National K-12 Broadband Inventory
In order to make effective decisions in upgrading every
school to a high-speed Internet connection, administrators and policymakers
must first understand the state of Internet infrastructure in schools today. Unfortunately,
there are currently no state or national databases of Internet access in the
classroom (see The Broadband Information Gap). This critical information must be collected first before we can form
evidence-based plans for funding and implementing state or nation-wide
upgrades.
The SchoolSpeedTest is being used by K-12 schools around the country to create a database of the available bandwidth in America's classrooms. The online application measures the available bandwidth in the classroom for digital learning and other network-centric applications. The test is easy. Any student, teacher, or other person on a school network can test their school's internet by simply visiting www.SchoolSpeedTest.org, entering the name of their school, and clicking start. The test takes about one minute and will collect upload speed, download speed, and the browser/operating system type of the device being used to take the test. Once complete, the National SchoolSpeedTest will enable policy makers at the district, state, and federal levels to identify which schools require an upgrade to their Internet infrastructure, allocate resources effectively, and ensure every teacher and student has adequate Internet access. |
"One of the things teachers, principals, & students can do across the country...is go to SchoolSpeedTest.org...and help build the national data. It gives us a really good picture of where the areas of strength are and areas of weakness are so we can collectively – across the public and private sector – actually take action to make sure that all students, all teachers have access to the broadband that they need to unlock these kinds of digital learning experiences that so many folks...have pioneered.” |
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