District and school leaders continue to face some of the most complex challenges in recent history. The effects of the pandemic still loom large, impacting everything from student outcomes and performance to teacher shortages and funding.
Schools are getting creative in how they face and address these challenges through the use of emergency teaching licensures, partnerships with private entities, and tutoring toolkits. Many of the initiatives involve technology that districts and schools began using during the pandemic and have evolved to continue to turn complex challenges into opportunities.
Opportunity #1: Personalizing the path to intervention
Well before the pandemic, educators recognized the power of using technology to help meet the individual needs of students. But now, as students need support in one or more subjects, personalized learning is being seen as a non-negotiable by many educators. Now more than ever, teachers need better ways to pinpoint specific gaps to design individualized experiences and these interventions must have the flexibility to guide an individual student, a group of students or an entire class.
In Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, the district used a diagnostic assessment technology to identify gaps in math skills among fifth graders. While initially the assessments were provided in lieu of state tests that were canceled during the pandemic, educators quickly realized that the detailed student data they received was far more powerful than state testing alone—because it could inform real-time instructional decisions. Department leaders could see what skills students were missing and create individual plans for them to close those gaps, which led to accelerated progress that boosted student motivation.
Opportunity #2: Advancing equitable access and engagement
Over the past few years, the implementation of virtual and tech-enabled learning has soared. The increase in one-to-one device policies, as well as the use of educational apps and other technologies, is solidifying the reality of anytime, anywhere learning. Those investments are opening possibilities for districts and schools to provide more equitable access to students in a variety of environments and circumstances. From expanded course catalogs to flexible digital content, districts and schools are making more choices for where, when, and in which style students learn.
Rural schools are often leading the way in taking advantage of the benefit of virtual learning. In rural Wisconsin, Oconto Unified School District is using technology to expand what courses it offers students. School leaders in the district felt limited by geographic location—and educator capacity—to add more science, foreign language, and other elective classes. When the district partnered with an online education partner, it opened up a new set of options for students, helped the district maintain their enrollment, addressed family and community educational needs, and ensured Oconto Unified School District remained the school option of choice.
Opportunity #3: Supporting educator capacity
Teachers remain one of the most influential factors in student achievement. But educators across the country are feeling burnt out. In many areas, that stress is aggravated by teacher shortages that force educators to juggle increasing responsibilities.
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The right learning technology can help teachers focus on what they do best—teaching and connecting with their students. To find the right solutions, districts need to consider resources that increase teacher capacity, including supporting the daily work of educators through tools that blend in-person and tech-enabled learning experiences.
Digital curriculum that uses video can be a powerful tool to increase capacity. At Decatur City Schools in Alabama, teachers started using digital curricula to offer virtual and in-person learning options to students simultaneously. While that could feel like adding more to a teacher’s plate, it instead allowed teachers more freedom. Teachers were able to walk students through live instruction, and subsequently let students work independently using recorded videos. The flexibility gave students more choices in how they learned without overwhelming teachers with more work.
Opportunity #4: Investing in educator-focused innovation
As classrooms adopt more technology, the tools need to work together more. The technical term for this is interoperability. Too often, edtech is not built with teachers or the classroom in mind, forcing teachers to—on top of everything else they have to do—figure out how to connect information from one tool to another. Prioritizing the adoption of secure, easy-to-use tools that integrate to create a unified platform is essential for district and school leaders.
The educators at Mitchell Community Schools in Indiana understood the frustration of having too many platforms. Their educators used so many online learning tools that they found it difficult to gain expertise in one. It was also challenging for their educators to make decisions based on an overwhelming amount of data from numerous sources.
Educators pushed their leaders to find a simplified solution. Using simplification as a guiding principle, the district found a new online learning platform that could serve many roles. The switch made it easier for educators to see student progress and gaps and resulted in steady student academic growth.
The problems district and school leaders face today are complex. But with creative thinking and the right learning technology, they can find and seize the opportunities within those complex challenges.
