Home computers hurt kids' test scores.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the "digital divide" by guaranteeing universal access to homo computers and, in some cases, to high-speed Internet service. However, according to a study published by the National Bureau for Economic Research, these efforts actually would widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once technologies arrive in their home.

This study has several advantages over previous research that suggests similar results. The sample size was large--numbering more than 150,000 individual students. The data allows researchers to compare the same children's reading and math scores before and after they acquired a home computer, and to compare those scores to those of peers who had a home computer by fifth grade and to test .scores of students who never acquire a home computer. The negative effects on reading and math scores are "modest but significant," the researchers find.

"Adults may think of...