I was an evaluator for a nonprofit that provides student support services to Chicago high schools. Whenever I made my initial rounds at a school, a quick peek at its technological resources was often a reliable predictor of its ability to meet students’ broad needs. The differences in the quality and volume of computing labs at a school like Lincoln Park High School on Chicago’s wealthy north side, where the local population is 75% white, versus Raby High School, located in economically distressed East Garfield Park which is 83% Black, were stark.
In addition to having a broad, updated fleet of technology, Lincoln Park High School has a robust slate of computer science classes and a coveted International Baccalaureate program for academically gifted students. A 2013 plan under former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to make Raby High School a high-tech STEM school never quite took flight, with the school today having a modest lineup of computing resources and just a couple of tech-oriented courses.
Students in communities like East Garfield Park typically receive a poorer-quality education and graduate at lower rates than their peers in high-income communities. Sociologists like me typically attribute this to the combined effects of segregation and community disinvestment. And it doesn’t help that educators in Title 1 schools are consistently underpaid, under-supported, and undertrained. And it’s not just an urban issue. Rural schools, long America’s most technologically disconnected, are under threat of being left behind, too.
