The Homework Gap: Teacher Perspectives on Closing the Digital Divide

In 2018, Common Sense conducted a national survey and focus groups to understand the challenges and promise of technology use in the classroom for learning. Teachers across the US were asked about the use of educational technology with students in their classrooms, and issues of access emerged:

1. Approximately one out of 10 teachers (12%) reported that the majority of their students (61% to 100%) do not have home access to the internet or a computer. Approximately four out of 10 teachers said that many of their students do not have adequate home access to the internet or a computer to do schoolwork at home.
2. Teachers in Title I schools or in schools with more than three-quarters of students being students of color are more likely to say that over 60% of their students do not have home access to the internet or a computer.
3. As grade levels increase, teachers are more likely to assign homework that requires access to digital devices and/or broadband internet outside of schools.
4. Teachers who assign homework that requires access to digital devices and/or broadband internet outside of school are more likely to teach in affluent, non-Title I schools than in Title I schools.
5. Teachers in schools with student populations of predominantly students of color are more likely to say that it would limit their students’ learning if their students did not have adequate access to broadband internet or a computing device at home to do homework (34%), as compared to teachers in schools with mixed populations or teachers in schools with predominantly white students (26% and 27%, respectively).