A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

              FOR RELEASE                  Contact:  David Thomas            February 16, 1996                    (202) 401-1579

Nation's Schools Making Progress Toward Technology Goals

Half of the nation's public schools have at least one computer with Internet access, but more than 90 percent of instructional classrooms are not yet connected to the "information superhighway," according to a new survey by the U.S. Department of Education.

Funding was cited by more than half of all schools as the top barrier to using computers and on-line resources as teaching tools.

"Learning on-line must not become a new fault line in American education," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. "The Internet offers tremendous potential as a tool for helping students learn basic and advanced skills, and all students should share in this opportunity. Getting computers into students' and teachers' hands as soon as possible must be a priority."

Riley noted that a new education technology challenge fund announced Thursday by President Clinton will provide a total of $2 billion over five years to leverage commitments from private-sector, state and local initiatives. The fund aims to help connect every school and classroom to the Internet by the year 2000, develop innovative software and on-line learning resources, help teachers use technology to improve their skills, and upgrade outdated computers.

"The nation is making progress toward meeting the president's goals, and his Technology Literacy Challenge Fund will catalyze an even greater commitment by communities, businesses, states and individual citizens," Riley said. "But this new survey shows that while we're making progress, we still have much work ahead of us."

Conducted by the department's National Center for Education Statistics, the survey found 50 percent of all schools have Internet access, compared to 35 percent in 1994. Connections in instructional classrooms (classes, laboratories or libraries) increased from 3 percent to 9 percent. However, schools with high numbers of poor students were only half as likely to be connected as schools serving more affluent students.

The findings, reported in Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1995, are a follow-up to a similar survey conducted in 1994.

Among the survey's findings:

Funding and inadequate internal wiring were the most frequently cited barriers to acquiring advanced telecommunications;
Three-fourths of schools without access to the Internet have plans to connect in the future;
In addition to 50 percent of schools on the Internet, 11 percent of schools had access to some other wide-area network that does not connect to the Internet, and 23 percent had only local-area networking capability;
While only 7 percent of the schools reported parents playing a large role in helping develop telecommunications programs, 31 percent cited parents as playing a moderately active role, up from 1994's 4 percent and 17 percent, respectively;
Only 31 percent of schools with high levels of students from poor families had access to the Internet, compared to 62 percent of schools with relatively few students from poor families.

Of the 50 percent of public schools with Internet access:

Ninety-three percent had e-mail, 83 percent could access resource location services, 80 percent had World Wide Web access, and 73 percent could access news groups;
Nineteen percent could connect to the Internet in five or more instructional rooms in the school;
Twenty-eight percent of teachers, 21 percent of students and 18 percent of administrators use wide-area networks to a moderate or large extent;
High school students were more likely to use wide-area networks than elementary students, 30 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

The survey was sent to a nationally representative sample of about 1,000 public elementary and secondary schools in fall 1995.

Riley called for the nationwide survey to measure progress in determining the current availability, use, obstacles and future plans for using advanced telecommunications to improve public schools.

Single copies of the report are available by calling 1 (800) 424-1616 or (202) 219-1513. Call the GPO Order Desk at (202) 512-1800 to order multiple copies.

Copies of the report are available via Internet at gopher.ed.gov, Port: 10,000. The path is: NCES Publications and Reports (selection 4); Elementary/Secondary Education Publications and Reports (selection 2); Fast Response Survey System (selection 4); Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Schools, K-12 (selection 1).