Hello, Great Lakes Center subscriber:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic over 85% of American students will not complete the school year in their traditional setting. To assure learning continues, American educators are scrambling to create as many meaningful remote learning opportunities as possible.  

Just as the pandemic has heightened awareness of our country's disparate health and economic realities, so has it focused attention on the digital divide.

THE ISSUE

Rapid deployment of online learning solutions heightens educational inequity in America.

WHAT WE KNOW

Educators are fearful that learning gaps will widen as schools stay closed--and for good reason.

Dubbed the "digital divide," research has long established that America's poorest students have significantly less access to technology than their more affluent peers. Last year, Pew Research estimated than a quarter of American homes are without broadband. This includes urban and suburban families who cannot afford the cost but also rural communities with limited or no access.

Even when online learning is an option, research generally indicates that face to face education is more effective than online, especially with struggling students.

Not all remote learning solutions require the internet. In some districts, students are receiving paper homework packets.  Teachers are calling students by telephone to maintain contact. A recent report from Public Policy Associates describes the extent of problem in Michigan.

Districts are scrambling to provide needed technology to families. This can mean providing Chromebooks and other devices as well as hotspots, but the problem of access remains. Schools are working hard to provide support to families unfamiliar with these technologies.  Some districts park school buses in public parking lots to broadcast a wifi signal.

Teachers are also affected. There are reports of teachers without internet access, especially in rural areas, driving miles to work in their cars in parking lots with wifi.

Students with special needs or for whom English is a second language are at serious risk as schools and parents struggle to fill the gap.

Researchers have found that summer reading loss (often called the summer setback) contributes to the reading achievement gap between low and high socioeconomic (SES) children. The simple intervention of providing children from low SES homes free books (especially if the child self-selects them) has a significant effect on reducing the summer setback.  Books have the added benefit of being a low tech solution. Some districts are distributing bags of free books to their student's homes.

To make matters worse, research shows that teachers of lower socio-economic students receive poorer training in the use of technology.

Ironically, state legislatures are threatening massive education cuts for next year, right when we will need more educators, not fewer.
 

WHAT WORKS

The achievement gap between rich and poor has long been documented and the Covid crisis has made the divide more apparent than ever. While there is no single magic bullet, research has shown several interventions that can help truly equalize.  These include:

1. There will always be students who will need additional help that an overburdened elementary teacher cannot provide. Lowering class size and providing literacy coaches to give struggling students the help they need is a part of the answer.
2. The expansion of high-quality preschool programs and after-school and summer school programs. Well-designed programs can help staunch the summer setback.
3. Research has also long established that students in schools with school librarians (aka media specialists) have higher reading scores. This holds true even when controlling for affluence of the school or community. In fact, there is evidence the benefits are strongest for at-risk learners. Yet years of budget cuts have caused many districts to reduce or eliminate school librarians.
4. Obviously, there is a huge need to expand access to technology and improved training in its use for educators.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

1. The Learning Policy Institute has offered recommendations on how this crisis can be used to reduce disparities.
2. Does your school or community have a program to provide free books to children? Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails free books to young children.  The best known program is Reading Is Fundamental. Free books in 21 states are provided by Book Trust.  Many local communities have similar programs.

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