The Internet and Education - Elementary And Secondary Schools

On February 8, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law. This legislation ushered in the E-rate program, which provides elementary and secondary public schools with discounts of 20% to 90% when purchasing computers for libraries and classrooms. The program had a tremendous impact on computer and Internet accessibility in public schools. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveyed a cross section of elementary and secondary U.S. public schools of all sizes and in all states and published the results in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002 (October 2003). As Table 6.1 shows, almost all public schools had Internet access by 2002. The availability of the Internet in public schools grew rapidly in the late 1990s and then leveled off. Only 35% of public schools were wired in 1994. By 1997 nearly 78% had Internet access, and in 1999, 95% were connected to the Internet. Though private schools generally have the reputation for maintaining better facilities than public schools, Table 6.2 reveals that private schools lagged behind in terms of Internet access. Of all private schools surveyed, only 67% had access to the Web in 1999. More Catholic schools were wired in 1999 (83%) than other types of private schools.

As to the type of Internet connection found in public schools, the NCES survey found that in 2002, 94% of public schools had always-on broadband connections as opposed to dial-up. (See Table 6.3.) This was a huge increase from 1996 when a full 74% of schools still used dial-up connections. Wireless connections were also on the rise. Some 23% of public schools had wireless connections in 2002. Larger schools were more likely to have a wireless connection. Only 17% of smaller schools (three hundred students or fewer) had wireless Internet connections as opposed to 37% of larger schools (one thousand students or more).

Internet Use in the Classroom

Table 6.4 reveals that in 2002, 92% of public school classrooms had Internet access. The number of wired

TABLE 6.1

Public schools with Internet access, 1994–2002
	Public schools with internet access
School characteristic	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
1Data for combined schools are included in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.
2The estimate fell between 99.5 percent and 100 percent and therefore was rounded to 100 percent.
3Percent minority enrollment was not available for some schools. In 1994, this information was missing for 100 schools. In subsequent years, the missing information ranged from 0 schools to 46 schools. In 2002, this information was missing for 15 schools. The weighted response rate was 98.6 percent.
4Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not available for some schools. In the 1994 survey, free and reduced-price lunch data came from the Common Core of Data (CCD) only and were missing for 430 schools. In reports prior to 1998, free and reduced-price lunch data were not reported for 1994. In 1998, a decision was made to include the data for 1994 for comparison purposes. In subsequent years, free and reduced-price lunch information was obtained on the questionnaire, supplemented, if necessary, with CCD data. Missing data ranged from 0 schools (2002) to 10 schools (1999).
Note: All of the estimates in this report were recalculated from raw data files using the same computational algorithms. Consequently, some estimates presented here may differ trivially (i.e., 1 percent) from results published prior to 2001.
SOURCE: Anne Kleiner, Laurie Lewis, and Bernard Greene, "Table 1. Percent of Public Schools with Internet Access, by School Characteristics: 1994–2002," in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, October 2003, http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2004011/tables.asp (accessed November 22, 2004)
All public schools	35	50	65	78	89	95	98	99	99
Instructional level1
Elementary	30	46	61	75	88	94	97	99	99
Secondary	49	65	77	89	94	98	1002	1002	1002
School size
Less than 300	30	39	57	75	87	96	96	99	96
300 to 999	35	52	66	78	89	94	98	99	1002
1,000 or more	58	69	80	89	95	96	99	100	100
Locale
City	40	47	64	74	92	93	96	97	99
Urban fringe	38	59	75	78	85	96	98	99	100
Town	29	47	61	84	90	94	98	100	98
Rural	35	48	60	79	92	96	99	1002	98
Percent minority enrollment3
Less than 6 percent	38	52	65	84	91	95	98	99	97
6 to 20 percent	38	58	72	87	93	97	100	100	100
21 to 49 percent	38	55	65	73	91	96	98	100	99
50 percent or more	27	39	56	63	82	92	96	98	99
Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch4
Less than 35 percent	39	60	74	86	92	95	99	99	98
35 to 49 percent	35	48	59	81	93	98	99	100	100
50 to 74 percent	32	41	53	71	88	96	97	99	100
75 percent or more	18	31	53	62	79	89	94	97	99

classrooms had increased fairly steadily since 1994 when only 3% of classrooms had Internet access. The more minorities and impoverished students the school had, the less likely the school was to have classrooms with Internet access. City schools were also less likely to have wired classrooms than rural or suburban schools.

