How States and Districts Can Close the Digital Divide To Increase College and Career Readiness

Across the country, educators are finding innovative ways to integrate technology into their curricula, allowing students to develop apps,¹ speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station,² and create and publish e-books.³ These types of opportunities are increasingly important aspects of a well-rounded education as technology advances and becomes more critical to the workforce. Yet they are not available to all students. Students from marginalized communities often don’t have the chance to engage with technology in meaningful ways. Instead, they are limited to, at most, using technology to complete digital worksheets, watch videos, or email their teachers.⁴ These passive uses of technology lack rigor and present little opportunity for students to further develop their digital skills—those necessary to use digital tools and technologies to work, learn, and interact—or to be exposed to new creative and productive uses of technology. Sometimes this divide stems from a lack of access to devices,⁵ but even students who have access often lack the adequate knowledge to utilize devices, and their teachers are typically not adequately trained to embed technology into their curricula in meaningful ways.⁶ This gap in educational technology (ed tech) is commonly referred to as the digital divide.

The U.S. Department of Education defines the digital divide through three distinct barriers⁷—digital access, digital design, and digital use:

• The digital access divide refers to the “inequitable access to connectivity, devices, and digital content.”
• The digital design divide refers to the inequitable access to professional learning for educators to build their “capacity to design learning experiences” that use technology in meaningful ways.
• The digital use divide refers to the inequitable implementation of assignments and learning experiences that utilize technology in meaningful ways.

This issue brief highlights resources that states and districts can access to work toward closing the digital divide and presents a case for future policymaking that prioritizes proactively addressing technological advancements to strengthen ed tech, ultimately increasing college and career readiness.

In a world of rapidly advancing technology,⁸ it is vital for students to be comfortable with and knowledgeable about technology. At best, students should be exposed to various types of technology and understand how they are used in the workforce. At a minimum, students should be comfortable with creating and saving documents, researching credible sources, and other basic computer skills.⁹ This knowledge is a critical component of college and career readiness.

When integrated effectively, technology can increase student engagement, improve collaboration, and promote choice in student-centered learning, all while giving students practice with basic digital skills and exposure to more advanced skills.¹⁰ Digital literacy refers to using digital tools and technologies to work, learn, and interact.¹¹ It includes the technical and cognitive skills necessary to flourish and thrive in an increasingly digital world, including understanding online safety and how to balance screen time. Digital literacy is becoming increasingly important to successfully preparing students for both college and careers, as technological advancements are creating new job types that the workforce must be prepared to fill.

In the United States, one-third of new jobs created in the past 25 years did not exist or barely existed before.¹² The advancement of artificial intelligence alone is predicted to create 20 million to 50 million new jobs globally by 2030 in fields such as health care, finance, and technology.¹³ Many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue.¹⁴ In addressing this trend, though, it is important to avoid assumptions around younger generations’ digital skills. Although younger generations have more exposure to technology than ever before—making it appear that they are tech savvy—this exposure does not equate to digital literacy. A study from the National Skills Coalition found that “fully 25 percent of workers with no foundational digital skills and 29 percent of those with very limited foundational skills were between the ages of sixteen to thirty-four.”¹⁵ Educators resonate with these statistics and sound similar warnings. A high school English teacher from Maryland shared, “There is a huge difference between being able to operate tech like your cell phone versus actually being digitally literate and understanding the etiquette and ways that technology can be used for learning purposes.”¹⁶

As technology continues to advance and affect the workforce, it is vital for schools to adapt to these changes and provide equitable learning opportunities that integrate technology in meaningful ways to prepare students for both college and careers. But despite growing interest in implementing technology in meaningful ways, some schools lack the resources necessary to integrate educational technology into classrooms successfully.¹⁷

Although access to physical devices has increased because of historic funding from the Biden-Harris administration to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on K-12 schools,¹⁸ challenges persist in other forms of digital access, design, and use. While fewer than 10 percent of teachers report not having access to personally assigned digital learning devices for their students,¹⁹ barriers to connectivity still exist for many. In a 2022 survey from Project Tomorrow, more than one-third of teachers reported that internet access in their classroom was insufficient to support their needs, and nearly 60 percent of students reported that the internet connectivity in classrooms was too slow or inconsistent to support online tools and resources.²⁰ Moreover, students in rural communities often experience additional barriers when accessing the internet at home.²¹ Lack of internet and computer access at home sets students further back, with one study showing that, regardless of socioeconomic status, students with a computer at home scored higher on nationwide math assessments than those without.²²

Additional challenges lie in the design of curricula that integrate technology in meaningful ways. When surveyed, educators and school staff frequently report that significant challenges to effective curriculum design include a lack of support materials,²³ sufficient training, and time to become familiar with new technologies.²⁴ While there has been an increase in teacher comfort with using technology,²⁵ more work needs to be done to encourage innovative design of curricula that actively use technology. These challenges in design ultimately lead to a lack of effective implementation. A 2022 survey of students in grades 6 through 12 found that students primarily used technology passively in the classroom, such as taking online quizzes and tests.²⁶ Administrators report similar findings, with more than 70 percent of schools reporting that their teachers use technology for activities that are traditionally done in the classroom with or without technology; fewer than half reported the use of technology to integrate new activities that could not be done before.²⁷

To address the digital divide in K-12 schools and work toward an educational system that equitably integrates technology in meaningful ways, the federal government has provided guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, as well as funding for states and districts through multiple pieces of legislation.

National Educational Technology Plan

The Department of Education developed and released the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) with a call to action to close the digital access, design, and use divides.²⁸ The most recent NETP before this was released in 2016.²⁹ Rather than serving as a survey of the field, as previous editions have, the 2024 plan frames the three divides limiting the potential of ed tech to support teaching and learning and provides recommendations to close these divides and design meaningful learning experiences.³⁰ Some key recommendations include the following from the NETP report.

