Hawaiʻi Ranked No. 1 in School Internet Connectivity

A 2016 State of the States annual report released by EducationSuperHighway, ranked Hawaiʻi’s public school system as the top ranked school district in K-12 broadband connectivity.

The report showed that between 2010 and 2015, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education increased its broadband at schools from 0.3 gigabytes/second to 8.0 gigabytes/second.

Big Island Now file photo. Nov. 2016

“In 2014 we accomplished our goal to deliver Wi-Fi to all public schools statewide, which was a huge undertaking by our Office of Information Technology Services and Office of School Facilities and Support Services,” said Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi. “The work of our teams have paid off and we’re very proud to be recognized as number one in the country for our Wi-Fi connectivity.”

“Having access to the Internet allows our teachers to enhance classroom lessons and gives our students vast digital learning resources that make learning an interactive, hands-on activity. Complete connectivity is a large step forward towards 21st Century Learning initiatives and preparing our students for college and careers,” added Superintendent Matayoshi.

Hawaiʻi’s national No. 1 ranking is based on full 100% scores in the report’s four criteria:

·        Connectivity, reflecting the percentage of school districts meeting 100 kbps per student
·        Fiber, reflecting the percentage of schools with fiber optic connections needed to meet bandwidth targets
·        Wi-Fi, reflecting the percentage of school districts reporting sufficient Wi-Fi in all classrooms
·        Affordability, the percentage of school districts maximizing their bandwidth within set budgets

EducationSuperHighway is a non-profit advocacy group focused on providing equal access to high-speed broadband for all K-12 public school students.