. From this group, three Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) volunteered to work with the Quello Center
This work is unique in its focus on rural broadband, and in the sample, which includes a large number of households that are either cell phone dependent or cannot get broadband access where they live. The socioeconomic diversity of the sample made it possible to better differentiate the role of socioeconomic factors from access factors for a range of student outcomes.
We find that students who do not have access to the Internet from home or are dependent on a cell phone alone for access perform lower on a range of metrics, including digital skills, homework completion, and grade point average. They are also less likely to intend on completing a college or university degree. A deficit in digital skills compounds many of the inequalities in access and contributes to students performing lower on standardized test scores, such as the SAT, and being less interested in careers