FACT BRIEF

Has the pandemic aggravated 'the homework gap'?

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

By Jiyul Kim

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YES

The embrace of online learning forced by the pandemic is highlighting the disparity between U.S. households with good broadband service and those without. According to the Pew Research Center, a “homework gap,” with poor connectivity preventing students from engaging with school work, is particularly prevalent for students of color. One-fourth of Black teens are unable to complete their homework because they lack computer or internet access; 13% of white teens experience the same problem.

Pew reports that 21% of Black teens use public Wi-Fi to get their homework done. With the pandemic, access via alternatives such as libraries or other public venues is restricted, making it even harder to overcome the gap. That, along with other challenges in juggling work and school demands, has increased parents' worries that their children are falling behind.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Pew Research: US students face 'homework gap'

Education Trust: Parental concern demonstrates inequity in school closures

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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.