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K-12 Leaders’ Guide to Successful Technology Integration

Based on seven years of the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program, Digital Promise’s K-12 Leaders’ Guide to Successful Technology Integration outlines six elements (leadership team, transformation plan, ongoing professional learning, consistent access, family engagement, and equity mindset) that help districts move beyond device rollouts to sustain a culture of Powerful Learning that leverages technology.
School leaders in conversation with a student at a table of laptops during a busy education technology showcase event.

Audiences

School and System Leaders

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Verizon Innovative Learning Schools

Topics

AI and Emerging Tech

Learning Environments

K-12

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K-12 Leaders’ Guide to Successful Technology Integration

The COVID-19 pandemic required us to address how technology could be used to deliver equitable educational opportunities for all students, particularly students who have traditionally been marginalized when it comes to the digital learning gap, such as those who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People of Color (BILPOC); English Language Learners or from immigrant families; those who are experiencing poverty; those who live in a rural setting; and those with learning differences. There are three parts to the Digital Learning Gap: technology and access, participation, and powerful use. Technology alone will not improve teaching and learning, but with this guide, districts can benefit from our lessons learned and plan to create equity-focused school cultures that sustain the integration of 1:1 technology, support teachers in leveraging technology, and help ensure that students have powerful learning experiences so that they can become lifelong, confident learners with the tools they need to succeed in school, work, and life.

Since 2014, Digital Promise, in partnership with Verizon, has designed and implemented the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) program, one of the largest national digital inclusion programs. Part of Citizen Verizon, Verizon’s responsible business plan, the program supports nearly 400 Title I middle and high schools with 1:1 technology, internet access, IT support, and professional development (PD) for educators on how to leverage the technology in their classrooms in meaningful ways. Based on our experience, we have found that our most successful schools and districts have six key elements in place to establish and sustain a culture of Powerful Learning that leverages technology; Digital Promise promotes Powerful Learning as a promising approach to giving students the skills they need for post-secondary success. These six elements are validated by our research and experience at Digital Promise with VILS, as well as other initiatives, such as the Dynamic Learning Project.

Six Elements of Success

The most successful schools have these six key elements in place to establish and sustain a culture of powerful learning that leverages technology.

Establish a Strong District and School Leadership Team

Successfully integrating 1:1 technology into teaching and learning starts with building and maintaining a strong leadership team1. Practitioners and researchers often make the mistake of first focusing on how teachers can use technology in classrooms without paying enough attention to the important role that administrators and leaders play in developing a shared, clear vision for the school, its culture and what teaching and learning looks like with technology. Good teaching doesn’t just happen, and technology alone won’t make teaching better; an effective leadership team shapes the school environment and teaching practices—in all contexts2. Leaders play this role in multiple ways, such as by promoting a growth mindset among teachers, developing visions and goals around powerful learning, incorporating culturally relevant approaches, and ensuring necessary and relevant resources, training, and processes that enable teachers to achieve their goals3.

Key Takeaway

A cross-functional leadership team must be in place to set a clear vision for the school, its culture and what teaching and learning look like before putting technology in classrooms.

Strategies for Success

  • Build a cross-functional leadership team: A cross-functional team of leaders is critical to ensure that diverse contexts of schools and needs of different student and teacher populations are taken into account in technology investment and implementation plans and processes. Without collaboration from a diverse team of stakeholders, it will be difficult to adopt comprehensive goals and plans from which everyone can benefit. This team may include both district and school representation at all levels, including:
    • District IT leaders who bring the perspective of management, filtering, and network load
    • District or school family engagement leaders and/or parent representatives who secure buy-in from parents and caregivers and ensure they are able to access critical information about the program and provide input
    • District curriculum and instructional technology leaders who align the initiative to curriculum and instructional technology programs and goals already in place
    • District and school professional learning leaders who focus on supporting teachers with coaching, training, and resources
    • School administrators who customize the initiative for the unique culture and needs of each school
    • IT specialists dedicated to each school to address technology issues
    • School teacher leaders who support scaling instructional strategies from a variety of content areas
    • Student leaders who serve on the tech team and help test tools like filtering and provide tech support to students, parents, and teachers
  • Provide ongoing professional development for the leadership team: Technology is changing at a rapid pace, so much so that it’s challenging to grasp. Furthermore, defining how technology can effectively support pedagogy and content knowledge can be very complicated. For sustained success of technology implementation, it’s important to provide the leadership team with ongoing professional learning opportunities where they can get acquainted with the most recent useful and impactful technology tools and usage frameworks, as well as theories and mindsets around technology leadership. Professional conferences and webinars that share research-backed and field-initiated technological, instructional, and change management leadership practices can be very helpful. Participating in online communities of practice (e.g., active and robust social media channels) can also help alleviate skill and knowledge gaps.
  • Lead by example: Successful implementation of new and innovative technology practices and strategies requires buy-in from the school’s instructional team. Leaders can model these strategies by using them in staff meetings and other settings. Opting to use collaborative digital tools in place of whiteboards or butcher paper reinforces the change in culture that is expected at all levels in the school building.

