Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2002, Volume8

Issue 2

151 pages

Issue price - $42.00

Gary G. Huang
AmcrSino Group, 9515 Kings Grant Road, Laurel MD, 20723

Jianxia Du
Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

Analyzing data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to 1992, this report examines how computer use produces generic benefit to all children and differential benefits to minority and poor children. Specifically, the authors examined computer use at home vis-a-vis computer use at school in relation to the academic performance of disadvantaged children and their peers (defined by race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status). Home computer use typifies socially differentiated opportunities, whereas school computer use promises generic benefits for all children. The findings suggest that with other relevant conditions constant, (a) disadvantaged children did not lag far behind their peers in computer use at school, but they were much less likely to use computers at home; (b) computer use at home was far more significant than computer use at school in relation to high academic performance; (c) wing a computer at school seemed to have dubious effects on learning—taking computer science courses at school related consistently to low performance far both disadvantaged children and their peers, (d) disadvantaged children benefited less than other children from computer use, including computer use at home; and (e) compared to their peers, disadvantaged children's academic performance seemed less predictable by computer use and other predictor variables.

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