Counting the number of instructional rooms with Internet access, however, does not necessarily render an accurate picture of how much exposure children had to the Internet during class. A better yardstick for student exposure is the ratio of students to instructional (class-room) computers with Internet connections. As Figure 6.1 shows, the number of students per instructional computer with Web access in 2002 was 4.8—a substantial decrease from 1998 when the ratio was 12.1 to 1. Table 6.5 is a breakdown of students to Internet accessible computers by minority enrollment, school size, school locale, and other factors. Surprisingly, rural area schools had more instructional computers with Internet access per student than city, urban, or town schools in 2002. In rural areas, one Internet-equipped computer was present for every four students. In the city, only one Internet-equipped computer was present for every 5.5 students. Schools with 50% minority enrollment had roughly one instructional, Internet-ready computer for every 5.1 students, whereas schools with less than 6% minority enrollment had four students for each computer. Smaller schools and schools with more impoverished students also tended to have fewer classroom computers with Internet access.

According to the NCES in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002, one-half of teachers reported that they used the Internet for instruction during class time in 1999. Only one-third of teachers, however, felt they were adequately prepared to use the Internet to teach classes. To improve this situation, schools began offering their teachers Internet training courses. By 2002, 87% of schools with Internet access reported that their school or school district offered teachers professional instruction on ways to integrate the use of the Internet into the classroom curriculum.

TABLE 6.2

Advanced telecommunications in private schools, 1995 and 1999
[For fall 1995 and school year 1998–99. Based on the Fast Response Survey System.]
			Internet access (percent)
	Number of students per computer		Schools with access		Instructional rooms with access		Students enrolled in schools of access		Percent of schools without access that plan to have access in the future, 1999	Percent of teachers using computers for teaching, 1999*
Characteristic	1995	1999	1995	1999	1995	1999	1995	1999
*Percent of teachers using computers or advanced telecommunications (e.g. networked computers and interactive television) for teaching.
SOURCE: "No. 257. Advanced Telecommunications in Private Schools: 1995 and 1999," in Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003, http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/03statab/educ.pdf (accessed November 22, 2004)
All private schools	9	6	25	67	5	25	41	81	46	45
Affiliation:
Catholic	10	7	35	83	4	27	43	86	74	48
Other religious	9	7	16	54	2	18	30	72	41	41
Nonsectarian	6	4	32	66	13	41	59	84	38	49
Instructional level:
Elementary	9	7	23	64	3	21	32	77	46	45
Secondary	7	5	57	90	6	32	70	97	31	47
Combined	8	5	19	64	8	28	41	80	46	44
Size of enrollment:
Less than 150	7	5	13	48	2	16	16	60	38	41
150 to 299	9	7	27	77	3	17	28	77	60	43
300 or more	9	6	50	85	8	34	56	87	77	47
Minority enrollment:
Less than 6 percent	9	7	24	59	3	28	38	83	13	41
6 to 20 percent	7	6	29	75	9	27	51	86	71	46
21 to 49 percent	8	6	29	76	3	32	44	85	59	45
50 percent or more	11	8	18	52	2	10	24	59	59	47

Access to Inappropriate Material

In 1996 Congress established the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Under CIPA schools that could not prove that they use filtering or blocking technology to keep children from viewing pornographic or sexually explicit Web sites were no longer eligible for the E-rate program. Consequently, almost all schools (99%) with Internet access in 2002 used some type of technology or procedure to control the access students had to content on the Internet. The types of controls various schools used can be seen in Table 6.6. Ninety-six percent of schools in 2002 employed Internet content filtering or blocking software. Teachers or staff monitored students' activities online in 91% of schools with Internet access. Some 82% of schools required written contracts from the parents, and 77% required written contracts from students. Monitoring software, which tracks the Web pages that individual student's visit, was used in 52% of schools.

