With students, parents, teachers, and administrators focused on fostering a 2021-22 school year free of COVID-19 restrictions and distance learning, it can be easy to lose sight of the severe digital divide in education that the pandemic exposed.
While there are many social and economic factors that impact students' ability to succeed academically and, hopefully, transition from high school to college, three stand out as pervasive issues.
The first impacting education equity is the inability for many students to see themselves in a college environment, the second is a lack of connectivity like broadband internet access (usually referred to as the digital divide), and the third is a lack of access to the devices students need to capitalize on an internet connection when it is available. Over half of all U.S. high-schoolers are impacted by one or all of these issues.
The Easiest Issue to Solve is Device Access
What students need to succeed digitally today is not complicated: a laptop or Chromebook, a smartphone (preferably 5G capable), and some basic instruction on how to use their devices to complete schoolwork and participate in other school activities remotely. Too many socio-economically-challenged students today rely solely on a smartphone for all of their online activities and needs.
Bridging the digital divide in education by outfitting rural and urban broadband deserts with affordable, easily-accessible, high-speed internet is a more complicated issue and typically out of the student’s control. The good news, however, is that inequitable internet access is a well-known issue, gaining tremendous attention since the beginning of the pandemic. Today, there are billions of state, federal, and corporate dollars earmarked to light these areas up and provide students everywhere with equal access to education.
Getting students to see themselves as collegians is perhaps the most difficult issue to solve. This is where federal TRIO programs like Upward Bound, which has been helping students transition to college since the 1960s, and regional efforts such as the Southeastern Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel (SAEOPP), an eight-state cooperative implementing Upward Bound programs in the southeastern U.S., come into the picture.
Three Issues, One Solution
While each of the three issues outlined above can be addressed independently, when you confront them simultaneously, the result can have a much bigger impact. This is why SAEOPP is so excited by the recent partnership with T-Mobile's Project 10Million to provide free 5G hotspots so socio-economically challenged students can access the internet from virtually anywhere they are.
The partnership will also provide free portable technology, instruction, and access to all TRIO high school pipeline programs in order to improve education equity and eliminate learning barriers by providing students more time to study, imagine, create, accomplish, and graduate.
“Students have become dependent on technology for school,” said Jennifer Tran, an Upward Bound program grad and 2021 valedictorian of Berkmar High School, in Lilburn, GA, who will be attending Notre Dame in the fall. “It’s the digital age and we...have to adapt to that and make sure students have the necessary materials they need to succeed in this age. I know, without my laptop, I wouldn’t be here today.”
For Tran, technology is an indispensable tool for student success. For her generation, pens and paper have been replaced by bits and bytes. Provided they have access, technology serves to level the playing field, giving every student the same opportunity to learn. Without technology, for example, she would not have achieved the grades required to receive the prestigious Gates and QuestBridge scholarships that will not only allow her access to higher education, but pay her way through college.
Technology is a Bridge but Human Connections Show the Way Forward
Technology only goes so far. It can serve as a gateway to new worlds and new opportunities, but it is the face-to-face relationships it facilitates that are the real game-changer.
Coming from a family where her parents didn’t graduate from high school, Tran credits Upward Bound and her teachers with helping her make the connections and learn the needed skills to get into Notre Dame.
“As a community, we have become closer with technology,” said Tran, “but you have to remember that real-life interactions are the best way to make connections. You can start a relationship with technology but at some point, you need to get to know a person, personally, in real life.”
This is why the TRIO/T-Mobile partnership is so important. It sheds much needed light to the deficiencies faced by students without the necessary resources to successfully navigate the educational pipeline and gain access to college.
“Because TRIO programs are federally-funded initiatives, it is my belief that the partnership between T-Mobile and both the SAEOPP Upward Bound Program, and SAEOPP as an organization, can serve as a national blueprint for other TRIO programs to provide first-generation students with the tools and guidance they need to attain a college education,” said Raymond Cabrera, President, SAEOPP.
“Intentional partnerships inspire collaboration and innovation which works to build relationships and solve real-world problems,” said Dr. Iris Garner, Industry Segment Advisor, T-Mobile. “These relationships go on and impact lives and communities well beyond what we can imagine. The T-Mobile and TRIO partnership serves as inspiration, for all education stakeholders.”
The Core of Success Starts with Engagement
"We can’t engage our students like we engaged 20-30 years ago. We must meet them where they are,” said Durrant Williams, Principal of Berkmar High School, a SAEOPP program participant. “The SAEOPP T-Mobile partnership is more than a game changer, it’s a life changer for a lot of kids. That will be something they look back at 10-15 years from now and say, ‘I don’t know what I would’ve done without that device.’ They can’t feel the impact yet, but they will.”
“The most important aspect of getting programs connected to this wonderful opportunity is information,” added Dr. John Mason, Director, SAEOPP Upward Bound. “T-Mobile, through the Project 10Million vehicle, has made partnering as easy as a completed form. Every Trio pre-collegiate program owes it to their students to maximize this free service and open an additional window of access and opportunity.”
To learn more about how the SAEOPP Upward Bound Program has operationalized this opportunity, please visit ub.saeopp.org/project-10-million.