Enabling new forms of interaction between educators and students, and more effectively personalizing learning are among the potential benefits of AI, the agency says in its new report, “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations.” But the risks include a range of safety and privacy concerns and algorithmic bias.

Educators and policymakers should collaborate on the following principles:

1. Emphasize humans-in-the-loop: Educators and students can remain firmly at the center of AI if users treat edtech like an electric bike rather than a robot vacuum. On an electric bike, humans are fully aware and fully in control, and their efforts are multiplied by technological enhancement. Robot vacuums complete their tasks with little human involvement or oversight beyond activating the device.
2. Align AI models to a shared vision for education: The educational needs of students should be at the forefront of AI policies. “We especially call upon leaders to avoid romancing the magic of AI or only focusing on promising applications or outcomes, but instead to interrogate with a critical eye how AI-enabled systems and tools function in the educational environment,” the Department of Education says.
3. Design AI using modern learning principles: The first wave of adaptive edtech incorporated important principles such as sequencing instruction and giving students feedback. However, these systems were often deficit-based, focusing on the student’s weakest areas. “We must harness AI’s ability to sense and build upon learner strengths,” the Department of Education asserts.
4. Prioritize strengthening trust: There are concerns that AI will replace—rather than assist—teachers. Educators, students and their families need to be supported as they build trust in edtech. Otherwise, lingering distrust of AI could distract from innovation in tech-enabled teaching and learning.
5. Inform and involve educators: Another concern is that AI will lead to a loss of respect for educators and their skills just as the nation is experiencing teacher shortages and declining interest in the profession. To convince teachers they are valued, they must be involved in designing, developing, testing, improving, adopting, and managing AI-enabled edtech.
6. Focus R&D on addressing context and enhancing trust and safety: Edtech developers should focus design efforts on “the long tail of learning variability” to ensure large populations of students will benefit from AI’s ability to customize learning.
7. Develop education-specific guidelines and guardrails: Data privacy laws such as the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), the Children’s Internet Privacy Act (CIPA), and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) should be reviewed and updated in the context of advancing educational technology. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) could also be reevaluated as new accessibility technologies emerge.

More from DA: Why your fellow superintendents are facing more no-confidence votes

The post How should we teach with AI? The feds have 7 fresh edtech ideas appeared first on District Administration.

Eighth-graders have dropped 2 points on the NAEP civics assessment, which measures students’ knowledge of American government and opportunities to participate in civic activities, the National Center for Education Statistics announced Wednesday in the release of the latest Nation’s Report Card results. The test is based on a 0-300 scale, and eighth-graders’ scores fell from 153 in 2018 to 150 in 2022.

In 2022, only 22% of eighth-graders scored at or above proficiency in civics by demonstrating an understanding of the purpose of government, the separation of powers and “how the ideals expressed in the nation’s core documents may differ from reality,” among other concepts, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

More from DA: These are the best states for pre-K-12 education in 2023

This first-ever decline, in which the scores were not statistically significantly different from when the current version of the test was first conducted in 1998, raises alarms about students’ grasp of democratic principles and their chances of becoming “full participants in American democracy,” Carr said.

“Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship,” Carr said. “But far too many of our students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events. These results are a national concern.”

U.S. history slumps along with civics

The 13% of eighth-graders who scored at or above proficiency in U.S. history represent the lowest proficiency level of any subject assessed by the NAEP. In fact, four in 10 eighth-graders performed below the basic level as scores declined in all four of the test’s major themes—democracy, culture, technology and world role—saw declines in scores.

Meanwhile, fewer students reported taking classes mainly focused on U.S. history. Some 68% percent of eighth-graders reported taking a U.S. history class in 2022, compared to 72% in 2018.

NAEP’s U.S. history assessment, which also uses a 300-point scale, “measures students’ knowledge and understanding of U.S. history in all its complexity—its major themes, periods, events, people, ideas, and turning points,” the organization says. The history scores—except for those of the very top-performing students—have been dropping since 2014.

