By the numbers: A closer look at school technology and learning loss recovery
Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 8, 2024
By Clayton Henkel
NC Newsline
Hard to believe it, but this March will mark four years since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As students and teachers switched to remote learning, federal pandemic relief dollars helped school districts purchase laptops, tablets, software and other technology to minimize learning loss and allow students to study from home.
But now, in 2024, those cutting-edge tools from 2020 are beginning to show their age.
The chief information officer for the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) shared the status of the school technology with the House Select Committee on Education Reform last week.
But many school districts do not have a plan to sustain or refresh their technology for students beyond the federal ESSER funding provided during the pandemic.
A national look at academic recovery
The Education Recovery Scorecard issued its own report on academic recovery last week. Over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, students in 17 states, including North Carolina, remained more than a third of a grade level behind 2019 in math.
That same study found North Carolina students along with students in 13 other states remain more than a third of a grade level behind in their reading.
The report concludes:
Today, we take a by-the numbers look at the state of digital devices in North Carolina’s schools:
• 1.98 million — Number of student digital devices
• 114 of North Carolina’s 115 school districts have one device per student
• 162 of North Carolina’s 215 charter schools have one device per student
• 888,715 — Number of Chrome devices issued to public school students to work/study from home
• 80,291 —Number of Windows devices issued to public school students for working from home
• 11,558 — Number of Apple devices issued to public school students to study from home
• 89 — Number of school districts (of 115) that lack sufficient resources to sustain their technology for student devices beyond the initial federal pandemic relief funding
• 77 — Percentage of school districts reporting they don’t have the money to refresh these student devices when the funding ends
• $525 — Average cost of a student device with warranty
• 4-5 years — Average replacement cycle for technology
• 1.1 million — Number of North Carolina households lacking access to high-speed internet, cannot afford it or do not have the skills needed to take advantage of the digital economy (Source: NC Broadband Office)
• 35 — Percentage of households in the U.S. with school-age children and an annual income below $30,000 who do not have access to high-speed internet (Source: Pew Research Center)
• 65 — Approximate percentage of NC households without internet access that do not have connectivity due to their geographic location
• 7 — Percent of public schools that reported using school bus wi-fi for students to address internet access outside of their school
• 8 — Percentage of North Carolinians who don’t have access to a home computer
• $550,000 — Amount the legislature has earmarked each year from 2023-2025 to track learning recovery trends
• $82 million — Additional investment President Joe Biden announced for North Carolina in January that will connect at least 16,000 North Carolina homes and businesses to high-speed internet
Learn more about the technology in your child’s school district by visiting the state’s Digital Learning Dashboard.