Spotlight: Coaches as District Employees Embedded in Schools

One successful VILS district in an urban area in Texas assigned a district-level leadership role to guide and streamline the work of the six VILS coaches who were supporting technology integration in six campuses across the district. These seven educators closely worked together to make sure that their technology integration efforts are aligned with the district’s broader goals and meet the specific needs of each campus. They regularly met to develop a professional learning network to create uniform systems, share best practices, collectively problem solve to create innovative solutions, and monitor their success. They also collaborated with the district’s IT manager and his representatives at each campus to overcome technical challenges to maximize learning.

Develop and Share a Clear, Inclusive, and Easily Accessible Transformation Plan

Years of research and practice have shown that technology integration can be helpful only if it is thoughtfully planned and implemented in alignment with curriculum and instruction4. An effective plan aligns technology integration with existing initiatives in the school. Ensuring that home access is part of the plan will allow us to close the homework gap. If access is only provided at school, the homework gap will persist.

Technology alone does not enable powerful teaching and learning. Technology is only a tool, but it can be used to create powerful learning experiences for students when leveraged by a teacher who knows how to use it that way. A plan should be in place to ensure that integration and use of this tool are driven by shared visions for how technology can support teaching and learning and fit well within existing goals and initiatives. A plan with shared visions provides a focus for all decisions around how to secure appropriate resources and support to sustain successful integration and meaningful use. This plan should address all six elements discussed in this guide.

Without such a plan, teachers may not value use of technology and misunderstand what meaningful integration and use involves, and professional development leaders and instructional coaches may not know where to focus their efforts or how to guide teachers in achieving their goals through use of technology. A well-defined and comprehensive plan also helps school and district administrators make strategic decisions about the success of technology implementation. As such, this plan can set the stage for building and fostering a culture that embraces trying new things, risk taking, collaboration, and growth5.

Planning for success means having equity as a mindset and developing plans in partnership with school leaders, district administrators, parents, and other stakeholders. Developing a blueprint for family engagement and addressing the different needs of each student, with particular attention to students who are traditionally marginalized will result in more buy-in across the school community and support of a new school culture.

Key Takeaway

A strong transformation plan unifies the vision for technology integration and device maintenance with the school improvement plan or goals for the year. A school transformation plan should align all decision-making with broader learning and teaching goals.

Strategies for Success

  • Prioritize developing a well-thought plan before taking any other step: The leadership team can consider including the following five ingredients in the plan: (1) a needs assessment that determines how technology is currently being used and where the pitfalls are; (2) a conceptual framework that establishes an approach toward meaningful use of technology and addresses the pitfalls; (3) short- and long-term goals for use of technology for powerful teaching and learning; (4) a plan to support educators to help them achieve those goals; and (5) a feedback loop of key performance metrics to measure and calibrate the impact and success of the plan.
  • Share the plan with teachers, staff, and families: The plan should be shared broadly. School leaders should explicitly communicate how this plan incorporates technology in a way that will help meet goals set for teaching and learning.
  • Stay flexible: It is important that district leaders provide campuses the autonomy to implement technology in ways that best fit their specific needs. School administrators and school-based coaches understand the particular context of their campuses and know the types of adaptations necessary to make a plan most effective in their school community.
  • Center equity in planning: Addressing the unique needs of each student, particularly those from traditionally marginalized communities, will result in greater buy-in within the school community. Tools like Digital Promise’s Digital Transformation Checklist are a good way to start planning discussions.

Spotlight: Building a Shared Vision

One of the first things new Verizon Innovative Learning Schools do when entering the program is to build their leadership team and draft a plan for each school. The plan aligns current school goals and any improvement plans with how technology will be used in teaching and learning to achieve those goals. Throughout the year, school leaders can revisit the plan, make any necessary adjustments, and keep everyone galvanized around the common goals outlined in the plan.

Provide Ongoing, Embedded Professional Learning Opportunities for Teachers

Before teachers can integrate technology in their classrooms effectively, they need training on how to incorporate new pedagogical approaches and strategies using technology6. Multiple teacher surveys and studies both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic have reported that many teachers in the U.S. do not have enough experience, resources, or training to use technology in the most impactful ways. Teachers who serve low-income schools have fewer resources resulting in a greater need for training in how to use technology7.

According to the 2017 National Education Technology Plan, many teacher education programs do not provide the preparation future teachers need to use technology to support teaching, learning, and classroom management. The in-service PD opportunities offered in many districts often are traditional one-time workshops that do not provide sufficient time to help teachers effectively use technology in their specific context8.

Creating an environment where teachers are supporting one another in learning and implementing new teaching strategies, tools, and frameworks throughout the year will both increase collaboration among teachers and help to spread best practices. This environment can be created and maintained through the use of instructional technology coaches, teams of teacher leaders, or other systems of support.

