Community-wide broadband adoption and student academic achievement

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between broadband adoption and county-level educational achievement in the US. We employ a novel measure of home broadband subscriptions to explore longitudinal community impacts of broadband adoption on aggregated standardized test scores in math and reading/language arts for students enrolled in 3rd-8th grades. We create a panel of US counties and measure the effect of broadband adoption on student educational achievement by estimating a fixed effect estimator. For the typical student in a county, the main results indicate that higher broadband adoption increases standardized test scores in both math and reading/language arts. The results are robust to alternate model specifications and an instrumental variable approach. Not all students benefit equally from higher rates of broadband adoption, however. We find that Black and Latino (and lower-income students) enjoy higher educational achievement gains compared to their white (and higher-income) student counterparts. The findings highlight the potential role community broadband adoption can have in promoting student educational achievement and reducing disparities within the education system.