Listen and learn: Research paper Research papers are a pairing of two 18 minute presentations followed by 18 minutes of Discussion led by a Discussant, with remaining time for Q & A.
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Guiding all of EdConnect research and evaluation, including the household results, is an equity-focused evaluation model (Hood et al., 2015). As such, an equity lens has been applied to all steps of the research and evaluation process using the informed voice and perspective from a diverse representation of area leaders and stakeholders across the region. In addition, a Community Advisory Board composed from a diverse set of leaders and organizers across the community were recruited to inform the broader scope of the equity evaluation and provide ongoing feedback for aligning recruiting, data collection, and analyses with the perspectives and reality of traditionally disenfranchised parent groups.
A multi-year research and evaluation study is examining a wide range of community outcomes related to Chattanooga's EdConnect Initiative. In this larger context, parent surveys were conducted in May 2021 and 2022 using a stratified, random sample of over 400 school households each year. Sample households were stratified into four groups based on their level of connectivity and then randomly sampled from within these groups to resemble the connectivity status for the entire county population.
In addition to the survey questions, respondent gender and level of broadband connectivity were collected along with a range of demographic information (free/reduced lunch status, ethnicity, number of children in household, etc.) to provide a greater context to the results and allow richer exploration of the following research questions:
How do parents perceive and value technology and broadband for supporting k12 education?
How do parents use technology and broadband for supporting k12 education in their household?
How do parents' perception and use of technology and broadband for supporting k12 education differ based on broadband connectivity/access?
What is the relationship between household demographic background (race, SES, size of household) and parents' use and beliefs of technology for supporting k12 education?
What is the relationship between free, community broadband access and parents' use and beliefs of technology for supporting k12 education?
Balancing the need for short completion time with the desire to capture a wide variety of content resulted in a streamlined survey focusing on capturing frequency of practice, as well as attitudes and beliefs towards digital devices and education. First, researchers examined the literature for previously used survey questions related to parent use and perceptions of educational technology. Among various resources, a nationally normed study of parent attitudes towards media and technology was found that provided validated survey items and nationally normed results collected in late 2012 (Wartella et al., 2014). Second, the survey items were developed to reflect the overall project outcomes as well as to provide this community COVID-era and post-COVOD snapshots of parent voice and perspective. As such, project leaderships were interviewed, and project outcomes were evaluated to ensure interview questions aligned with both formative and summative project signposts. Finally, the local school district leadership provided review, edits, and approval for all household questions before data collection.
First, the study results include a summary of parents own use of technology and in supporting their children. Overall, 91% of surveyed parents reported using digital devices to “learn something new for their own personal interest” in the last month. 93% of all surveyed parents reported using technology at home in the last month to “interact with their child’s school”. Across the community, households receiving free highspeed Internet access through the community-wide broadband program reported the highest rates of online school participation of any parent subgroup. For example, 13% of surveyed parents who were eligible for the community broadband program, but ultimately chose not to participate had not interacted with their child’s schools using technology during 2020/2021 school year. Comparatively, only 2% of households who are eligible and had enrolled in the community broadband program had not interacted with their child’s school. In other words, households participating in the broadband
program were significantly more likely to use technology to participate in a range of interactions with their children’s school.
The results also provide an opportunity to explore parent attitudes and perspective towards educational technology, media, and parenting in the age of COVID. Across the entire sample, roughly twice the number of parents personally viewed their students digital device “primarily as a learning tool” (69%) compared to parents who felt devices were primarily for children’s entertainment (31%).
Result shown that the majority of parents believed that digital devices were having a positive impact on their children’s creativity (71%) and academic skills like Reading (71%) and Math (64%). However, not all parent sentiment was positive. Across the sample, half of parents responded that technology had a negative effect on their children’s social skills (51%), compared to 41% of parents who reported a positive impact (and 8% neutral). Parent perception towards
technology’s impact on children’s attention span was similarly varied with 45% of parent reporting a negative effect and 43% of parents reporting a positive effect.
Results are examined across households level of broadband connectivity as well as a range of demographic information (free/reduced lunch status, ethnicity, number of children in household, etc.) to provide a greater context and richer exploration of those factors that relate to parent support practices and beliefs.
Even for schools that have leveraged 1:1 devices and take-home policies, the inequity of students home access and connectivity outside of school remains a critical problem limiting the effectiveness of education technology investments and returns.
As the long-term inequity of reliable home-based internet access reached a new urgency in the pandemic, it has became universal that internet access is a necessity for student and household success (Horowitz, 2020; Menzies, 2020). As such, this research has aimed to identify and study these domains of inequity and document how schools and community efforts may reduce the digital divide and make meaningful opportunities for our most disenfranchised families.
With the interest in equitable broadband access and impact growing increasingly urgent, this presentation aims to share salient, actionable (research-informed) results to the ISTE audience of practitioners and policy makers.
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