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System Failure? Teens Rate School Technology

System Failure? Teens Rate School Technology

Today's teens probably couldn't fathom the idea of sharing one school computer with 125 other students. Yet 20 years ago, that was the student-to-computer ratio in classrooms across the country. The reality for American teens today is a student-to-computer ratio of 3.8-to-1, with 99% of their schools wired to the Internet, and digital whiteboards rather than chalkboards gracing many classrooms. Yet despite these leaps forward in the availability of high-tech educational tools, teens seem less than ecstatic with the technology available at their schools.

Earlier this year, Gallup asked teens* to grade 1) their own schools overall, 2) the technology available at their schools, 3) the extracurricular activities available at school, and 4) the first teacher they had that morning (see "Pass or Fail? Teens Grade Their Schools" in Related Items). Twenty-eight percent of teens gave the technology available at their schools an A, 33% gave it a B, and 25% gave it a C. Eight percent of teens gave their schools' technology a D, and 5% gave it a failing grade. In general, teens gave higher ratings to their teachers and extracurricular activities than to their schools' technology.

Why don't teens give higher ratings to their schools' technology? A look at the teens who are less likely to give out top grades may offer clues.

Boys are slightly more apt than girls to give their schools' available technology an A -- 31% of boys did so, compared to 24% of girls. In the other school aspects evaluated in the teen poll, boys' and girls' responses differed little. Consequently, teen girls' reluctance to give As could reflect the well-documented gender gap in technology. Over the years, educational and entertainment software publishers alike have been harangued for gearing their products toward boys -- failing, for example, to include female characters for girls to identify with.

Younger teens (aged 13 to 15) are slightly more likely than older teens (aged 16 to 17) to give their schools' technology an A -- 31% compared to 23%. Again, this pattern does not hold when teens rated other aspects of their school. Expectations and technology needs change as students age (high school students are more likely to seek advanced computer science courses, for example); older teens' hesitancy to give As may reflect these changing needs.

Teens who said they do not regularly exercise or play sports, and those who are average or below average in school are less likely to give their schools' technology As than those who are above average in class standing. In some cases, then, teens' hesitancy to give their schools' technology the highest grade may reflect an overall lower engagement level with education rather than disappointment with specific elements.

Bottom Line

Many schools across the nation are facing budget crises, which have delayed system upgrades and the replacement of aging computers. Old computers will get even older, and with a lack of funds for maintenance, some classrooms may lose their computers altogether. Given teens' high expectations for available technology, the idea that they may find themselves needing to share computers with more students until the budget crises pass could make for significant consternation in classrooms across the country this fall.

*The Gallup Youth Survey is conducted via an Internet methodology provided by Knowledge Networks, using an online research panel that is designed to be representative of the entire U.S. population. The current questionnaire was completed by 1,200 respondents, aged 13 to 17, between Jan. 23-Feb. 10, 2003. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. For a complete description of the sampling and weighting procedures used to conduct the survey, click here .


Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/8923/System-Failure-Teens-Rate-School-Technology.aspx
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