BTOP Grantees Improve Broadband Adoption: Foundation for California Community Colleges and Connect Arkansas

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 appropriated $4.7 billion for the U. S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) to increase broadband access and adoption; provide broadband access, training and support to schools, libraries, healthcare providers, and other organizations; improve broadband access to public safety agencies; and stimulate demand for broadband. In 2009 and 2010, NTIA invested approximately $4 billion in 233 BTOP projects and $239 million in 56 State Broadband Initiative (SBI) projects benefiting every state, as well as five territories and the District of Columbia. As of March 31, 2014, 82 projects remained in active status, and 198 projects had completed their project activities.

The NTIA is required by law to provide quarterly reports to Congress on the status of BTOP. On October 3, NTIA released the 21st quarterly report which focuses on BTOP’s activities from January 1 to March 31, 2014. The report highlights two BTOP grantees: 1) Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC) and 2) Connect Arkansas.

The FCCC project showcases many of the ingredients necessary to improve broadband adoption. FCCC used BTOP funding to provide training in digital literacy, work force development, and lifelong learning, resulting in decreased dropout rates, 9,000 household broadband subscribers, and students earning more than 1,100 certifications in Microsoft Office programs. FCCC, a nonprofit that works with two-year colleges throughout California, provided computer training, laptops, and wireless cards for low-income and minority students enrolled in the Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program. Each participating student was required to teach a computer skill, such as how to send emails or use Skype, to at least seven people from his or her home community. Students used their laptops to apply for jobs, internships, and admission to four-year colleges. Results show that the programming helped boost student retention rates. For example, East Los Angeles College (ELAC) measured only a 12 percent dropout rate among its MESA students, compared to an 80 percent dropout rate among the entire student population. In early 2014, NTIA published the full evaluation report on the FCCC project.

Connect Arkansas offers another prime example of a project using multiple tools to expand broadband adoption in targeted communities. It used BTOP funding to offer classes in 144 high schools and train more than 6,000 people, including 2,000 students and 4,000 healthcare professionals. Connect Arkansas seeks to be a catalyst for success in communities by providing the necessary tools to create equal opportunities for all Arkansans regardless of socioeconomic distinction. The project performed outreach in high-schools to connect with low-income families, providing free computers and training to more than 1,000 students, along with their parents or guardians. The students used those computers for homework, job searches, and college applications. Connect Arkansas originally proposed to train 2,600 people, but it eventually trained more than 6,100. In collaboration with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the project provided a broadband-based health awareness campaign and hands-on training to more than 4,000 healthcare professionals. The project also offered classes in 144 high schools that taught 2,108 students how to leverage the Internet to support entrepreneurial activities. For example, one student obtained the funding necessary to launch a bamboo fiber t-shirt company using a crowdsourcing website. NTIA recently published the full evaluation report on Connect Arkansas’s project.

Additional BTOP materials are available online, including prior quarterly reports, press releases, Congressional testimony, information on grants awarded, and quarterly performance progress reports for each funded project. The next quarterly report to Congress will cover April 1 to June 30, 2014.