RALEIGH — The COVID-19 outbreak is exacerbating the digital divide — the “have and have nots” of  communication technologies — and it’s hitting the underserved and minority school districts the hardest.

Those are the latest findings from a new analysis by Raleigh edtech startup LearnPlatform released today.

To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the digital learning equity gap, the analysis compares a district’s baseline pre-COVID-19 edtech usage against data collected after school closures on student and teacher access and engagement levels.

The report’s key findings include:

  • The digital learning equity gap increased in all districts: All districts witnessed a decrease in students with access to technology coupled with an increase in engagement for students with access. However, for districts with 40 percent or higher populations of Black and Hispanic students, or free/reduced lunch populations, the user decline was disproportionately higher and engagement levels were less than their peers.
  • Higher-minority districts experienced 121 percent higher equity gap: Districts with 40 percent or higher populations of Black and Hispanic students witnessed dramatic within-district increases in their digital learning equity gap as a result of COVID 19. In these districts, the compounded impact of access and engagement was more than double that of districts with less than 40 percent students of color.
  • Less affluent districts experienced 33 percent higher equity gap: Districts where more than 40 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch also saw a larger learning equity gap, with these districts witnessing a 64 percent increase in the equity gap as a result of COVID-19, compared to a 48 percent learning equity gap in wealthier districts.

“If student learning is the goal, understanding student access to devices and broadband is important, but insufficient,” said Daniel Stanhope, PhD, Vice President of Research & Analytics for LearnPlatform, in a statement. “Knowing this, districts and states must go beyond ensuring access to supporting student engagement with high-quality digital learning tools, so all students continue to learn, even in challenging times.”

LearnPlatform, launched in 2015, offers a SaaS (software-as-a-service) learning platform that equips school districts, states and their partners to organize, streamline and analyze their edtech interventions. It is now available in 20 states and used by an estimated 240,000 educators.

This digital learning equity gap is calculated by combining the gap in access to the level of per student engagement with digital learning materials. This is then adjusted by an “impact factor” that relates student engagement with projected learning outcomes based on an analysis of hundreds of rapid-cycle evaluations conducted by districts on LearnPlatform.

This analysis quantifies the number of both student and teacher users and the amount of engagement with digital learning materials across more than 7,000 education technology tools — whether accessed at school or through remote learning — before, during and after school closures this spring.

To access the full report, go here.