K-12 technology leaders across the U.S. this year stepped up cybersecurity measures at school but lost ground in providing high-speed Internet access to students outside the classroom, according to an annual report by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
CoSN’s 2024 State of EdTech District Leadership Report, released this week, noted that the use of two-factor authentication increased to 72 percent this year from 40 percent in 2022, as school CIOs and other ed-tech leaders overwhelmingly indicated that data protection remains their top concern. At the same time, however, 31 percent of those surveyed said their district no longer supports efforts to provide home broadband access to students, compared to only 19 percent that provided that response two years ago. And during the same two-year period, the number of districts providing hot spots to unconnected students declined from 69 percent to 49 percent.
The survey, now in its 11th year, fielded responses from 981 school IT leaders between Jan. 10 and Feb. 29. The 55-page summary was released April 30. Even though a prior survey was completed in 2023, some findings are presented in comparison to the 2022 report.
