What COVID-19 Underscores About How Broadband Connectivity Affects Educational Attainment

A Q&A with Johannes Bauer, director of the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University, about how broadband access is affecting K-12 education. 

Q. Did you find that the lack of high-speed internet has an impact beyond getting homework done?

A. One of our key findings is that broadband access affects educational achievements indirectly and in combination with other factors. Even if we control for socioeconomic and other factors that might be in play, students with no home access, slow home access, or cell-only access had approximately half a letter grade lower overall GPAs than students with fast home internet access—essentially the difference between a B- and a B average. And we found evidence that these disparities in home internet connectivity are associated with other educational achievement measures. For example, students with no internet access at home typically had lower digital skills, scoring about three points lower on a 64-point digital skills scale than those with either fast or slow internet at home. Those who had only a cellphone to access the internet scored four points lower, and performed lower on the SAT and the grades 8/9 and 10 versions of the preliminary SAT. On the other hand, students who had higher digital skills performed significantly better on these standardized tests.