Computers at Home and at School

Table 6.7 displays the percentage of American children who had computer and Internet access available to them at home in 1999. Sixty-five percent of children had access to a home computer, and 30.4% had Internet access at home. To level the playing field between kids who had access to Internet and those who did not, many public schools began allowing children access to school computers before and after regular school hours. Table 6.8 reveals that 53% of wired public schools allowed students to log onto the Internet outside of regular hours. Of these, most (96%) permitted access after hours, three-quarters (74%) let students come in before school, and a small number (6%) granted students use of the Internet on the weekends.

The NCES reported in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002 that in 2002 8% of public schools surveyed provided laptop computers for their students to use as well. Only seven laptops, however, were available on average at these schools. Of the schools that provided laptops to students, 59% reported they typically lent laptops to students for less than one week. Nineteen percent said they lent students laptops between one week and a month, and 16% of these schools offered use of the laptops to students for the entire school year. Seven percent of schools that did not offer laptops in 2002 planned to do so during the 2003–04 school year.

School Web Sites

According to the NCES in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002, 86% of all public schools had created a Web site by 2002, an increase from 75% the year before. (See Table 6.9.) Ninety-four percent of large schools (one thousand or more students) and 84% of small schools (three hundred students or fewer) had a Web site. The percentage of Web sites maintained by rural schools

TABLE 6.3

Public schools with broadband access, 2000–02
	Use broadband connections
School Characteristic	20001	20011	20022	Percentage change 2000–20023
1Respondents were instructed to circle as many types of connections as there were in the school. The data were then combined to show the percentage of schools using broadband connections. Percentages include schools using only broadband connections, as well as schools using both broadband and narrowband connections. They do not include schools using narrowband connections exclusively. Broadband connections include T3/DS3, fractional T3, T1/DS1, fractional T1, and cable modem connections. In 2001, they also included DSL connections, which had not been on the 2000 questionnaire.
2The 2002 questionnaire directly asked whether the schools used broadband and narrowband connections. Broadband connections include T3/DS3, fractional T3, T1/DS1, fractional T1, cable modem, and DSL connections.
3This percentage was calculated as follows: [(e2001-e2000)/e2000] × 100, where "e" stands for "estimate."
4Data for combined schools are included in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.
5Percent minority enrollment was not available for 9 schools in 2000 and 31 schools in 2001. In 2002, this information was missing for 15 schools. The weighted response rate was 98.6 percent.
6Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not available for 2 schools in 2000 and 2001. This information was available for all schools in 2002.
Note: Percentages are based on the percent of public schools with Internet access: 98 percent in 2000 and 99 percent in 2001 and 2002.
SOURCE: Anne Kleiner, Laurie Lewis, and Bernard Greene, "Table 3. Percent of Public Schools with Internet Access Using Broadband Connections, by School Characteristics: 2000–2002," in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, October 2003, http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2004011/tables.asp (accessed November 22, 2004)
All public schools	80	85	94	+17
Instructional level4
Elementary	7	83	93	+20
Secondary	9	94	98	+10
School size
Less than 300	67	72	90	+35
300 to 999	83	89	94	+13
1,000 or more	90	96	100	+11
Locale
City	80	88	97	+22
Urban fringe	85	88	92	+9
Town	79	83	97	+23
Rural	75	82	91	+21
Percent minority enrollment5
Less than 6 percent	76	81	92	+21
6 to 20 percent	82	85	91	+11
21 to 49 percent	84	85	96	+14
50 percent or more	81	93	95	+18
Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch6
Less than 35 percent	81	84	93	+14
35 to 49 percent	82	86	96	+16
50 to 74 percent	79	84	93	+17
75 percent or more	75	90	95	+27

and suburban schools was much higher than for schools in urban areas. Schools were also less likely to have a Web site if they had a high enrollment of minority students.

Of schools in the NCES survey that reported having a Web site, 68% updated their site at least monthly; 32% updated their site less often than once a month. In addition, only 2% of all Web sites were student run. Nearly

FIGURE 6.1

one-third (29%) of the Web sites were administered by a teacher or other staff member as part of their responsibilities. Eighteen percent of school Web sites were managed by teachers or staff members on a voluntary basis.

