Lightspeed Systems Offers New Module to Assess Students’ Off-Campus Internet Connectivity

Lightspeed Systems’ new ‘Digital Equity’ module provides actionable insight into students’ internet connectivity and school-issued device health when learning outside of school  

AUSTIN, TX (May 2, 2023) – Lightspeed Systems, the leader in safe, secure and equitable education technology, announces Digital Equity—a module that provides robust and real-time connectivity and device health data on students’ school-issued devices. Digital Equity helps school and district leaders understand the challenges students experience while trying to study outside of school so they can ensure all students stay connected to learning.

According to the 2022 Student Home Connectivity Study from the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), gaps remain nationwide in network performance and internet speeds at all grade levels for students connecting from outside a school, with approximately one-third of high school students experiencing “Far Below” or “Below Guidelines” for connectivity from home. In addition, large disparities exist among student subgroups, particularly by ethnicity and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Empowering school and district leaders, Digital Equity provides a complete, real-time view of each student’s school-issued devices, including a device’s overall health, operating system, internet speed, service provider and more. Leaders can drill-down into specific data on each individual student and their devices, as well as view overall district-wide usage to help identify local communities that need additional support and resources. Digital Equity is customizable, giving leaders the option to turn on specific data and usage stats.

“Lightspeed Systems’ Digital Equity will help us bridge the digital divide in the communities that our schools serve, ensuring we determine which students need additional resources, like hotspots and more,” said Eric Hileman, Executive Director of IT for Oklahoma City Public Schools, and a Lightspeed client and Digital Equity beta user. “Ensuring each one of our students has consistent access to the internet after school is paramount to our teaching and learning goals.”

The insights from Digital Equity help leaders:

• Identify students experiencing poor or no internet connection outside of school without waiting for an IT ticket, relying on self-reporting or annual family surveys.
• Address issues in real-time and save time troubleshooting school-issued devices with student-level data, including internet speeds at home, service providers and more.
• Make data-informed decisions to ensure all students have access to adequate digital tools and broadband internet through introducing large-scale solutions such as hotspots, Wi-Fi enabled community centers and more.

“Access to the internet outside of school provides more equitable opportunity for all students to achieve academic success,” said Brook McShane Bock, Chief Product Officer at Lightspeed Systems. “Lightspeed’s new Digital Equity module allows districts to proactively address student-specific issues in real-time. In the past, that information was collected once or twice a year via surveys, leaving students without proper access to educational resources during much of the year. This is a huge step in leveling the playing field for so many students.”

An extension of Lightspeed Digital Insight, the Digital Equity module takes the guesswork out of understanding how students are using digital tools off-campus.

Built with data privacy and security in mind, Lightspeed Systems is committed to the Student Data Privacy Pledge and in compliance with the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

To learn more about Lightspeed Systems’ Digital Equity module or to request a demo, please visit https://www.lightspeedsystems.com/products/digital-equity.

About Lightspeed Systems

Lightspeed Systems is dedicated to providing K–12 districts time-saving solutions to create safe, secure and equitable education, so they focus where it matters most—students and learning. Lightspeed provides cloud-managed solutions: Security & Compliance, Safety & Wellness and Engagement & Impact, purpose-built for school networks and devices. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Lightspeed serves more than 20 million students using 11 million devices in 28,000 schools throughout 39 countries. To learn more, visit https://www.lightspeedsystems.com.