Here are more key findings from the eighth-grade civics and history assessments:

Civics

• Scores declined for both lower-performing and middle-performing students between 2018 and 2022. Scores did not change significantly for higher-performing students.
• There was no significant change in the average score for students in any racial or ethnic group compared to 2018.
• 31% of eighth-graders performed below the NAEP basic level in civics in 2022, compared to 27% in 2018.

History

• Scores were five points lower compared to 2018 and not statistically significantly different from the average score in 1994, when the first U.S. history assessment was given.
• Scores declined for students at the 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles between 2018 and 2022.
• Average scores for Black, Hispanic and white students declined from 2018 to 2022.

“Now is not the time for politicians to try to extract double-digit cuts to education funding, nor is it the time to limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.”

This latest report follows the largest-ever drops in math scores for 4th- and 8th-graders recorded by the Nation’s Report Card last fall. Reading scores plummeted since the 2019 assessment, falling to levels not recorded since 1992.

The post 8th-graders are failing to grasp how democracy works, report card shows appeared first on District Administration.

“The combined organization will harness the collective power of instruction and research-based insights to support educators in their efforts to drive better outcomes for students,” the companies said in a news release.

NWEA CEO Chris Minnich will join HMH’s executive leadership team as president of a new NWEA division, which will maintain its flagship assessment MAP Growth and other platform-agnostic assessment products. The deal will connect NWEA’s assessment insights with HMH’s curriculum products and districts should not experience any HMH or NWEA service disruptions, the companies explained.

More from DA: 3 districts, superintendents part ways as other leaders switch places

“We are deeply focused on the transformative power of education,” added Jack Lynch, CEO of HMH, which itself was acquired by Veritas Capital in April 2022. “We look forward to diving into our collective work in support of students and teachers.”

Proceeds from the acquisition will fund the creation of a new private foundation that will serve students and educators across the nation. The Oregon-based, yet-to-be-named organization will provide grants to schools, among other initiatives.

Today we celebrated the growth RVMS students made in their NWEA Math scores. Students who made growth were awarded their choice of a certificate for either a taco from Taco Bell or French fries from McDonalds!!WE ARE SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU! pic.twitter.com/28ZTSgExgH

— River Valley Middle School (@RVMS_Panthers) May 1, 2023

NWEA has released several influential reports on learning loss during the COVID pandemic. Its fall 2022 assessment data—from nearly 7 million 3rd and 8th-grade students—found the education system rebounding from achievement lows reached in spring 2021. Though students were still testing below pre-pandemic norms, math and reading scores continued to improve last fall.

Third-graders, who were in kindergarten at the onset of the pandemic, showed the largest declines in reading and the smallest rebounds. Ultimately, NWEA’s researched warned full academic recovery will take several more years.

The post Big K12 deal: Learning giant HMH is acquiring testing titan NWEA appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time:  Thursday, April 20 at 2 pm ET

Redefining Ready is a national initiative launched by the AASA that has introduced new metrics to determine if students are adequately prepared for college, career, and life, while creating a more comprehensive assessment of student performance than standardized testing provides.  

Many states and districts are using these metrics to create a new “Portrait of a Graduate” that uses a more student-centered, holistic model of academic and career success.  

Attend this webinar with Scott Carr, a school leader and consultant with over 30 years of experience in education, to learn more about these new measures of readiness, and some strategies for creating your district’s own Portrait of a Graduate.  

Topics will include:  

• What new measures of student success are defined by Redefining Ready 
• How to refocus your school district on addressing readiness gaps  
• How custom student support plans can be used to track student progress toward readiness goals 
• How to create your district’s “Portrait of a Graduate” that better defines future readiness

Speaker:

By submitting your contact information, you are agreeing to receive communication from Otus.

Sponsored by:

The post Creating a Portrait of a Graduate: New Measures of College, Career, and Life Readiness appeared first on District Administration.

Dr. Scott Muri, superintendent of Ector County Independent School District in Texas, leads one of the most innovative and transformative districts in the state, a journey he never thought he would embark on.

