Education Week - September 14, 2016 - 11

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > Tracking news and ideas in educational technology
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Study Raises Questions About Impact of Tech on Achievement
E-rate investments
and SAT results eyed
The latest attempt by researchers to determine the impact of educational technology investments on
student achievement suggests that
federal E-rate program subsidies
that schools receive are unlikely to
improve student test scores.
This new study could fuel debates about the link between technology investments and student
achievement. But several ed-tech
experts said the premise of the
study is largely misguided and
some of the methodology is ﬂawed.
The research- conducted by
scholars at Clemson University's
Department of Economics and the
Georgetown Center for Business
and Public Policy-shows no direct correlation between the use of
annual E-rate subsidies and SAT
scores in North Carolina's public
schools.
In North Carolina, composite SAT test scores fell as E-rate
funding increased. That led the researchers to suggest that districts
aren't getting the return on investment that they should from spending thousands of dollars on added
technology in their classrooms.
"The argument that was made
to increase the [E-rate] funding
up to $4 billion per year was that
there was a positive outcome," said
Thomas Hazlett, a professor of economics at Clemson and one of the
study's authors. "We need to show
increased test scores to be able to
support the next $4 billion of investments."
But suggesting that the districts
are not getting a valuable return
on investment based solely on SAT
scores is a conclusion full of problems, several experts said.
To begin with, both K-12 leaders and the Federal Communications Commission agree that the
intended purpose of the E-rate
program from the very beginning
has always been to provide a level
playing ﬁeld for all school districts
in terms of access to technology,
not as a direct means to increase
test scores. Plus, they say it is
problematic to suggest that E-rate
funding would have a direct link
to test scores, because there are so
many other factors that inﬂuence
academic performance.

Getty

By Jason Kazi

ACADEMIC
RETURN FROM
THE E-RATE?
A new study conducted
by researchers at
Clemson and Georgetown
universities attempts to
examine the link between
the E-rate program and
student achievement.
The study:
sCOMPARES rising E-rate
investments with SAT
scores for students across
North Carolina between
1999 and 2013;
sEXAMINES the performance
of students in Mooresville,
N.C., a district with an
international reputation for
its extensive use of digital
learning;

While the study claims to "adjust
for demographic differences," it
does not clearly outline which factors are being used to distinguish
a wealthy school district from a
poorer school district.
The study also specifically examined the Mooresville County
schools, a district with an international reputation for its extensive
use of educational technology. The
results from Mooresville present a
mixed picture.
They show that as E-rate funding rose in North Carolina during the 2009-2013 period, average
mathematics SAT test scores for
the district dropped to a low of 499
in 2012 before returning to 520 in
2013. The average written SAT
test scores in Mooresville dropped
to a low of 457 in 2011 before returning to 482 in 2013. Additionally, the average critical reading
SAT test scores dropped to a low
of 478 in 2011 before returning to
500 in 2013.
"The article attempts to correlate SAT performance with federal
E-rate program spending," said
Brendan Desetti, the director of
education policy at The Software &
Information Industry Association.
"However, only about half of all
high school students take the SAT
and the majority of test takers are
not low-income students. The Erate program, on the other hand,
provides subsidies for broadband
connectivity to schools and libraries based on the number of low-income individuals served. Higherincome students, those more likely
to participate in the SAT, are also
shown to be more likely to have
access to high-speed internet and
other technology outside of the
classroom."
Other studies cloud the picture
about the impact of technology

investments on student achievement. For instance, a 2015 study
by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
found that ed-tech investments
made in 31 countries did not lead
to improved student achievement.
However, a Michigan State University meta-analysis released in
2016 showed a link between improved test scores and access to
computers.
EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit working to bring internet
to every classroom in the United
States to enhance digital learning opportunities, has been a big
advocate for E-rate funding across
the country.
"The most important thing with
the E-rate program is for it to
continue to focus on how we are
achieving the goals and to make
sure that schools and school districts (the beneﬁciaries) have the
tools that they need to be the most
effective purchasers of broadband
that they can be," said Evan Marwell, the founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway. "They can
ensure that the taxpayers' money
is used in the best way possible."

broadband and Wi-Fi-capable to
allow teachers and students to use
technology in the most effective
ways.
According to data gathered by
EducationSuperHighway, 5 million public schools had broadband
in 2014. That number grew to 27
million public schools in 2015.
This increase can largely be attributed to the FCC's modernization of the E-rate program, according to ed-tech experts. FCC
data also caused the agency to
make all of its E-rate data pertaining to who's buying what,
from whom, and at what price
open to the public. As a result,
the cost paid by schools for broadband has been cut in half since
2014, from $22 per megabit to
$11 per megabit.
"I think that overall the study
[by Clemson and Georgetown] is
fundamentally ﬂawed," said Marwell. "The E-rate program has
made a level playing ﬁeld by providing every student and teacher
in the country with equal and efﬁcient access to the Internet. The
E-rate program is about access,
not achievement. The people who
know teaching and learning the
best are in the classroom and improving learning for children."
FCC ofﬁcials echoed Marwell.
"The Telecommunications Act
of 1996 directed the FCC to provide schools and libraries with
broadband, which is exactly what
the E-rate program is doing,"
said Mark Wigfield, deputy director of the ofﬁce of media relations at the FCC. "While we can't
comment on the study's analysis
of educational outcomes, the demand for E-rate funding from
schools and libraries makes it
clear that access to broadband is
essential to learning today."

Study 'Fundamentally Flawed'
The FCC overhauled and modernized the E-rate program in
late 2015 by using data to drive its
policy changes.
In collaboration with educational nonproﬁt organizations, the
FCC felt the need to move the program away from basic telephone
lines to f iber-optic broadband
connectivity. The policy changes
expanded the options school districts had to build up their Wi-Fi
infrastructure.
Most educational experts say
today's classrooms must be both

sBASES its conclusions on
the performance of students
in 374 high schools in 119
districts;
sCONCLUDES that, in most
cases, the correlation
between E-rate funding
and SAT scores is negative;
sSUGGESTS that
policymakers need to take
a harder look at the return
on investment from the
E-rate program.

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Breaking news ■ Expert analysis ■ Insights from leaders in the ﬁeld
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MO

SOURCE: Clemson University,
Georgetown University

N
LE OW
-F
RI
EN

DL
Y

Mixed Picture
The findings show that as Erate funding rose in North Carolina during the 2009-2013 period,
average mathematics SAT test
scores actually dropped from 493
to 481. The average written SAT
test score also dropped from 454
in 2009 to 448 in 2013. However,
average critical reading SAT test
scores saw a slight increase.

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Education Week - September 14, 2016

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