Students in small Calif. town illustrate rural 'homework gap' - Entrepreneur Generations

In Alpaugh, California, a small town  of about 1,000 an hour north of Bakersfield, students enjoy a fully wired school experience with all the latest broadband technology. But only 13.8 percent of Alpaugh families have broadband at home; most can't afford it, and there are few internet options for residents.

"The divide between students who have access to internet and computers required to do assignments at home and those who don’t is known as the 'homework gap,'" Sydney Johnson reports for PBS NewsHour. The gap could slow efforts to close the rural-urban gap in educational opportunities.

The broadband gap in Alpaugh illustrates a larger trend: nearly 3 million students in the United States have trouble keeping up at school because they don't have internet at home, The Associated Press reports. That's about 17% of students who don't have a home computer and 18% who don't have access to broadband at home. Some students try to make do by using their smartphones, but it's often difficult to manage.

Teachers in Alpaugh try to accommodate students by not assigning homework that requires internet access. The schools provide Chromebooks that students can use during the school day, but students who take the bus or eat breakfast at school don't have much extra time outside of class to use them, Johnson reports.

Carmen Diaz, a middle school history and English teacher who grew up in Alpaugh, told Johnson: "It makes them choose between breakfast and go to work on homework."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2FwGruB Students in small Calif. town illustrate rural 'homework gap' - Entrepreneur Generations

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