“One of the courses I took my freshman year in college was a seminar class and we were required to visit a teacher’s classroom at a local school,” he says. “I was matched with a seventh-grade gifted and talented teacher and I had to spend three hours a week in her classroom basically observing her. And that did it for me. I wanted to be her, so here I am. She was the inspiration.”

Muri arrived in Ector County ISD in 2019, and at the time it was among the lowest-performing districts in the state. The district, which serves around 33,500 students, 65% of whom live in poverty, had an 18% vacancy rate.

He set out to look, listen and learn from students and staff to better understand the challenges and opportunities that existed in the district. It was apparent to him that students were struggling academically, but his focus quickly became understanding why.

“The primary reason was the organization itself,” he says. “We were not staffed appropriately and we didn’t have human capital. On the first day of school in 2019, 356 teachers were not physically present. And we maintained an 18% vacancy rate that whole school year.”

Fortunately, that is no longer the case today. Muri’s strategic initiatives were recently showcased in a report titled, “Exploring New Frontiers For K-12 Systems Transformation.” UVA’s Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE) details real innovation efforts and leadership throughout the report that is taking place in districts across the country to inspire and drive further transformation, and Ector County ISD was one of the several model districts featured in the report.

Putting in the work

Upon his arrival to the district, they immediately began investing heavily in human capital.

“Everything from reorganizing our entire human capital department to thinking about all of the different investments that we needed to make to recruit, attract and retain the very best talent that we could for the students that we serve,” he says. “Human capital has been a huge part of our reorganization.”

He says there were several other inequities within the district that became clear upon evaluation, such as an inadequate pre-K program, insufficient meals for students, access to the internet and devices and a curriculum that wasn’t so rigorous. Now, all of those needs are being met, including free breakfast and lunch for every kid in the district regardless of financial status.

“The elements that help schools do their work effectively and efficiently were not in place,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot of energy putting those pieces in place.”

The final, and perhaps most important, area he sought to address was student learning. He says it’s crucial that students have the tools and resources necessary to learn in 2023, whether it’s through instructional technology or personalized learning strategies.

“The level of rigor is at a higher place than it was just three years ago because of the tools and resources that kids and teachers have access to,” he explains. “We have healthy professional learning communities. Our teachers talk to each other regularly. We have robust data systems and comprehensive assessments that our teachers use to gather information about kids and that informs the work that they do for students. Learning looks different today from what it looked like before.”

Bolstering the workforce

If you were to sit down with Dr. Muri, you would understand that he cares deeply about teacher effectiveness and how it impacts student outcomes.

“It’s the primary driver of student success,” he says. “We had kids who didn’t have a certified teacher for years. Not only did kids not have a teacher ‘today,’ but they spent their kindergarten, first- and second-grade years never having a teacher. I had substitute teachers year after year after year. And that’s horrific for learning, but that is not the case today. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy just thinking differently about human capital.”

But it’s not as easy as finding and hiring excellent teachers, he adds. To him, it’s all about cultivating and developing the teacher workforce within the district.

“Are we cultivating our students to become teachers,” he asks. “Are we developing the members of our community who should be our teachers? And the answer to that was no, we were not doing that effectively.”

Today, they’re doing exactly that. His district is one of three across the entire state that has the ability to license certified teachers. It also has students graduating from high school with an associate’s degree in education, and funds and individually coaches teachers to earn national board certification.

One of the most impactful strategic initiatives that have allowed his district to flourish with teachers is raising teacher pay, an issue that continues to plague many districts across the country.

“We’re the highest-paying district in the region,” he says. “We have teachers that have the ability to earn over $100,000 a year in our district. We actually have teachers that make more than administrators today, which as an administrator makes me smile greatly. When I hear an administrator say, ‘I need to leave administration to become a teacher so I can make more money,’ that makes me smile because that’s the way it should be.”

