Information and Communication Technologies and Academic Performance inHigh School in Colombia

This article studies the relationship between access to information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) and academic performance measured at the individual and municipal level in the areasof Language, Mathematics and English in Colombia between 2014 and 2016 using the results of theSaber 11 tests. At the individual level, we estimate a quantile regression model, while at the municipalitylevel, we perform a spatial analysis and estimate the causal effect by instrumental variables. Resultssuggest that, at the individual level, the correlation between access to ICT and academic performancevaries according to the type of student and the area of knowledge. At the municipality level, we foundthat, at an increase of one unit in the proportion of students with a computer, the municipality’s averageacademic performance increases by more than 5 standard deviations for language and mathematics andby more than 6 for English. The results suggest the need to execute policies that allow balancing theeffect of ICT between students with low and high academic performance.