The time has come to address education’s digital divide

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MAY 6, 2020 — Leo Cimilien’s world widened when he began preschool last fall at San Antonio’s Advanced Learning Academy. The 5-year-old got to practice English, since his Haitian-born family speaks Creole and French in the home. He got to run and play on the school’s playground, since there’s no playscape or green space at his apartment complex. And he spent time each day learning in a large, caring community as he bonded with teachers and friends.

But when the coronavirus outbreak hit San Antonio, these vital parts of Cimilien’s world slammed shut. Like many students now, he stays indoors, restless and isolated. His parents, who lost jobs amid the pandemic, are having a hard time keeping him occupied and entertained.

Last month they had money to pay their cellular and Wi-Fi bill. But with no savings, the sudden lack of income and a looming rent payment, they fear internet connectivity will soon become an out-of-reach luxury.

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“At the Urban Education Institute, which I direct at UTSA, we are using these historic and sudden shifts to better understand the benefits and limits of distance learning.”

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As schools continue scaling up online education, it is vitally important that we not lose sight of the struggles and inequities faced by thousands of families like Cimilien’s that are at risk in falling in the so-called digital divide.

At the Urban Education Institute, which I direct at UTSA, we are using these historic and sudden shifts to better understand the benefits and limits of distance learning. After the pandemic hit, we launched a countywide research collaborative with public school districts and higher education institutions that will work to study and close gaps in our knowledge related to how our students and teachers are experiencing distance learning.

Our data and analysis will serve as catalysts for addressing digital divide inequities while boosting benefits for all remote learners, now and in the future.

According to U.S. Census data, 21% of Bexar County households don’t have broadband internet. Access increases in wealthier areas and lags in places with higher poverty rates. For example, 3% of households in the Alamo Heights School District lack broadband, compared with 29% in the districts of Southside and Somerset.

In Alamo Heights, 88% of households said they have a computer. But in the Edgewood School District, half that—only 43%—have a laptop or desktop.

We need a systemic look at how these inequities are playing out in our students’ education. This is why we are connecting with students and teachers for this research with a program called Teaching and Learning in the Time of COVID-19.

And although the pandemic is testing the strength of our community in many ways, our schools—often with help from local partners—are meeting the challenges in creative ways.

Consider this:

• VIA Metropolitan Transit vans equipped with public Wi-Fi have been parked in neighborhoods and public housing areas throughout the city that have low internet access rates. Students and families use the Wi-Fi free.
• Before the pandemic, SAISD had kicked off a campaign to ensure that every one of its approximately 49,000 students had access to a digital learning device in the home. That campaign was to have taken three years to complete, but the timeline collapsed into just three weeks.
• Southwest ISD has made its Wi-Fi public at certain schools, configuring the signal to send it outside their buildings.
• A Judson ISD CARE Team conducted home visits to reach students who have fallen out of contact with their schools.
• Northside ISD hosted blood drives and had parents, students and teachers donate personal protective equipment and masks.
• The Alamo Colleges District quickly launched the COVID-19 Student Impact Fund for student emergency assistance.

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We know that mere access to technology will not be enough to bridge the chasms that have long divided our city. But interviewing and surveying local students, parents and teachers to observe and learn about their experiences—what’s working and where we have unmet needs—will provide some important stepping stones along this unchartered path. 

In the end I hope our research helps San Antonio educators at all levels to identify promising practices to help shore up the digital divide and create dynamic, blended learning experiences, well beyond this pandemic.

— Michael Villarreal

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