NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

ISSUE

BRIEF

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

March 1998

Can students in our schools reach the Library of Congress with their research

questions, track the Iditarod race, follow expeditions in the rain forest, and

exchange e:mail with pen pals around the world? To ensure the essential connections for such exciting activities, President Clinton’s Technology Literacy

Challenge calls for an effort to connect all U.S. public schools and every instructional room, that is, classroom, computer lab, and library/media center, to

the Internet. In order to measure Internet access in the schools, the National

Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveyed a nationally representative

sample of public schools in 1994. Subsequent surveys in 1995, 1996, and 1997

have enabled NCES to track growth in this rapidly changing area.

How much progress have schools made?

The effort to connect all of the nation’s public schools to the Information Superhighway is moving swiftly. In just 3 years, the percentage of U.S. public

schools with Internet access increased from 35 percent in fall 1994 to 78 percent in fall 1997 (table 1). On the whole, schools are on track toward achieving

the goal of connecting all of the nation’s public schools to the Internet.

Table 1.—Percentage of public schools having access to the Internet

in fall 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997, by school characteristics

Despite this progress however, certain gaps persist in establishing Internet links

in U.S. public schools. In 1997, schools with 50 percent or more minority students enrolled lagged behind schools with 20 percent or fewer minority students, as did smaller schools (those with fewer than 1,000 students), which are

more likely to be elementary than secondary schools. Also lagging in Internet

capabilities were schools with 71 percent or more poor students (that is, students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), with 63 percent having access;

however, schools with 31 to 70 percent poor students have recently made considerable gains in Internet access, moving from 58 percent in 1996 to 78 percent in 1997. From 1996 to 1997, Internet access increased in the Southeast

and Central regions, where Internet access rose from 62 percent to 84 percent

and 66 percent to 79 percent, respectively (table 1).

What is the availability of Internet access in instructional

rooms?

Although the goal of connecting all U.S. public schools to the Internet now

appears to be within reach, making the Internet accessible to all students in all

instructional rooms will require much more effort. Over the last year, the percentage of schools with Internet access which had such access in five or more

instructional rooms increased from 25 percent in 1996 to 43 percent in 1997

(table 2). Another way of looking at instructional rooms with access is to look

at all such rooms across all public schools. Since 1994, the percentage of

instructional rooms which were connected to the Internet increased from 3 percent to 8 percent in 1995, 14 percent in 1996, and 27 percent in 1997. However, in 1997 in the 2 percent of schools which reported no connections in

instructional rooms, students would have little or no contact with the Internet.

Further, even in instructional rooms with Internet access, students who spend

time in those rooms may not actually use that access.

Internet Access in Public Schools

—Data not available.

*Data for combined schools (those that span elementary and secondary grades) are included

in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools, K–12,” NCES 95–731; “Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1995,” NCES 96–854; “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996;” NCES

97–944; and data from the “Survey on Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools,

Fall 1997,” FRSS 64, 1997.

Table 2.—Distribution of schools by the number of instructional

rooms with Internet access, among all public schools with

access: Fall 1996 and 1997

NOTE: Percentages may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996,” NCES

97–944; and data from the “Survey on Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools,

Fall 1997,” FRSS 64, 1997.

What is the outlook for achieving Internet access by 2000?

Administrators from schools of all types in all regions of the country reported

moving to secure the new technologies. Data from 1996 indicated that 87 percent of schools that lacked Internet capabilities reported planning to obtain

Internet access by 2000; thus if these schools are able to acquire access, 95

percent of all schools would have Internet access in 20001 (table 3). If these

expectations are realized, then 93 percent of schools with 71 percent or more

poor students would have Internet access by 2000; and in schools where more

than half the students are minorities, 91 percent would have Internet access.

Over the next 3 years, Internet access in schools and within instructional rooms

is likely to continue to increase, as it has in each year between 1994 and 1997.

School characteristics 1994 1995 1996 1997

 All public schools 35 50 65 78

Instructional level*

 Elementary 30 46 61 75

 Secondary 49 65 77 89

Size of enrollment

 Less than 300 30 39 57 75

 300 to 999 35 52 66 78

 1,000 or more 58 69 80 89

Metropolitan status

 City 40 47 64 74

 Urban fringe 38 59 75 78

 Town 29 47 61 84

 Rural 35 48 60 79

Geographic region

 Northeast 34 59 70 78

 Southeast 29 44 62 84

 Central 34 52 66 79

 West 42 48 62 73

Minority enrollment

 Less than 6 percent — 52 65 84

 6 to 20 percent — 58 72 87

 21 to 49 percent — 54 65 73

 50 percent or more — 40 56 63

Students eligible for free or 

reduced-price lunch

 Less than 11 percent — 62 78 88

 11 to 30 percent — 59 72 83

 31 to 70 percent — 47 58 78

 71 percent or more — 31 53 63

Public schools having

access to the Internet

Extent of Internet access Fall 1996 Fall 1997

No instructional rooms 5 2

1 instructional room 43 31

2, 3, or 4 instructional rooms 26 23

5 or more instructional rooms 25 43

Percentage of public schools

1

 The 95 percent is calculated by adding the 87 percent of the 35 percent of schools

which lacked access in 1996 to the 65 percent of schools which had access in 1996.
NCES 98-031

Issue Briefs present information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling variability. All differences are

statistically significant at the .05 level. This Issue Brief was prepared by John Bare, Knight Foundation, and Anne Meek, Education Statistics Services Institute. For

information, contact Edith McArthur, National Center for Education Statistics, (202) 219-1442 or Edith_McArthur@ed.gov. To order additional copies of this Issue Brief or

other NCES publications, call 1-800-424-1616. NCES publications are also available on the Internet at http://www.NCES.ed.gov/.

