Study shows smaller margin in general use of computers
By:Jeff Milgram
Black students are catching up to whites in the use of computers at school — but they are falling behind in the use of the latest technology such as the Internet, a study by a Princeton University economist shows.
And the implications of that technology gap are disturbing, said Alan B. Krueger, who wrote the study, “The Digital Divide in Educating African-American Students and Workers.”
“I think that a consequence of the digital divide will be to pose more hurdles to students who leave school to find high-paying jobs,” Dr. Krueger said in a telephone interview from Palo Alto, Calif., where he is on sabbatical from Princeton at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences.
And while the study used data from 1984, 1989, 1993 and 1997, Dr. Krueger suspects the technology gap may be widening.
While the narrowing of the gap between whites and blacks in the use of computers is a positive development, Dr. Krueger said in his study, “the more recent opening of a black-white gap in the use of the Internet is a worrisome development.
“Black students seem to lag behind in using the latest technology in school, and their teachers seem to lag behind in their preparation to use the latest technology,” he wrote. “If the pace of technological change in education hastens, the digital divide in training students will likely widen.”
Dr. Krueger’s study found that, between 1993 and 1997, students of all races were likely to use computers at school. By high school, the gap between computer use by blacks and whites had disappeared, Dr. Krueger found.
The study defined computer use as any use that involves a computer keyboard.
Despite the increased use of computers by all groups, Dr. Krueger suggests that groups use the technology for different purposes. While 20.5 percent of white students used the Internet, only 14.8 percent of African-American students and only 11.7 percent of Hispanic students used computers to access the Internet in school in 1997.
Dr. Krueger’s study follows a 1999 U.S. Commerce Department report, “Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide,” which reported that African-American workers are less likely than others to have access to information technology at home and at work.
Dr. Krueger’s study used information from national surveys of representative samples of students in 55,000 households.
Among his findings:
• Hispanic students, who were more likely than black students to use computers in school in 1993, were less likely than black students to use them four years later.
• In 1993, more than 66 percent of all students reported using a computer in school. By 1997, 77 percent of all students said they used a computer. Computer use was more prevalent among elementary and middle school students than high school students.
• Just over 72 percent of black students at all grade levels used a computer in 1997, compared to 78.4 percent of white students. In 1993, that gap was about twice as large: 56.5 percent of black students used computers, compared to 68.4 percent of white students.
• The gap between blacks and whites disappeared at the high school level by 1997: 71.8 percent of white students reported using computers, compared to 72.6 percent of black students.
• The gap in computer use traditionally has been larger at the elementary school level. By 1997, a 10-point gap between blacks and whites remained among elementary school students: 81.5 percent of white students used computers, compared to 72 percent of black students.
• In 1997, 67.7 percent of Hispanic students reported using a computer, compared to 78.4 percent of white students and 72.1 percent of black students. For the first time, the gap between white and Hispanic students is wider than the gap between white and black students.
• About half of the black-white gap can be attributed to differences in family income, demographic characteristics, grade level and region of residence. The remaining half may result because schools attended mainly by minority students are poorer and lack resources to purchase computers; teachers in those schools lack adequate preparation to use computers; and teachers may prefer to teach with more traditional methods.
• Black students are less likely than white students to live in households that own computers. Even when they do, they are less likely to use the computer for educational programs or to complete school assignments.
Dr. Krueger called for more research into the effectiveness of classroom computer technology, including a study of which uses work best for different groups of students.