Dive Brief:

• The Consortium for School Networking’s annual infrastructure survey shows that in 2016, 68% of districts met the minimum internet bandwidth recommendations set by the FCC in every school, up significantly from 19% in 2013.
• According to the survey results, schools also have increasingly reliable Wi-Fi, with just 6% of high schools lacking the technology and 81% of survey respondents saying they were very or somewhat confident in their Wi-Fi.
• Still, affordability continues to be a concern, and CoSN CEO Keith Krueger said in a news release there’s more to do to address the digital equity challenge and get strong connectivity to all students in and outside of school.

Dive Insight:

Schools across the country have reinforced their internet capabilities as teachers have put more digital devices into the hands of students during the school day. The modern push for personalized learning using innovative software depends on a strong and reliable network infrastructure. The most successful tech initiatives in districts start with a long-term assessment of infrastructure needs so those can be addressed before schools take that technology to scale. Once new devices are in classrooms, they have to work.

Many schools have taken responsibility for students’ internet access outside of school, too. Whether it is by sending students home with school-issued laptops enabled with their own hotspots or extending Wi-Fi networks to reach students’ buses or even homes, districts are paying attention to the digital divide outside of the classroom, knowing it is a critical issue for homework.