| Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State
University |
formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education
JRTE, Volume 32, Number 1, Fall
1999
Electronic Connections and
Equal Opportunities:
An Analysis of Telecommunications Distribution in Public
Schools
Patricia Randolph Leigh
Iowa State University
Abstract
Data collected from the Advanced
Telecommunications
in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools,
1995
survey (National Center for Education Statistics,
1996)
were used to examine differences in access to
wide-area
networks by ethnic or racial identity and
socioeconomic
status. The aim of this research is to provide a
current
picture of the equality of available educational
opportunities
as measured by access to technologies important to
this
age. This research also demonstrates the strength
of the
claim that access to educational resources and
tools are
dependent on race or class membership. In
addition, abbreviated
data from similar surveys conducted in 1996 and
1997 show
that although progress has been made in public
schools regardless
of their economic or racial enrollments, the
actual gaps
between the “haves” and
“have-nots”
are either narrowing only slightly or in some
cases widening
to an alarming degree. This article is guided and
informed
by seminal work of the 1960s, therefore, the
research questions,
hypotheses, and expected outcomes are posited in
the framework
offered by Equality of Educational
Opportunity
(Coleman, 1966).
Reference
Coleman, J. (1966). Equality of
educational opportunity.
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Contributor
Patricia Randolph Leigh is an assistant professor
in the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction and is
affiliated
with the Center for Technology in Learning and
Teaching
in the College of Education at Iowa State
University. (Address:
Patricia Randolph Leigh, Iowa State University,
College
of Education, Center for Technology in Learning
and Teaching,
N108 Lagomarcino Hall, Ames, IA 50011-3192; pleigh@iastate.edu.)
A PDF file of the full article is available. Contact: jrte@iste.org. Please specifiy Volume
and Issue number and article name.
Copyright ©
1999, ISTE (International
Society for Technology in Education).
All rights reserved.
| computer access, equal opportunity, Internet access, telecommunications. |
|
