Electronic Connections and Equal Opportunities

Data collected from the Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1995 survey (National Center for Education Statistics, 1996) were used to examine differences in access to wide-area networks by ethnic or racial identity and socioeconomic status. The aim of this research is to provide a current picture of the equality of available educational opportunities as measured by access to technologies important to this age. This research also demonstrates the strength of the claim that access to educational resources and tools are dependent on race or class membership. In addition, abbreviated data from similar surveys conducted in 1996 and 1997 show that although progress has been made in public schools regardless of their economic or racial enrollments, the actual gaps between the “haves” and “have-nots” are either narrowing only slightly or in some cases widening to an alarming degree. This article is guided and informed by seminal work of the 1960s, therefore, the research questions, hypotheses, and expected outcomes are posited in the framework offered by Equality of Educational Opportunity (Coleman, 1966).