Overview
No matter the scale of change, the first step in charting a course forward is understanding where you are starting. The EdTech Systems Guide, created in partnership between The Learning Accelerator (TLA) and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Educational Technology (MA DESE OET), establishes a vision for equitable edtech systems meant to serve as a north star for schools and school systems aiming to develop and strengthen system-wide edtech practices. However, before school- and system-level edtech leaders can apply the principles of the guide to their system improvement, they must know where they are starting – regarding both the tools (i.e., hardware and software) deployed across their systems and the systems-level conditions and practices supporting and surrounding edtech.
This strategy provides school- and system-level edtech leaders with a step-by-step process for auditing their edtech practices against the vision established in the EdTech Systems Guide. Engaging in this process helps leaders understand the starting point from which they can chart a course toward improvement.
Before You Begin: Understanding what we mean by equitable edtech systems. We believe that unlocking the potential of edtech systems to promote equity requires intentional selection, implementation, and evaluation processes that:
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Process
This self-assessment mirrors the structure of the EdTech Systems Guide, distilling concepts into a series of statements about a system’s edtech practices. Using a modified version of the Stoplight Protocol from DataWise, the self-assessment asks leaders to indicate how consistently you engage in each practice and provides space to add evidence to support your ratings or to capture reflections.
The process below will help ensure that your self-assessment ratings are accurate and reflect your edtech systems holistically.
Gather Input from Stakeholders
You must gather your stakeholders' perspectives and insights to understand your edtech systems, processes, and practices. Below are two tools to help collect stakeholder insights to inform your ratings on the self-assessment:
Survey: This survey adapts the practices listed in the self-assessment and asks users to rate the likelihood or their confidence that each practice occurs within your edtech systems. Circulate a copy of this survey to your stakeholders or use this template to build and distribute a survey using your preferred survey platform (e.g., Qualtrics, Survey Monkey).
Virtual worksheet: Alternatively, you may distribute copies of this virtual worksheet asking stakeholders to individually assign ratings to each of the self-assessment’s statements.
You may use these tools to engage diverse stakeholders, but it is important to note that they focus on systems-level practices. Ideally, a system’s edtech leadership team should utilize this tool. If you have not yet assembled a team to help drive your edtech systems, consider doing so before you complete your edtech systems audit. Some stakeholders (e.g., students, classroom teachers) may need more relevant information to provide ratings for each practice. This level of differentiation is perfectly acceptable – and their perspectives are valuable. However, if you choose to distribute these tools to individuals less familiar with systems-level practices, you may need to provide additional support or a reminder for respondents that it is okay to select “I am unsure” or “This does not apply to my role.”
Complete Your Self-Assessment
Follow the directions on the first tab of this spreadsheet to complete your self-assessment, synthesizing your stakeholders’ input alongside your own reflections. Using the tab labeled “Assessment #1,” consider each practice statement and rate yourself based on how consistently you engage in each practice. This tool also provides an option to select “We aren’t sure if we do this.” It is okay to select this option; however, it highlights a need to seek out additional information about these practices.
Make Meaning
The final step of the self-assessment prompts you to look for patterns and trends within your ratings to identify areas for focused improvement efforts. As you evaluate how your ratings cluster to understand specific challenges, consider the following:
For areas where “We are not sure if we do this” comes up often: Who within your school or system can provide more information about your system’s processes for the related statements? What sources of information or data would you need to give a more accurate rating for these practices?
For areas where “We don’t do this'' comes up often: Which areas would most benefit from improvement in the short term? What practices could you adopt that would have the most immediate positive impact on your edtech systems and stakeholders? What barriers have prevented you from adopting these practices previously? What are the consequences of not engaging in these practices?
For areas where “We sometimes do this (in pockets or inconsistently)” comes up often: What lessons can you apply from areas where you do engage in this practice to those where you do not? How might you scale practices that you inconsistently engage in, to engage in them more consistently? What barriers have prevented you from scaling these practices from the pockets where you consistently do them? What are the consequences of only sometimes doing this?
For areas where “We do this consistently” comes up often: Who drives these processes? How intensive are these processes to maintain? Are there ways to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of these practices or processes? Are there lessons from consistently engaging in these practices that can be applied to practices that need to be adopted or done more consistently?
While you analyze your results, you should also reflect on the areas where your ratings cluster and refer back to relevant sections of the EdTech Systems Guide to learn more about what systems you might put in place or ways to improve your current systems. For example, if most of your “We don’t do this” responses cluster in the Foundational Practices section of the self-assessment, begin your exploration of the guide with this section.
Examples from the Field: As part of the 2023-24 EdTech Peer Learning Cohort, participating school districts used a prototype version of this tool to inform needs assessments and to determine focus areas for systems-level improvement projects. Having completed these self-assessments, several teams noted “We don’t do this” clusters in the Foundational Practices section and decided to begin improvement efforts by building edtech inventories. Other teams noted clusters of “We don’t do this” or “We sometimes do this (in pockets or inconsistently)” in the Evaluation section and chose to focus on developing and scaling system-wide evaluation practices (e.g., developing and testing evaluation rubrics and workflows). |
Take It Further
Conducting this audit is the first step in improving edtech systems. TLA’s Driving EdTech Systems: Continuous Improvement Guide provides a step-by-step process for translating your findings from this audit and the challenges that surface into tangible edtech systems improvements.
This strategy is a part of TLA's Driving EdTech Systems series, which accompanies the EdTech Systems Guide developed in partnership with MA DESE OET. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.
Strategy Resources
Self-Assessment: Equitable EdTech Systems
This self-assessment mirrors the structure of the EdTech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation... Learn More
Equitable EdTech Systems - Online Survey Template for Stakeholders
This survey template adapts the EdTech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation and can... Learn More
Equitable EdTech Systems - Stakeholder Assessment Virtual Worksheet
This worksheet adapts the EdTech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation to collect stakeholder... Learn More
Equitable EdTech Systems - Google Forms Survey for Stakeholder Assessment
This Google Forms-based survey adapts the EdTech Systems Guide: Equity-Driven Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation... Learn More
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