How Can We Motivate Schools to Actually Adopt New Technology Solutions?

Whether you’re pilot-testing your business model or launching a new product in schools, there are key considerations to address as you partner with schools and districts. Digital Promise played a unique role in gathering three years of qualitative data from 268 school and district stakeholders to understand the rollout and implementation of a new early literacy product called A2i (Assessment to Instruction), developed by Learning Ovations (now under Scholastic). At the ASU+GSV Summit earlier this year in San Diego, California, Digital Promise shared research findings alongside Alison O’Connor, director of elementary instruction at Fontana Unified School District, and Alia Gates, director of operations at Scholastic, who shared their ground-level perspectives on what it took to implement A2i. Below, we summarize lessons learned from the field and offer four strategies for ensuring a smoother adoption and integration of your product, service, or offering.

Early on, when districts started to roll out A2i within their schools, we learned that teachers interpreted the purpose and value of the product very differently. Some teachers had difficulty understanding what set A2i apart from the products they were already familiar with and using, while other teachers had varying expectations for how the product would impact their day-to-day practice. Being explicit about the value proposition of the product—specifically about what the new technology does and doesn’t do—and how the technology might differ from other tools, was central to teachers’ trust of the product and their expectations of what successful implementation should look like in the classroom. To help level and align educator expectations, we recommend having a very clear and consistent message about the product’s purpose, why and how it will enhance student learning or teacher expertise and practice, and how the technology should be used and integrated with existing tools, practices, and assessments. In addition to communicating your message to district and school leaders, make sure to clearly articulate what your value proposition is to the teachers and education practitioners who will ultimately be using your product.

When assessing your value proposition, build a solid understanding of why your target schools should adopt your technology. At the ASU+GSV Summit, school district leader Alison O’Connor encouraged edtech solution providers to ask themselves: “Why are you implementing the program? What is it going to support? What’s it going to enhance? What’s it going to change? And not only what is it going to change, but why do you need that change? What’s the urgency? There has to be a sense of urgency around developing that type of change and implementing the program.”

Ideally, a solution provider’s answers to these questions would align with those of the district and school leaders they are targeting, and these questions should surface during preliminary discussions about product adoption. Alia Gates from Scholastic warns, “It’s very important, because if you have a misalignment from the beginning, you’re always going to be slightly out of step, and you’re not going to reach those outcomes that you’re both trying to achieve.” To ensure your solution truly addresses the problem your target schools face, we recommend surfacing the questions above and evaluating the alignment of your solution with your target market and specific clientele before pushing your solution agenda further.

We also discovered that the time solution providers spent understanding their client’s context and building relationships with them contributed to their client’s overall buy-in for product adoption. When it comes to the educators’ local contexts, we think of two things: the educators’ mindset, skills, experience, and needs at the start of adoption; and the contexts in which they implement and assess educational programming. Each educator is different, as is each school or classroom context. The way in which one teacher implements any tool will typically differ from the way another teacher does—whether in small or significant ways. Therefore, solution providers need to partner with educators to learn more about the school or classroom ecosystem they are stepping into and variation within it. Educators can shed light on the staffing capacity within that ecosystem as well as the existing technology, curricula, pedagogical practices, and assessments that educators currently use. With a collaborative mindset, solution providers can work together with educators to more intentionally integrate practitioner insights and tailor the professional learning and supports to match individual educator’s needs and contexts. We learned that doing so helps educators feel more supported with implementation and increases the likelihood that educators continue implementing and sustaining refined instructional practices beyond the initial adoption of new technologies.

We learned that some schools and districts provided more substantive resources to facilitate implementation of A2i than others. In addition to setting clear expectations for their teachers, some districts explicitly incorporated A2i-related activities into existing staff development days, district trainings, and assessment cycles. Those districts also invested in valuable resources such as release time for teachers to plan or observe others, materials and supplies for A2i-related activities, meetings for the school-based coaches supporting the teachers, and additional trainings to support expected changes in pedagogical practice. The more invested education leaders are in supporting the implementation of new technologies, the more likely their educators will be in sustaining implementation practices beyond the initial launch. Thus, we recommend that solution providers collaborate with district and school leaders early on and throughout the implementation period to identify the resources and supports needed for implementation to be successful, including transparency around additional monetary and nonmonetary costs associated with those additional resources.

At the end of each implementation year, Digital Promise shared high-level findings from its research with the Learning Ovations team who supported teachers with implementing the A2i technology. The research highlighted specific recommendations Learning Ovations could make to address implementation challenges educators were facing, in addition to ways to leverage the successful implementation strategies that we found.

However, not all technology companies have a third-party organization available to conduct ongoing research on the implementation of their products. Creating mechanisms for education leaders, teachers, and the solution provider to engage in mutual feedback loops that spur continuous improvement is critical to fostering innovation and driving positive educational outcomes while responding to evolving needs and challenges. Alia commented on how much she values the honest relationship she and district leader, Alison O’Connor, have established with one another:

One of the things that I value so much about Alison is that she is a beautifully honest human, and she will tell me, “Hey, this is going a little sideways … Like, what is going on?” That comes from trust, right? … If they’re not being honest with you, they don’t trust you… But I would also encourage you to really develop the relationships, not just at the site (school) level, but at the district level so that they can get insight into what’s happening.

It’s through trusted relationships that district and school leaders, and especially teachers, are able to provide ongoing feedback to the solution provider and vice versa about implementation. Equally important is the willingness each party must have to tweak and modify their approach, practice–or even the technology–to improve expected outcomes.

We recognize that putting these four strategies in place with partnering schools and districts may be easier said than done. Our hope is that these strategies serve as a reminder of the importance of co-leadership when implementing new technologies. In true partnership that is built on trust and clear communication, solution providers and education leaders should work together to strengthen the potential impact technology solutions could have on teaching and learning outcomes.

To learn more about the A2i technology solution, and research conducted on its implementation, check out these resources:

• The A2i System
• Evaluation of an Expansion Strategy for the Assessment-to-Instruction Professional Support System