Internet Use among Teens

The Pew Internet & American Life Project (Pew/Internet) estimated in Teenage Life Online (Washington, DC: 2001) that seventeen million (73%) young people aged twelve through seventeen had used the Internet sometime in their life. Of these, 11% (1.9 million) primarily accessed the Internet through the computers provided at school. (See Table 6.10.) Sixty-four percent of online students said they went online at school occasionally. The survey found that those students dependent on school computers were more likely to come from single-parent households, low-income families, and families that do not use the Internet. Most online teenagers replied they used the Internet primarily at home. In fact, nearly 83% (fourteen million) reported they go online most often at home, which was a much higher percentage than that reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1999. (See Table 6.7.) The Pew/Internet study also found that 3% of students used a friend's house most often, 1% used the public library, and 1% went someplace else such as a cyber café for access.

Fully 94% of online students logged on to the Internet to do research for school. When asked where they retrieved

TABLE 6.4

Public school instructional rooms with Internet access, by school characteristics, 1994–2002
	Instructional rooms with Internet access
School characteristic	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
1Data for combined schools are included in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.
2Percent minority enrollment was not available for some schools. In 1994, this information was missing for 100 schools. In subsequent years, the missing information ranged from 0 schools to 46 schools. In 2002, this information was missing for 15 schools. The weighted response rate was 98.6 percent.
3Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not available for some schools. In the 1994 survey, free and reduced-price lunch data came from the Common Core of Data (CCD) only and were missing for 430 schools. In reports prior to 1998, free and reduced-price lunch data were not reported for 1994. In 1998, a decision was made to include the data for 1994 for comparison purposes. In subsequent years, free and reduced-price lunch information was obtained on the questionnaire, supplemented, if necessary, with CCD data. Missing data ranged from 0 schools (2002) to 10 schools (1999).
Note: Percentages are based on all schools. All of the estimates in this report were recalculated from raw data files using the same computational algorithms. Consequently, some estimates presented here may differ trivially (i.e., 1 percent) from results published prior to 2001.
SOURCE: Anne Kleiner, Laurie Lewis, and Bernard Greene, "Table 2. Percent of Public School Instructional Rooms with Internet Access, by School Characteristics: 1994–2002," in Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2002, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, October 2003, http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2004011/tables.asp (accessed November 22, 2004)
All public schools	3	8	14	27	51	64	77	87	92
Instructional level1
Elementary	3	8	13	24	51	62	76	86	92
Secondary	4	8	16	32	52	67	79	88	91
School size
Less than 300	3	9	15	27	54	71	83	87	91
300 to 999	3	8	13	28	53	64	78	87	93
1,000 or more	3	4	16	25	45	58	70	86	89
Locale
City	4	6	12	20	47	52	66	82	88
Urban fringe	4	8	16	29	50	67	78	87	92
Town	3	8	14	34	55	72	87	91	96
Rural	3	8	14	30	57	71	85	89	93
Percent minority enrollment2
Less than 6 percent	4	9	18	37	57	74	85	88	93
6 to 20 percent	4	10	18	35	59	78	83	90	94
21 to 49 percent	4	9	12	22	52	64	79	89	91
50 percent or more	2	3	5	13	37	43	64	81	89
Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch3
Less than 35 percent	3	10	17	33	57	73	82	90	93
35 to 49 percent	2	6	12	33	60	69	81	89	90
50 to 74 percent	4	6	11	20	41	61	77	87	91
75 percent or more	2	3	5	14	38	38	60	79	89

information for their last major report, 71% of online teens said they primarily relied on the Internet, 24% responded that they used library resources, and 4% said they utilized both equally. Students felt that conducting research for classes using the library was more difficult than surfing the Internet. When asked about the validity of information on the Internet, many teenagers replied that they did not trust everything on the Web and instinctively knew which Web sites provided accurate information.

As Table 6.11 shows, teens used the Internet most to send and receive e-mail and instant messages. Of daily teenage Internet users, almost all (99%) used e-mail, roughly nine-tenths (89%) sent instant messages, and three-quarters (73%) downloaded music online. There were a number of activities that teenagers engage in online much more than adults, as Table 6.12 reveals. Seventy-four percent of teens used instant messaging, as opposed to only 44% of adults. A similar discrepancy existed between the percentage of online teenagers who played or downloaded games (66%) and online adults who partook in these activities (34%). Teenagers also listened to more music online, visited more chat rooms, downs-loaded more music, and checked sports scores more often than adults.