Digital access:

• Establish and maintain a cabinet-level edtech director to ensure the wise and effective spending of edtech funds.
• Conduct regular needs assessments to ensure technology properly supports learning.
• Leverage public/private partnerships and community collaboration to bring broadband internet access to previously under-connected areas and ensure student access to “everywhere, all-the-time learning.”

Digital design:

• Develop a “Portrait of an Educator” outlining the cognitive, personal, and interpersonal competencies educators should have to design learning experiences that help students develop the skills and attributes outlined in the profile of a graduate.
• Design and sustain systems that support ongoing learning for new and veteran teachers and administrators, providing them with the time and space needed to design learning opportunities aligned with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework.
• Develop processes for evaluating the potential effectiveness of digital tools before purchase, including the use of research and evidence.

Digital use:

• Develop rubrics for digital resource and technology adoptions to ensure tools are accessible and integrated into the larger educational ecosystem, support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, and can be customized in response to accommodation or modification needs of learners with disabilities.
• Review subject area curricula or program scopes and sequences to ensure that student learning experiences build age-appropriate digital literacy skills through active technology use for learning.
• Build public-private partnerships with local businesses, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations to help students access edtech-enabled hands-on learning and work-based learning experiences.

To fund the implementation of these recommendations, states and districts can utilize funds from existing federal grants, including those under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Every Student Succeeds Act

ESSA, the primary federal law for K-12 education, provides funds to public schools, some of which may be used to support technology use in the classroom and close the digital divide.³¹ Allowable uses of funds from Titles I through IV to support the meaningful use of technology in the classroom include the following from the Office of Educational Technology:³²

Title I, Part A: Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies³³

• Provide digital learning resources to support all students and staff if this use is supported by the school’s comprehensive needs assessment and schoolwide plan.
• In Title I schoolwide programs or Title I educators in targeted assistance programs: Provide digital learning opportunities to support ongoing, job-embedded, collaborative, digitally-literate professional learning for educators. 

Title II, Part A: Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants³⁴

• Hire coaches to tailor professional development to the needs of individual educators for assistance in equitably integrating technology into curricula and instruction.
• Support programs that implement systems and supports for educators to learn and to effectively use data to improve instruction and decision-making for school improvement efforts that also protect student privacy.

Title III, Part A: English Language Acquisition State Grants³⁵

• Provide supplemental professional development to teachers, principals, and other school leaders to help them provide more effective instruction to English learners (ELs) through digital or online methods.
• Improve instruction for ELs, including those with a disability, by acquiring and upgrading curricula and programs, using digital learning resources and software, including materials in languages other than English.

Title IV, Part A: Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE)³⁶

• Help educators better discover, use, and share digital content. This might include training educators to find and adapt relevant Open Educational Resources (OER).
• Build technological capacity and infrastructure by purchasing devices, equipment, and software applications to address shortfalls.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

IDEA is a federal law that guarantees that students with disabilities have access to a free, appropriate public education.³⁷ Some funding from IDEA may also be used to support the use of technology in the classroom. Allowable uses include the following from the Office of Educational Technology:³⁸

IDEA, Part B: Assistance for Education of All Children With Disabilities³⁹

• Improve the use of technology in the classroom by children with disabilities to enhance learning.
• Support the use of technology, including technology with universal design principles and assistive technology devices, to maximize accessibility to the general education curriculum for children with disabilities.

IDEA, Part D, State Personnel Development Grants⁴⁰

• Encourage and support the training of both special education and general education teachers and administrators who provide early intervention, educational, and transition services to improve results for children with disabilities to effectively use and integrate technology into curricula and instruction.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021

Finally, while the IIJA does not explicitly focus on public education, its efforts to increase broadband internet access can be used to support digital literacy. The IIJA set forth a $65 billion investment in broadband internet, largely to be used by states and territories to finance broadband deployment as they see fit.⁴¹ As of March 2024, roughly 24 million Americans lacked access to fixed broadband connectivity, many of whom live in rural, Tribal, and/or low-income communities.⁴² Broadband internet access at home can further students’ academic achievement by allowing them to complete homework assignments; apply to colleges, trade schools, and jobs; and encourage participation in independent learning and developing digital skills.⁴³ The Biden-Harris administration’s Internet For All initiative devotes funding and resources to ensuring that all Americans have broadband internet access.⁴⁴ States should continue to utilize these resources to provide access for all students.

In an increasingly tech-driven world, schools must prioritize teaching digital literacy to engage students and help them develop 21st-century digital skills. However, even with the existing federal resources, many schools have inequitable opportunities to implement meaningful educational technology into their classrooms and need additional funding and guidance. Policymakers must recognize the importance of closing this divide to ensure an adequate supply of skilled workers as workforce demands change. Looking forward, policymakers must invest in equitable funding mechanisms that support the school districts most in need and consider how to best develop adaptive policies that allow educators and researchers to predict and prepare for technological advancements.

In 2017, there was a call to update the National Educational Technology Plan yearly,⁴⁵ rather than in the previous five-year cycle, to keep pace with the advancements seen in technology and education. Yet a new plan was not released until 2024, seven years later. To better guide educators’ and policymakers’ work, the Department of Education should prioritize more frequent updates to the NETP in collaboration with educators, researchers, and industry.

Technology will continue to grow at a rapid pace. Creating policies and processes that allow for proactive planning—rather than attempting to reactively catch up—is the best way to support educators in their work preparing students for college and careers.

The author would like to thank Sophia Applegate and Weadé James at the Center for American Progress for their valuable contributions to this brief.