The Impact of Broadband Speeds on Academic Performance: Evidence from New York Zip Codes

Abstract

In recent years, many K-12 schools in the U.S. are transitioning their curricula to incorporate virtual learning and flipped classroom models. Thus, access to high-speed internet is becoming increasingly important in the educational setting. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified this importance, forcing many students to learn remotely. At the same time, broadband access is unequal across racial and socioeconomic groups, resulting in a digital divide or homework gap. The growing role of the internet in education motivates my thesis research question: how do home broadband speeds relate to academic performance? Looking at New York schools in the 2018-2019 academic year, I use empirical regression models to explore the relationship between advertised broadband speeds with state assessment English Language Arts (ELA) scores, Math scores, and graduation rates. I also compare this data across student subgroups, and with 2020-2021 data to see how test scores and graduation rates changed between pre- and post-pandemic. My main finding is that on average, higher broadband speeds are associated with small but negative and statistically significant changes in test scores and graduation rates. This finding supports previous studies that find either no effect or modest negative effects of broadband on academic performance. While faster internet may aid student learning, these positive gains can be outweighed by negative effects such as excessive social media use, gaming, and streaming, which might contextualize our results.