This three-page article reviews a very small study on the self-reported perspectives of African-American teenagers attending high school and middle school in Raleigh, North Carolina. There were 41 study participants, with a reported average of four per school, but, according to the study, 45 percent were in middle school, which would indicate that 20 attended the single middle school in the study, and the balance were high school students attending seven different high schools, for an average of 3 per school. Only four students (10 percent) were seniors.

According to the author, student “views regarding college, intended major, family education, and role models ... are proven to play a critical role in the educational endeavors and experiences of minority students.” A focus group session reported no problems with computer access. Students reported wanting mentors, and sought professional career advice.

This small study is statistically meaningless, and the summary report is flawed in several analyses. For example, the percentages of students who named information services or information technology (IS/IT) and engineering as “probable courses of study” are reported, but are not compared to those reported in other studies of high school students, or to actual enrollment figures. Students were asked about various online activities, but, strangely, programming was not reported as an activity they were asked about.

Finally, the article contains no discussion of the major studies done by either the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) or the Benton Foundation concerning digital divide issues, and no discussion of how this study reflects on those significant works. The latest of these studies is in “A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet” (Washington, D.C., February 2002), available for free download from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/index.html.

There is a wealth of new data on the topics addressed by the original digital divide report of 1999. A simple Web search will turn up important updated information, and a clearinghouse is available at www.digitaldivide.org. This article, however, includes no discussion of pending congressional legislation to address the issue, most directly the Senate’s approval of the “Minority-Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act of 2003,” which would directly impact the surveyed population.

Nevertheless, this article should serve as a wake up call to academics in computer science (CS), IT, and IS. There is a definite need for more research in this area, and Payton is to be applauded for beginning the process. We all should be looking forward to the substantial research I hope will be conducted in the coming years.