Do what you can’t

When he first arrived in 2019, he shared a Samsung commercial with his staff that depicts an ostrich trying its best to fly, but time and time again it fails. But eventually, it takes flight, and it’s unstoppable. From that commercial came the hashtag #DoWhatYouCant. And for Muri and his district, that’s been their framework for success.

“We used that theme in our very first year because there was a whole lot of, ‘We can’t do that. We can’t find enough teachers. Our kids can’t. We can’t. Our community can’t.’ The challenge that we issued ourselves was: We are going to do what we can’t. And so here we are three-and-a-half years later and we’re a B-rated district in Texas for the first time ever. We now have a 1% teacher vacancy rate. We’ve overcome a lot of the can’t’s and we’ve proven that we can, and we must continue to do that. But that hashtag, ‘do what you can’t’, has really challenged us today. I’m proud of our district because we can fly, and we’ve proven that we can.”

As for 2023 and beyond, his priorities are quite simple: to stay laser-focused on their strategic plan and to seek out new and innovative opportunities.

“A continued area of focus will be the evolution of our organization to make sure that we are always growing, improving and developing,” he says. “And ultimately, we want every kid that we serve to become highly successful. Until that happens, we should continue to evolve.”

More from DA: Leadership series: How this superintendent is helping educators become ‘less lame’

The post Leadership series: Six-figure teacher salaries? Yes, in this superintendent’s district appeared first on District Administration.

Here is where all 50 state school systems rank on these priorities based on graduation rates, access to resources, test scores, bullying-prevention programs and dozens of other data points crunched by Scholaroo, a college scholarship search platform.

Here are the top 10 overall, followed by the top 10 in each category:

1. New Jersey
2. New Hampshire
3. Vermont
4. Connecticut
5. Massachusetts
6. New York
7. Maine
8. Delaware
9. Pennsylvania
10. Virginia
11. Colorado

Student success

1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. New Hampshire
4. New Jersey
5. Maryland
6. Maine
7. Virginia
8. Vermont
9. Washington
10. Colorado

More from DA: Why you should let an edtech company live in your high school

Student safety

1. New Jersey
2. Colorado
3. Maine
4. Vermont
5. Ohio
6. New Hampshire
7. Delaware
8. South Dakota
9. Oregon
10. North Dakota

School quality

1. New Hampshire
2. Connecticut
3. Vermont
4. New York
5. New Jersey
6. Massachusetts
7. Delaware
8. Rhode Island
9. Pennsylvania
10. Virginia

The site also ranks state systems on bullying and dropout rates, math scores, spending per pupil, and student-teacher ratios.

The post How one college prep site rates your school system on 3 big priorities appeared first on District Administration.

This disconnect hinders the ability of schools and districts to improve, according to a new report by Mark A. Elgart, president and CEO of Cognia, a professional development and accreditation nonprofit. “Accreditation identifies what graduation rates, test scores, and other indicators cannot tell on their own—what takes place in the school that leads to its results,” Elgart notes. “However, state accountability and accreditation too often cross wires, leading to confusion or narrowing the scope of what can be explored.”

State-run accountability systems, of course, measure one-time indicators such as student achievement, growth, graduation rates, indicators of college and career readiness, and school climate, among other factors. Regional accreditors, on the other hand, evaluate how well schools and districts perform and where they fall short on large-scale school improvement initiatives, Elgar explains.

More from DA: Why DeSantis now wants to ban AP African-American Studies from schools

About 46,000 schools and districts in the U.S. and other countries are accredited by four regional organizations: the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, The Accrediting Commission for Schools Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and Cognia.

