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Variation in Broadband Access Among Undergraduate Populations Across the United States

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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.

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Notes

  1. Throughout this paper, we use the term Hispanic when discussing our findings as it is the pan-ethnic group label assigned by the United States Census. We note, however, that the term is neither without contention nor is perfectly aligned with other categories like Latino/a/e/x, especially among higher education students (Salinas & Lozano, 2017). Therefore, we use the term Latinx when discussing this population more generally as distinct from when we are using data from the Census

  2. In 2010, the FCC defined broadband as service with minimum download speeds of at least 4 Mbps (megabits/sec). In 2015, the minimum speed required to meet the definition of broadband was 25 Mbps

  3. Using IPUMS variables: GRADEATT == 6 & EDUC>= 6

  4. In each year of data, the Census instrument specifically asks “What is Person X’s sex?” and gives two options, Male and Female, with instructions to “Mark (X) ONE box.” There is not a separate question about gender identity to distinguish. We make two notes. First, we cannot distinguish different interpretations—e.g., biological versus gender identity—of this question among respondents. Second, respondents considering gender were given a limited choice set of gender identities without an option to write in another answer. We use the term gender throughout the paper to describe the binary option set, noting the limitations inherent in the data

  5. See https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/HISPAN#description_section

  6. See https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/RACE#editing_procedure_section for more information on how the U.S. Census creates and assigns racial/ethnic categories to Census respondents

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  1. University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

    Benjamin Skinner & Hazel Levy

  2. Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

    Taylor Burtch

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Table 1 Overall estimates of broadband access by race/ethnicity
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Table 2 Estimates of broadband access by race/ethnicity: men
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Table 3 Estimates of broadband access by race/ethnicity: women
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Table 4 Estimates of in-home broadband access for Hispanic populations in California, Florida, and Texas
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Table 5 Estimates of mobile only broadband access for Hispanic populations in California, Florida, and Texas
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Skinner, B., Burtch, T. & Levy, H. Variation in Broadband Access Among Undergraduate Populations Across the United States. Res High Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w

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