Public school spending on classroom Internet connections appears to have no measurable impact on student achievement in California, concludes a recent study by two University of Chicago economists.
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An educational technology expert, however, said the study failed to delve deeply enough into the issue.
Released last month, the study set out to examine the impact of the federal E-rate program, which helps schools acquire telecommunications services, and the effect classroom Internet connections have had on student achievement. The researchers used data from the California and U.S. departments of education for every school in the state.
鈥淚f you take as a narrow focus of the program, just to increase access, the E-rate appears very successful in doing that,鈥� said Austan Goolsbee, who teaches in the University of Chicago鈥檚 graduate school of business. 鈥淚t鈥檚 on the broader topic鈥攊s that a good goal or not鈥攖hat we haven鈥檛 found any evidence that it is [providing academic benefits].鈥�
Elusive Achievement Link
Mr. Goolsbee and his colleague, Jonathan Guryan, matched information from E-rate applications of the California schools with student scores on mathematics, reading, and science on the Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition.
鈥淭he results show no evidence that Internet investment had any measurable effect on student achievement,鈥� their report says, basing that conclusion on the mean test scores from the schools studied, the fraction of students from each school scoring above the 75th percentile for the state, and the percentage of students scoring above the 25th percentile.
The researchers, who allowed one year for increases in Internet connections to have an impact in the classroom, found the same result regardless of the grade level or the poverty level of a school.
But Norris Dickard, the director of public policy for the Washington-based Benton Foundation, which studies issues related to school access to technology, called the researchers鈥� conclusions overly simplistic.
He said test-score improvements are unlikely to stem from any one factor in education, such as Internet connections.
鈥淚 would say, number one, it鈥檚 too early to tell鈥� if there is a link between Internet connections and student achievement, Mr. Dickard said. 鈥淪econd of all, we鈥檝e got to do a lot more with teachers鈥� professional development鈥攚e鈥檝e been saying that for years.鈥�
He added that, in business and industry, hard evidence of the beneficial impact of technology has also been elusive, but that hasn鈥檛 stopped American companies from investing heavily in technology for their operations.
Mr. Goolsbee said the study was only a first crack at trying to determine if there is a link between spending on educational technology and student achievement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not strong鈥攖he finding on test scores,鈥� he acknowledged. 鈥淔ew things appear to influence test scores in the immediate term; we tried to make that clear in the report.鈥�
Seeing an effect from Internet access, he added, 鈥渃ould take a while.鈥�
Still, Mr. Goolsbee said, he hopes to continue the study with data from future years.
Classroom Connections
Using federal data from 1996 to 2000 and the annual E-rate applications submitted by California鈥檚 schools, the University of Chicago economists also examined how the education-rate program affected trends toward increasing classroom connections to the Internet in schools that serve students of varying levels of poverty.
Mr. Goolsbee and Mr. Guryan confirmed conclusions from other studies that the poorest schools have received the lion鈥檚 share of funding for wiring classrooms. In other words, the priority goal of the E-rate program鈥攖o help the poorest schools most鈥攊s being met.
Since 1998, schools have received about $2 billion a year in E-rate funds.
