{"title":"Variation in Broadband Access Among Undergraduate Populations Across the United States","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>Increasing numbers of students require internet access to pursue their undergraduate degrees, yet broadband access remains inequitable across student populations. Furthermore, surveys that currently show differences in access by student demographics or location typically do so at high levels of aggregation, thereby obscuring important variation between subpopulations within larger groups. Through the dual lenses of quantitative intersectionality and critical race spatial analysis alongside a QuantCrit approach, we use Bayesian multilevel regression and Census microdata to model variation in broadband access among undergraduate populations at deeper interactions of identity. We find substantive heterogeneity in student broadband access by gender, race, and place, including between typically aggregated subpopulations. Our findings speak to inequities in students’ geographies of opportunity and suggest a range of policy prescriptions at both the institutional and federal level.</p>","PeriodicalId":48200,"journal":{"name":"Research in Higher Education","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research in Higher Education","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Increasing numbers of students require internet access to pursue their undergraduate degrees, yet broadband access remains inequitable across student populations. Furthermore, surveys that currently show differences in access by student demographics or location typically do so at high levels of aggregation, thereby obscuring important variation between subpopulations within larger groups. Through the dual lenses of quantitative intersectionality and critical race spatial analysis alongside a QuantCrit approach, we use Bayesian multilevel regression and Census microdata to model variation in broadband access among undergraduate populations at deeper interactions of identity. We find substantive heterogeneity in student broadband access by gender, race, and place, including between typically aggregated subpopulations. Our findings speak to inequities in students’ geographies of opportunity and suggest a range of policy prescriptions at both the institutional and federal level.
期刊介绍:
Research in Higher Education publishes studies that examine issues pertaining to postsecondary education. The journal is open to studies using a wide range of methods, but has particular interest in studies that apply advanced quantitative research methods to issues in postsecondary education or address postsecondary education policy issues. Among the topics of interest to the journal are: access and retention; student success; equity; faculty issues; institutional productivity and assessment; postsecondary education governance; curriculum and instruction; state and federal higher education policy; and financing of postsecondary education. The journal encourages submissions from scholars in disciplines outside of higher education, and studies from outside the United States that address issues that are of interest to the readership. The journal will on occasion publish short notes of a methodological nature, literature reviews of topics pertaining to postsecondary research, and “research and practice” studies illustrating how postsecondary research can inform decision making.