America’s Classrooms Online: 24.5 Million Students Now Up to Speed

In 2013, more than 40 million US students could barely stream online videos. Only 30 percent of K-12 districts provided sufficient Internet access speed to support digital learning, defined by the Federal Communications Commission at 100 kbps per student. In 2015, that number has been slashed nearly in half, with 20 million more students enjoying Internet speeds that meet the FCC’s goal.

A new report, “ 2015 State of the States,” published by San Francisco (CA)-based nonprofit by EducationSuperHighway, found that 77 percent of school districts have hit the target speed. In all, an estimated 24.5 million students and 1.7 million teachers now enjoy enough broadband to make the most out of education technology tools. Researchers collected data from 6,781 public school districts across the nation, representing over 25 million students across approximately 49,000 schools.