Keith N Hampton

New paper out on “How Variation in Internet Access, Digital Skills, & Media Use are Related to Rural Student Outcomes: GPA, SAT, & Educational Aspirations” with Craig Robertson, Laleah Fernandez, Inyoung Shin, and Johannes Bauer. This extends our work at the Quello Center with our partners at a dozen Michigan school districts, and Merit Network, Inc. There is a lot in this one, but the highlights include:

• For education outcomes, the benefit of using social media, video games, etc., for building digital skills outweighs any negative influences of excessive use.
• Gaps in access and digital skills, not a homework gap hurts rural student educational performance. Social media skills (and digital skills in general) predict higher SAT scores but not classroom grades.
• Dropping SAT for college admissions may hurt rural students. Discrepant SAT performance allows students with digital skills to demonstrate additional potential for success in higher education.
• Rural students who spend more time on sports receive higher grades and have higher educational aspirations than those with more digital skills (but digital skills, not sports predict SAT scores)… fixing divides in rural broadband access only part of the challenge.
• Rural students whose Internet access improved during the COVID-19 pandemic likely experienced lower academic gains than peers who already had broadband access, due to preexisting gaps in digital skill and experience with everyday media use.

Abstract:

Some have pointed to divides in the availability of fixed home broadband Internet access as a contributor to rural students’ lower levels of educational attainment. Based on standardized exams (SAT Suite) and a survey of rural Michigan students in grades 8–11, we find that rural students with broadband home Internet access are more interested in school and leave homework incomplete less often. However, the relationship to classroom grades (GPA) is relatively trivial. Yet, we find that students who are not dependent on a cell phone for Internet access and those with higher digital skills, especially social media skills, rank considerably higher on the SAT. Rural students with broadband Internet access are able to participate in a more diverse array of online media activities, which supports building digital skills. Any negative relationship between time spent on social media, video games, other digital media and educational outcomes is outweighed by the benefit to digital skills. However, aspects of rural culture; including the emphasis on activities such as sports, as a path to postsecondary schooling and upward, social mobility; may be stunting the positive relationship between access, digital skills, and educational aspirations. Whereas extra-curricular sports have no direct relationship to SAT performance, students who spend more time on sports receive higher grades and have higher educational aspirations than those with more digital skills. We discuss the implications for rural students’ access to human capital and how the unequal relationship between digital skills and performance in the classroom and on the SAT may perpetuate inequalities.