Where accountability collides with school accreditation

Elgart identified four areas where accreditation and accountability clash:

1. What’s in a name? Officials sometimes say a school has been “accredited” when it reaches state performance goals. Elgar calls the conflation of the terms confusing and counterproductive because accountability systems do not include rigorous, long-term peer reviews or collect enough evidence to identify the root causes of a school’s challenges.
2. Compulsory accreditation. Some states want all schools and districts to be peer-reviewed so the accreditation process will reveal steps for improvement. But compulsory accreditation does not work because “many schools are simply not ready or willing to invest time and effort in a rigorous process of self-reflection and peer review,” Elgar says.
3. Checklist accreditation. Fifteen states require accreditation through their departments of education, using a checklist of data points to determine which schools get more money for high performance or special attention to make improvements. But this “state accreditation” does not involve professional peer review or focus on improving quality and results. The results are therefore used primarily for budgetary purposes, Elgar says.
4. Legislating aspects of accreditation. Accreditation laws in some states emphasize test scores and financial management rather than student engagement and instructional quality. These regulations not only duplicate state accountability systems, but they also target schools for punishment without providing insight into the factors causing poor performance.

How to get the best of both systems

In five states—Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Utah—schools can qualify for state incentives by pursuing regional accreditation, which, in some cases, serves as a substitute for state requirements. Here are three more ways that Elgar says accountability and accreditation can work together to best serve schools and administrators:

1. Broaden the scope of information gathered. “Non-academic” factors—such as culture, the effectiveness of teaching and learning, quality of leadership, and student engagement—reveal as much about school performance as do tests and graduation rates. These measures can be benchmarked to determine progress and compare with other schools and districts.
2. Use assessments to guide improvements over time. Testing better reveals student achievement when results are tracked over a multi-year period. Interim assessments are particularly effective in helping teachers plan intervention and enrichment.
3. Identify new ways to support low-performing schools. Kentucky’s review process tracks such factors as instructional quality, curriculum design, leadership capacity, teacher morale, student advising, and community engagement. Low-performing public schools in Kentucky, for example, are reviewed by teams of outside experts who then work with school leaders to develop improvement plans. In North Dakota, a similar approach has bolstered the state’s efforts to improve the performance of its 517 schools and 227 districts.

The post Accountability and accreditation are not the same. Which is more important? appeared first on District Administration.

The revelations have drawn the ire of the state’s Republican leaders, who have launched a state investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools, the district in which the postponed notifications were initially discovered late last year at Thomas Jefferson High School, widely considered one of the nation’s top public high schools. Administrators in Loudoun County Public Schools and Prince William County Public Schools have acknowledged similar delays.

Some parents and politicians have said the withholding of PSAT scores prevented students from listing National Merit recognition on their college applications. Administrators have also been accused of equity-driven attempts to level the playing field for students who didn’t qualify for the scholarships at the expense of higher achievers.

The problem first surfaced at Fairfax’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which was recently ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. After several more high schools reported delays, Fairfax County schools Superintendent Michelle Reid apologized to the community and said the district is investigating the matter.

“Each and every student, their experience and success, remain our priority,” said Reid, the 2021 National Superintendent of the Year. “We understand and value the hard work and dedication of each and every student and the families and staff who support them.”

In ordering a state investigation, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin described the delays as “an egregious, deliberate attempt to disadvantage high-performing students at one of the best schools in the country.” In a statement, he said, “I believe this failure may have caused material harm to those students and their parents, and that this failure may have violated the Virginia Human Rights Act.”

Today I'm expanding my civil rights investigation into Thomas Jefferson High School's withholding of merit awards to include the Fairfax Public Schools system following reports that other schools failed to notify & recognize their qualifying students. https://t.co/OOvC2crpjn

— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) January 9, 2023

Administrators have blamed the delays on administrative errors, including, in Thomas Jefferson High School’s case, insufficient postage on a package of notifications that were sent to the school by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Apologies have also been issued by several Fairfax County principals, including Pamela Brumfield at Edison High School, Shawn DeRose at Annandale High School, Tanganyika Millard at West Potomac High School and Alfonso Smith at Lewis High School.

All sent a similar message to their districts, explaining that students were informed as soon as the problem came to light and staff members were also contacting the colleges to which the affected students applied. A Prince William County spokesperson acknowledged to 7News that National Merit notifications had been delayed at two of its 13 high schools.

Father-son first: Principal and entrepreneur will make history at 2023 FETC 

The post At least a dozen more Virginia high schools under fire for delaying National Merit awards appeared first on District Administration.

