Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2000. Statistics in Brief.

Since 1994, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has surveyed public schools to measure what proportion of them is connected to the Internet. In the fall of each academic year, a new nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 public schools has been surveyed about Internet access and, since 1996, about the types of Internet connections used. In 2000, questions were also asked about access to the Internet at times outside of regular school hours and on acceptable use policies. By the fall of 2000, almost all public schools in the United States had access to the Internet: 98% were connected. In comparison, 35% of public schools had access to the Internet in 1994. The increase in Internet access over the years may have been aided by the allocation of funds through the Education rate (E-rate) program. Another key measure of Internet access in schools is the proportion of instructional rooms connected to the Internet; this percentage increased between 1999 and 2000. The ratio of students to instructional computers in public school had decreased to 5 to 1, the ratio that many experts consider a "reasonable level" for effective use. The ratio of student to instructional computers with Internet access in public schools improved from 9 to 1 in 1999 to 7 to 1 in 2000. In 1996, dial-up Internet connections were used by almost three-fourths (74%) of public schools having Internet access; by 2000, schools tended to use faster dedicated-line Internet connections. In 2000, 54% of public schools with access to the Internet reported that computers with Internet access were available to students outside of regular school hours. Almost all public schools with Internet access had acceptable use policies in 2000, and used various technologies or procedures, such as blocking or filtering software, an intranet system, honor codes for students, or teacher/staff monitoring to control student access to inappropriate material on the Internet. An appendix contains standard error tables. (AEF)