Table 3.—Year-to-year increases in Internet access, from fall 1994 to

1997; percentage of public schools expecting to have

Internet access by 2000; difference between 1996 expectations for 2000 and 1996 level of access; and percentage of

this difference achieved by 1997, by school characteristics

—Data not available.

1 Estimates are derived from the percentage of schools that in fall 1996 reported having Internet

access in 1996 or planning to obtain Internet access by 2000.

2 Calculated by subtracting 1996 actual percentage (column 3 in table 1) from 1996 expectations for access in 2000 (column 4 in this table).

3

 Calculated by dividing the actual increase in access between 1996 and 1997 (column 3 in

this table) by the increase needed between 1996 and 2000 to meet 2000 expectations (column 5 in this table).

4 Data for combined schools (those that span elementary and secondary grades) are included

in the totals and in analyses by other school characteristics but are not shown separately.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools, K–12,” NCES 95–731; “Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1995,” NCES 96–854; “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996,” NCES

97–944; and data from the “Survey on Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools,

Fall 1997,” FRSS 64, 1997.

Over the last year, progress has been substantial toward meeting the expectations for Internet access in 2000 that schools reported in 1996. Overall, 43

percent of the difference between actual levels of access in 1996 and the expectations for access in 2000 has been eliminated (table 3, column 6). Furthermore, this level of progress (40 percent or more of the distance to the goal

being achieved) has been accomplished in many different types of schools.

What educational and community groups are supporting

telecommunications in the schools?

A key finding from the 1996 survey is that parents, community members, local

businesses, and not-for-profit groups provide assistance to schools in acquiring Internet access and other advanced telecommunications services (table 4).

Ten percent of schools reported that businesses provided funding for these programs; 18 percent of schools reported that parents and other community members provided funding, and 6 percent reported that community organizations

such as libraries or museums provided funding. Still, the most likely source of

support was the school districts themselves, and the second most frequent source

was state or federal government agencies.

Table 4.—Percentage of public schools indicating that various

organizations or individuals are supporting advanced

telecommunications in their school: Fall 1996

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Advanced

Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996,” NCES

97–944.

As schools obtain Internet access, what challenges remain for

educators?

The increased availability of Internet opportunities will enable teachers and

administrators to employ the technology in many different ways, including record

keeping, communicating with parents, distance learning, professional development, curriculum development, and as a classroom teaching tool. To realize

such uses of telecommunications, educators face a variety of challenges in

addition to acquiring linkages. Such challenges include providing technical

support for networks, hardware, and software; ensuring teachers and administrators have the time for and access to staff development for technology integration; increasing the effective use of the Internet to enhance student learning;

and protecting students from inappropriate material on the Internet. As schools

install additional Internet linkages, administrators will also be working to obtain connections that are faster, have wider bandwidth, and are more reliable

than traditional modems.

Percentage Percentage

of public of public

schools schools

receiving receiving

Organizations/individuals hardware funding

School district 76 83

State or federal government agencies 18 38

Parents or other community members 13 18

Business or industry 13 10

College or university 2 1

Teachers 6 6

Other community nonprofit organizations 4 6

Students 1 1

Other 1 1

Percentage

of schools

in 1996

having or

expecting

to have Percent of

1994 1995 1996 Internet Total increase

to to to access required achieved

School characteristics 1995 1996 1997 by 20001 increase2 by 19973

 All public schools 15 15 13 95 30 43

Instructional level4

 Elementary 16 15 14 94 33 42

 Secondary 16 12 12 98 21 57

Size of enrollment

 Less than 300 9 18 18 93 36 50

 300 to 999 17 14 12 96 30 40

 1,000 or more 11 11 9 97 17 53

Metropolitan status

 City 7 17 10 94 30 33

 Urban fringe 21 16 3 97 22 14

 Town 18 14 23 95 34 68

 Rural 13 12 19 95 35 54

Geographic region

 Northeast 25 11 8 98 28 29

 Southeast 15 18 22 96 34 65

 Central 18 14 13 92 26 50

 West 8 14 11 96 34 32

Minority enrollment

 Less than 6 percent — 13 19 95 30 63

 6 to 20 percent — 14 15 97 25 60

 21 to 49 percent — 11 8 98 33 24

 50 percent or more — 16 7 91 35 20

Students eligible for free or 

reduced-price lunch

 Less than 11 percent — 16 10 97 19 53

 11 to 30 percent — 13 11 98 26 42

 31 to 70 percent — 11 20 93 35 57

 71 percent or more — 22 10 93 40 25

Measuring progress

annual change

expectations for 2000

toward 1996

Percentage point