For more than 40 years, the Future of Education Technology^® Conference has equipped education leaders with knowledge of the newest state-of-the-art technologies and best practices through the voices of those on the front lines of innovation. With more than 700 sessions planned, the January 2023 conference in New Orleans will truly inspire and motivate those whose goal is to create a school environment that models success.

One presentation district leaders should certainly mark on their calendars will be given by Rick Surrency, superintendent of Putnam County Schools in Florida, who was recently recognized as the state’s superintendent of the year for 2023. At the conference, he will share his experience visiting schools across Finland, which he says dramatically changed his outlook on America’s education system. “I just think we need to take a second look at how we do education in the United States, and I think Finland gives us a good model to look at and take some lessons from,” he says.

“I went to Finland in May of 2022. I was supposed to go in March of 2020, and of course, you know what happened then. But I had the opportunity to go to Finland and tour their schools. And it was probably the most impactful journey of my life. It was the first time I’d been out of the United States. But I went over there with a team as part of the Fulbright Foundation. And we visited schools in Helsinki, and then we flew up to a place called Oulu where the teaching university is up in the northern part of Finland. But there were some big takeaways from that that I will share.”

During his visit, he says he realized we’ve got to change our perspective and uplift teachers in a way that gives them the respect they deserve.

“And I always share that we can’t just do it like the Finnish are doing, because they have some of the highest test scores in the entire world,” he explains. “Their kids have shown tremendous proficiency in reading, math and science. But what I want to do, and my whole purpose of this presentation, is to actually look at what we are doing in the United States through the eyes of the Finnish education system. And the number-one takeaway is we have got to show respect for our teachers. Over there, teachers are revered. They have a high degree of training. They’re required to have a master’s degree. Their teaching universities actually accept 10% of their applicants. I talked to a principal who had 150 applicants for one job. So it’s a completely different scenario over there.”

According to Surrency, the solution is clear—and that is to simply let teachers do their job. And most importantly, we should put more faith in our teachers’ ability to inform parents and administrators about the academic and emotional standing of their students, because they’re the ones in the classroom with them each day, not a standardized test.

“They have no standardized tests,” he says. “And when you ask someone how a student is doing—are they proficient, are they improving, or whatever—you ask the teacher. The teacher will tell you. It’s almost like a doctor giving you a diagnosis. And that’s the kind of respect they have for them. They don’t do observations or evaluations, because when they get in that classroom they know they are prepared. And of course, they do some perception data on the teachers if there’s an issue. But I was really taken aback by just how much they respect their teachers and the whole culture and atmosphere of their schools are just so conducive to learning.”

There are some fundamental differences regarding how students are treated in an academic setting, according to Surrency, which he also believes can mutually benefit both the teacher and the student.

“They really believe in free play,” he says regarding Finland’s elementary schools. “Every hour they go outside for 15 minutes and play. So play is really big. The big thing in high school is they take one exam once they leave high school, called the matriculation exam. And that determines whether they’re going to go into college or a career. So it’s just the fundamental differences that I will talk about and I think it really makes us take another look, especially after the pandemic. We have so many of these mental challenges that I think we’re imposing on ourselves. These standardized tests create so much stress for our kids. And sometimes I think it might be an insult to our teachers. Like, ‘We don’t believe what you tell us about a kid. We have to have some other kind of measure of accountability. And we’ve gotten to the point where we’re literally closing schools down if they don’t reach a certain plateau on student achievement.'”

View the details of Surrecny’s presentation here, or register for FETC 2023.

More from DA: Repeat attenders: Every year, this technology specialist leaves FETC with a “full and happy heart”

The post What Florida’s 2023 Superintendent of the Year will offer at FETC appeared first on District Administration.

As digital assessment grows, districts and schools face new expectations, challenges and opportunities. At its best, this type of assessment can be used to personalize how students demonstrate learning and express their knowledge. District leaders and educators can advance this goal by thoughtfully introducing ed-tech in the classroom.

