Ensuring that students are college and career ready requires a robust and flexible learning infrastructure that provides access to the tools that help students deepen their content knowledge and build their skills. Since many of today’s learning tools are online, having consistent internet access is necessary for all students. As Terrance Ross wrote in the Atlantic in 2015, “Technology’s integration into nearly all aspects of education has made Internet connectivity, whether at home or school, essential for kids. Any student without access—namely connectivity that’s sufficiently fast—inevitably falls behind. While in the recent past having Internet access might have been necessary strictly for research purposes, these days many home assignments can only be completed via online software.”

A robust infrastructure for learning starts with an understanding of the goals and desired outcomes that support engaging and powerful digital learning experiences for students, and many schools and school districts take a first step in this work by collecting data to understand the struggles some students face with spotty or no internet connection at home. Although ubiquitous connectivity alone does not ensure transformational use of technology, lack of connectivity almost certainly precludes it. In addition, the infrastructure plan should help guide access to learning devices and high-quality learning content, which is designed to engage the learner and extend learning.