Broadband Access and Standardized Test Scores: A Causal Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v12i4.5449Keywords:
Broadband, Education, Inequity, Internet accessAbstract
This paper examines the relationship between broadband speed and access and student performance. I use internet access data published by the FCC, internet speed data provided by Speedtest, and a rich dataset of NY State standardized test scores. My empirical strategy exploits plausible variation in broadband access among NY counties driven by the New NY Broadband Program to test if counties that received increased broadband access also had an increase in standardized test scores. I also test for any correlation between broadband speed and test scores. My Differences in Differences framework finds no evidence of a causal relationship between broadband access and test scores. Given the mixed consensus of broadband's effect on student performance, more research is needed on a larger scale to understand broadband's role in education.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Andrew Shah; Rafael Jimenez-Duran
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