With a few simple shifts that reduce stress and barriers, test scores can become representative of students’ knowledge, not their ability to use the technology.

Advantages and challenges of digital assessment

One big advantage of digital assessment is the opportunity to evaluate student learning in a manageable way. Online exams support student choice in how they express knowledge and enable individual expression of learning, particularly in competency-based education environments. Instead of having to assess these expressions by hand, teachers can save time through online assessment without sacrificing the accurate measurement of student progress.

The prevalence of digital assessment has, however, led to what researchers have named the “online penalty.” One large-scale study from 2019 showed that students who take digital exams sometimes perform as if they lost several months of learning. The effect disproportionately harmed students from low-income families, English language learners, and students with disabilities.

More from DA: Anne-Marie Imafidon wants to help K-12 educators make STEM HERstory 

The good news is researchers found this effect represents a learning curve that improves over time. In Massachusetts, students who experienced lower exam scores in the first year of online testing improved the following year. The challenge is that many students are still not comfortable with online assessment technology. In the 2022 Logitech and Education Week study, less than half of teachers said their students were “very comfortable” with the exam technology they use.

While the statistic is alarming, there are opportunities for district leaders to minimize the online effect while setting students up for success and improving learning outcomes long term.

Choose ed-tech that is designed for students

Edtech should enhance—not hinder—learning. The challenge is that many tools are not designed for education, pushing district leaders to repurpose existing technology that was designed for adults and make adaptations that frustrate students.

Administrators and teachers should consider the physical, cognitive, and emotional development of students. Development may impact how students sit, grip a stylus, the strength of their fingers to push buttons on a keyboard, the way they process classroom noise or even their willingness to ask for help if they’re struggling with certain technology.

This was the case in a rural district in Western New York. They adopted a rigorous, technology-supported curriculum. But on state assessments, middle school math students struggled to show what they knew on school-issued iPads.

Students tried writing answers to problems on their tablets using their fingers. Their answers were illegible to officials grading the standardized tests and this impacted student performance. When the district started using a stylus designed for education, students were able to more effectively demonstrate what they know.

In part because of this, and in combination with other efforts, fifth and sixth graders’ math scores rose to No. 1 in Western New York and the school’s overall state test ranking rose to 88 from 42 out of 96.

Allow for student choice and voice in the decision-making process

When the right ed-tech supports online exams, it can amplify the benefits of student-centered learning. Students who can choose tools that match their learning style are able to more authentically express their knowledge. Digital assessment can go beyond multiple choice and long-form answers to include gamification, creating with digital media, mind-mapping and other options that offer multiple ways to express knowledge.

Plus some tools, such as the styluses in the rural New York district mentioned above, can give students opportunities to clearly demonstrate competencies rather than their results being reflective of their ability to use the technology. The more administrators and teachers can create student agency with ed-tech, the more they will boost student engagement and confidence during assessments.

Increase professional development and training for teachers

While many districts are rapidly implementing assessment technology, most teachers receive little to no training on how to help their students use peripherals like mice and keyboards properly. One solution is to choose technology that is simple, intuitive and works out of the box.

Another solution is to adjust how teachers are provided training—but this isn’t as simple as just giving them more PD. Educators are already time-strapped. To make the best use of the time available, professional development should be scheduled, focused, collaborative and ongoing.

Administrators and leaders can best serve teachers by focusing on what they need to know. Intentionally embedding time for professional development into the school year calendar ensures that training doesn’t get squeezed into lunch or planning periods.

Beyond initial training, creating opportunities for collaborative and continued learning will help teachers become more comfortable with ed-tech. Technology coaches, teacher leaders or professional learning communities can give teachers built-in communities to learn from. Administrators can further reinforce training by scheduling follow-ups to ensure teachers can ask questions or get additional help weeks or even months after training sessions.

Providing more training for teachers, investing in technology designed for learners, and enabling student choice and voice are all steps that district leaders can take to reduce barriers and support positive assessment outcomes.

The post 3 helpful tips for district leaders to improve the power of digital assessment appeared first on District Administration.