Hawai'i schools lag in computer availability
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
Nationally, the technology gap between well-to-do and poor schools is closing, but in Hawai'i high-poverty students have actually leapt over their higher-income counterparts when it comes to having access to instructional computers.
According to the "Technology Counts" report published in Education Week today, 3.9 students share a computer in high-poverty schools in Hawai'i, compared with the 4.7-student average of all public schools across the state.
The statistics, which also indicate that all of Hawai'i's high-poverty schools have Internet access, show the commitment the state has made to bridging the digital divide. "When you look at the national averages, high-poverty schools sometimes lag, but here they seem to have more access to technology and classroom computers than the state as a whole," said state Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen.
However, with the state as a whole falling behind the national average, he said, "There is room for improvement there as far as students per computer."
With 4.7 students per computer, Hawai'i is 43rd among the states in providing access to instructional computers. South Dakota has the highest access rate with 1.7 students per computer, while California has the lowest at 5.5 students. The national average is 4 students per computer.
All schools but Ni'ihau have Internet access, but Hawai'i students have less access to Internet-connected computers in the schools than the national average — 5.6 students per computer, compared to 4.3 nationally. As far as computers actually in Hawai'i's classrooms, there is one Internet-connected computer for every 10.4 students, two more students per computer than the national average.
While Hawai'i's teacher standards do not include technology, technology training and coursework are required for an initial teaching license. Administrators have no technology requirements, but they, and teachers, have professional or financial incentives for using technology.
The study shows that Hawai'i teachers are less likely to use the Internet for instruction — with 61 percent of schools reporting that at least half their teachers use the Internet for instruction, compared with 94 percent nationwide. Twenty-three percent of teachers in Hawai'i are beginners in technology use.
The state also has the fewest fourth-grade teachers using computers to teach math — with 61 percent reporting they did not use computers in math classes at all.
On the other hand, Hawai'i remains a leader in offering courses online, as one of only six states to offer both a virtual school and a cyber charter school. Twenty-two other states have one or the other, while 23 have neither (the list includes the District of Columbia).
Kerry Koide, an educational specialist in the DOE Advanced Technology Research section, said the department has been working on ways to use technology to support standards-based instruction. "We haven't solved the problem yet, but an effort has been made to use technology and see how it can support students across the state," Koide said.
Globally, the Education Week study shows that while the United States is a leader in providing access to school computers, only 39 percent of those computers are connected to the Internet, falling behind several other countries. The leader, Australia, has 80 percent of its computers connected to the Internet.
With only a quarter of its 15-year-olds using computers at school several times a week, the United States is also behind several countries in that area. However, it ranks first for 15-year-olds using the Internet in school several times a week.
The entire study is available at www.edweek.org.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
