The EdTech Challenges Faced By Immigrant Students Infographic

The EdTech Challenges Faced By Immigrant Students Infographic

Despite sizable challenges in technology and internet access and experience, immigrant Hispanic families are among the most likely to prioritize technology purchases that will support their children’s education, according to a new survey.

Although technology’s presence is growing in classrooms, students from lower-income families often face connectivity and access challenges at home. What’s more, Hispanic families headed by immigrant parents face even steeper challenges, according to research from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

Access is still a troubling issue among this group. Families headed by immigrant Hispanics are less likely to have a broadband internet connection or own devices that connect to broadband internet–just 35 percent of immigrant Hispanic families have broadband access and only 63 percent own a computer.

The research also shows that 43 percent of immigrant Hispanic parents purchased their most recent devices for their children’s education, compared with 30 percent of U.S.-born Hispanic parents, 23 percent of white parents, and 18 percent of black parents.

The data could indicate that immigrant Hispanic parents see technology as critical when it comes to increasing their children’s opportunities, because these parents are more likely to have limited education and income and are less likely to have lived in the U.S. for a long time.

Overall, 20 percent of surveyed parents of immigrant Hispanic families do not go online at all–not at home, not at work, and not in the community. This is in contrast with 4 percent of white parents, 4 percent of U.S.-born Hispanic parents, and 2 percent of black parents.

In 44 percent of immigrant Hispanic families, the parents do not use computers, compared to 19 percent of parents in U.S.-born Hispanic families, 17 percent of parents in black families, and 17 percent of parents in white families.