The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recently released two new resources for local educational agencies to support stronger procurement processes and use of high-quality education technology, or edtech.
Through the EdTech Quality Collaborative — organizations with distinct expertise working together to address challenges LEAs face in assessing edtech quality amid a rapidly evolving landscape — five edtech quality indicators have been developed that researchers say can help to support smarter procurement and implementation decisions.
These five indicators are meant to help LEAs determine if edtech is:
- Safe: Edtech products must establish robust data privacy and security measures to protect student and educator data and safeguard against unauthorized access or data breaches by adhering to industry standards and laws to create a secure learning environment and only collecting necessary data. To ensure transparency, users understand which data are collected for what purpose.
- Evidence-based: Design, implementation and claims of effectiveness need to be grounded in rigorous research and evidence-based practices as specified by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Tiers of Evidence, and providers should engage in research-driven design, empirical validation, demonstrated effectiveness and alignment with established educational standards.
- Inclusive: Edtech products must prioritize accessibility, inclusivity and equitable design to ensure they are acceptable to learners from diverse backgrounds and with a broad range of learner variability. This also includes not promoting existing stereotypes, creating new ones or preventing students from acquiring accurate information because of biased algorithms.
- Usable: Products should be easy to use for both educators and students to ensure a seamless digital experience.
- Interoperable: Edtech products must seamlessly connect to other technologies within a school’s digital ecosystem, which can be accomplished by adhering to established interoperability standards that ensure secure exchange and allow for the aggregation of data to inform instruction and personalize learning.
SETDA’s new guidance — “Easing the Burden on Schools: Integrating the Five EdTech Quality Indicators Into State Procurement Processes” — relies on these five indicators to provide a framework for LEAs assessing and selecting products that meet educational needs while ensuring compliance. The resource includes recommendations for integrating these indicators into state procurement processes.
The “K-12 EdTech Quality Action Toolkit: Empowering Leaders to Further Leverage the Five EdTech Quality Indicators” encourages use of the indicators in various contexts outside of procurement processes, including communication strategy, professional learning and product marketing.
