Title of Study:  National Broadband Plan:  National Purposes Update

Author(s): FCC Broadband Taskforce

Summary:
This report sets out a plan to develop and use broadband infrastructure to support education, health care, public safety and homeland security, civic participation and workforce training among other national interests.  Recommendations in the education sector focus on supporting and promoting online learning, unlocking the power of educational data and improving transparency, and modernizing educational broadband infrastructure by updating and strengthening the E-rate program.

Sponsoring entity(s): Federal Communications Commission

Date conducted: 2010

Location of the study: This report summary can be accessed through the FCC broadband website.  

Setting(s) addressed:

• Classroom
• Online learning

Targeted population(s):

• K-12
• Community College

Primary sources of evidence used in the study or report:

• Literature review
• Interviews with experts
• Responses to a public notice

Primary Technology Application(s) Addressed:

• Broadband infrastructure

Major education topic(s) addressed:

• Internet
• Online education

Major findings/conclusions:

• Broadband infrastructure in support of online learning offers great promise in expanding instruction beyond the physical classroom and beyond the traditional school day.
• Online learning blended with in-person instruction can reduce the time required to learn a subject and increase course completion rates.  Some online programs have improved student achievement on standardized tests and helped reduce dropout rates.
• Most districts have a patchwork of non-interoperable data systems, and only 37% of teachers have electronic access to student achievement data.
• Both the demand for bandwidth and the need for infrastructure upgrades in schools is expected to rise.  However, E-rate funding, which supports both of these is already over-subscribed.

Practical implications of the findings:

• Recommendations are made to remove barriers to online learning such as a limited pool of high quality educational content, difficulty obtaining course credit for online courses, lack of reciprocal licensing of teachers between states, and limited digital literacy skills among teachers and students.
• Recommendations are made to encourage the adoption of standards for educational data systems.
• Recommendations are made to streamline the E-rate application process, raise the cap on E-rate funding to account for inflation, give schools and libraries more flexibility to purchase the lowest-cost broadband option, support pilot programs of wireless educational networks, make funding for upgrading internal connections available to more schools, remove barriers to adult education and community use of E-rate funded resources after school hours and improve connectivity of community colleges.

Reviewer Comments:
The full National Broadband Plan will be available for download at www.broadband.gov on March 17, 2010.