Digital Divide: Low-Income Students and Online Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused national disruption amongst all learners. Specifically, in elementary schools, education systems are met with the new concept of remote learning and have scrambled to meet the needs of their students. For low-income students, the pandemic has clearly displayed disparities in education between economically advantaged and disadvantaged students. This report attempts to gain a better understanding of what unique challenges students that are attending a low-income school face and how teachers can better support these students. Field observation notes were collected from six 4th grade participants. The findings from this study are significant to the field of education as they shed light on the obstacles low-income students face in midst of a global pandemic.