When I joined Santa Ana Unified almost five years ago, the district was in the midst of a massive “Access for All” campaign. Over the course of two years, we went from fewer than 10,000 computing devices for over 50,000 students, to 1:1 Chromebooks for all students grades 3-12, and classroom sets of iPads for lower elementary classrooms. Our 21st Century Learning and Learning Innovations with Technology teams worked to systematically build capacity to meaningfully integrate technology into the classroom. Hundreds of teachers received Google certification, and we piloted ground-breaking web-applications to provide daily learning feedback to students. At the same time, our technology services department made tremendous investments in the network infrastructure. We rolled out Canvas LMS, adopted Google Classroom, and were on the cusp of digital badging. We joined the League of Innovative Schools and had numerous schools on the Getting Smart list of schools to visit. It felt like Santa Ana was on the cutting edge of the digital revolution in schools.
Over the next two years, we distributed over 1000 hotspots to try to fill in the gap with families with poor or no internet service at home. In our most recent surveys, nearly 90% of families indicated they had access to the internet at home, up signicantly from when the Access for All campaign began. While we were not focused on technology integration as we had been in the past, we were still making efforts to diminish the digital divide for students and familes.
And then COVID-19 closed our schools.
The closing of schools brought into immediate and sharp focus the remaining gap in access. For those families without internet access at home, the connection to school was largely shut off. Yes, our teachers are reaching out via telephone. Yes, we’ve developed and distributed learning enrichment packets for families. But a packet and a phone call are simply not the same as the daily interactions, access to software applications, and ongoing feedback that come with a solid internet connection. We’ve also found that the quality of those internet connections also varies – broadband accessibility in central Santa Ana is uneven. We have a lot of families reporting that connectivity has been a challenge during the school closure. Even for those with internet access, connection speeds are sometimes slow and frustrating.
For a district that serves such a large number of students living in poverty or homeless, distance learning is much more complicated than simply sending home a device. I probably had two dozen people send me a link last week from a local internet provider offering free internet for 60 days. Of course when we did some additional research, it became clear that families would have to provide billing information and that the trial period would automatically roll over into a monthly charge. When you work with a community like Santa Ana that has come to trust our recommendations, we have to vet offers carefully.
We still don’t know how long schools will remain closed, or the long-term impact that the COVID pandemic of 2020 will have on our schools. What is certain is that the digital divide is still a major challenge to students and families who want and need equal access.