EducationSuperHighway Partners with Connected Nation to Carry Forward its Mission

Connected Nation has been selected by EducationSuperHighway to carry forward its mission to ensure state and school district leaders have the information they need to improve school broadband (high-speed internet) connectivity. This will be made possible through a new tool—Connect K-12—that will equip them with key information and analytics needed to improve school broadband access in their communities. Connect K-12, launching later in 2020, will provide the broadband data and pricing information that school district and state leaders need to upgrade their bandwidth to the Federal Communications Commission’s 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) per student goal.

Founded in 2012, the nonprofit EducationSuperHighway reached its goal of connecting 99 percent of schools to internet connections that provide at least 100 Kbps of bandwidth for every student by 2020. In accomplishing that mission, EducationSuperHighway will hand off the next stage of this work to Connected Nation. Connect K-12 will provide actionable internet speed and pricing information on K-12 broadband connectivity across America using publicly available data from the federal Schools and Libraries Program (E-rate). The tool will equip state and school district leaders with the information necessary to continue to drive school network upgrades toward the 1 Mbps per student goal. The tool will also report national and state connectivity trends to ensure that the E-rate program continues to effectively support school broadband access. Funds For Learning, a professional firm specializing in the federal E-rate program, has been selected as the technology partner to manage the data readiness and software elements of the tool.