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Survey Finds 85% of Underserved Students Have Access To Only One Digital Device (educationdive.com)
A new research [PDF] on students who took the ACT test, conducted by the ACT Center for Equity in Learning, found that 85% of underserved (meaning low income, minority, or first generation in college) students had access to only one device at home, most often a smartphone. From a blog post: American Indian/Alaskan, Hispanic/Latino, and African American students had the least access. White and Asian students had the most. Nearly a quarter of students who reported that family income was less that $36,000 a year had access to only a single device at home, a 19% gap compared to students whose family income was more than $100,000.
Times have changed, but people are still people. You can become a top tier scientist without growing up with computers or modern phones. Probably better without, as the 'smart' phones tend to make people dumb.
Start with solid education FIRST. Learn to do arithmetic without a calculator, learn to do research without Google, learn to read a book without swiping, and draw a picture without a mouse.
If you read TFA, the percentage of "underserved" kids with access to only one device is 19% (compared to 6% for "served" kids). Nowhere near as alarming as 85%.
Of the students who have access to only one computing device, 85% are "underserved", 15% are not. That's where the 85% figure comes from. I'd cut and paste the relevant quotes, but the PDF has the stupid no-copy flag.
It has to do with history. Low Income people, minorities, and people who are the first of their families in college have historically had a very hard time getting ahead in the US. It's a fact. Sorry that upsets you so much, snowflake.
I don't respond to AC's.
Start with solid education FIRST. Learn to do arithmetic without a calculator, learn to do research without Google, learn to read a book without swiping
Agreed, that's very important. Like, for example, if the author of this idiotic article had learned proper arithmetic she would know that "85% of those with only one device were underserved" is not the same thing as "85% of the underserved have only one device".
Either that or if she had developed decent reading skills she would have looked at page 5 of the paper and seen there, in clear English, the words "Overall, just under one in five (19%) students from 'underserved' backgrounds report having access to only one device at homeâ"more than three times higher than the percent of students not qualifying as underserved who reported this"
Unfortunately she never developed such basic skills, and thus ended up having to work as a "reporter".