Equity and Quality in Digital Learning

Book excerpt: Equity and Quality in Digital Learning identifies and presents specific strategies and practices for using digital tools to reduce inequities in educational opportunities and improve student outcomes. Based on a ten-year research-practice partnership with the Dallas and Milwaukee public school districts, the book highlights the factors that can support or impede the implementation of digital learning in K-12 schools. As public schools make major investments in digital learning, it is critical to ensure that digital tools are effectively leveraged to enhance learning and reduce achievement gaps, especially for those students historically underserved in schools. The authors offer concrete ways to use evidence from the book to increase the effectiveness of digital learning. "With rich accounts of two districts' efforts to integrate digital tools, the authors offer a well-reasoned caution that digital tools can easily replicate, even amplify, inequality in our education system. Yet, they offer a clear outline for how districts can adopt and implement digital tools to improve learning for all students. This book is an essential read for any school system leader." --Betheny Gross, associate director, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington Bothell "At this moment, we are grappling with not only how to ensure equity of access to devices and internet but also how to provide equity in quality and delivery of digital content. This book serves as a resource to help educational organizations understand how we got here and offers solutions on where to go." --Lakisha Brinson, Director of Learning Technology, Metro Nashville Public Schools Carolyn J. Heinrich is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education, chair of the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, and an affiliated professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. Jennifer Darling-Aduana is an assistant professor of learning technologies in the Department of Learning Sciences, College of Education and Human Development, at Georgia State University. Annalee G. Good is a researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), codirector of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative, and director of the WCER Clinical Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.