Student Achievement in Four Urban School Districts: Impact of Information Technology

The purpose of this study was to explore diffusion of information technology (IT) infrastructure and high school student achievement in four urban school districts. The study sought to address any significant correlations between student achievement and information technology infrastructure funding. The study used the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores from 94 school districts and statistics from the E-Rate program (IT infrastructure funding) to discern any relationships. The ACT and SAT were used because they are standardized tests used by all school districts across the U.S. The E-Rate program is a federal program that allocates billions of dollars each year to urban school districts to alleviate the disparity between poor and affluent school districts related to access to the Internet (Arfstrom & Sechler, 2006). The influx of E-Rate funds is evaluated in terms of IT diffusion in these schools and the resulting impact on student achievement. Other moderating factors such as school size, student to teacher ratio, number of students tested, and dropout rate were analyzed. Research observations revealed there was a positive impact of E-Rate funds on student achievement and on the achievement gap between urban impoverished and affluent school districts. .