Research in the area of adult learning has identified four key principles for high-quality teacher learning activities9:

  1. Use of concrete experiences (i.e., coherence): Activities that are explicitly linked to curriculum teachers use, their classroom/school context, and their individual needs and interests.
  2. Continuously available feedback (i.e., sustained duration): Activities that provide teachers with sufficient time to learn and reflect on strategies that improve their practice.
  3. Encouragement of teachers to take on new and complex roles (i.e., active learning): Activities that provide teachers with opportunities to get hands-on experiences in designing and/or trying new instructional strategies.
  4. Collaboration (i.e., collective participation): Activities that give teachers the opportunities to share their ideas, work collaboratively, and help with each other’s learning.

These four principles are needed for effective PD opportunities around technology integration and use10.

Having a framework for teacher practice, such as the Technology Integration Matrix from the University of South Florida’s Florida Center for Technology Integration and frameworks for designing student educational experiences like Digital Promise’s Powerful Learning principles will help to support and guide the ongoing professional learning practice engaging coaches and teachers.

Key Takeaway

Ongoing professional development is necessary to support effective teacher use of technology. This can be achieved through the use of instructional technology coaches, teams of teacher leaders or other systems of support.

Strategies for Success

  • Harness the power of instructional technology coaches: Evidence across multiple studies shows that instructional coaching can provide teachers with high-quality opportunities to effectively learn different practices, including meaningful use of technology11. A successful instructional technology coaching program is sustained, job-embedded PD structured around active participation of teachers. Our research on the VILS program shows that by harnessing the power of instructional technology coaches, districts can help educators not only use technology more frequently but also more skillfully.
  • Leverage the expertise of teacher leaders: At smaller schools, instructional technology coaches can provide sustained support in use of technology by coaching all teachers consistently, without sacrificing their reach. However, in larger schools there is a dilemma of depth versus reach. Moreover, in Title I schools, there often is high teacher turnover. These schools are at risk of losing sustained culture change in using technology as part of teaching and learning. In districts where budgets and other limitations prevent hiring dedicated instructional technology coaches, leaders can build and maintain a network of change agents comprised of teachers who have already received coaching support. These teachers can collectively take on the responsibilities and professional development support normally provided by the coach. By offering their knowledge and experiences in team meetings, sharing resources and tools, and opening their classroom doors to their colleagues for observations, these teacher leaders can extend the reach of the coach while also building coherence across grade levels and departments.
  • Provide opportunities for peer-led professional learning: Another strategy is to implement peer demonstration classrooms that allow teachers to use new tools and teaching strategies while being observed by peers who can provide feedback and get ideas about how to use those same tools and strategies in their own classrooms. Posting a calendar in a common space for teachers allows them to select which rooms to visit based on what new tool or strategy will be shared.

Spotlight: Teacher Leader Corps

In Verizon Innovative Learning Schools, the Teacher Leader Corps (TLC) is a team of teacher leaders who embrace new teaching and learning methodologies, regardless of their level of prior experience with technology. They are not necessarily the most tech savvy, but they are willing to try new things and to open their classrooms to other teachers so they can learn together. Schools often select teachers who are informal leaders across grades and subjects to join the TLC. This helps to extend their reach and ensures that teachers who are reluctant to embrace technology in the classroom can identify with peers on the TLC.

Consistent Access to Technology

There are three parts to the Digital Learning Gap: technology and access, participation, and powerful use. Digital technology enhances teaching and learning only when teachers and students have adequate and consistent access to high-speed internet and quality learning tools. Schools with reliable, ubiquitous access to the internet and digital tools have the greater potential to design more personalized and equitable content and instruction. Students in such schools can have a greater chance to be more engaged in learning, take ownership of their learning, set their own pace, and collaborate with educators and peers within and outside their school and district12.

But having technology and access at school is only half the battle. To close the digital learning gap, we must make sure that students have access to technology and high-speed internet outside of school.

Furthermore, edtech integration goes beyond connecting schools to high-speed internet and featuring 1:1 computing classrooms. It also includes promoting responsible technology use. All students need to learn how to navigate the digital world safely and in an appropriate manner that helps them succeed in school, work, and life. Digital citizenship is a wide-ranging topic and can encompass a variety of concepts and actions. A few examples of digital citizenship include understanding your digital footprint, learning to type, avoiding hateful speech or cyberbullying while conversing with others online, and committing to not illegally using any content.

An effective edtech integration system also protects student data and privacy. While the use of student data is critical for designing personalized learning and formative feedback, this should happen under written policies that include parental understanding and consent, the terms of responsible use, and consequences for misuse13.

Additionally, high-quality edtech integration should provide ubiquitous access for students and teachers at any time and from any place. Students have fewer barriers to engagement and learning when they can use their digital learning resources outside of school not only to complete their homework, but to explore topics that interest them, work on independent projects, and connect with their peers and teachers14.

We must look beyond a binary view of access that only considers whether a student has it or not to a more accurate measurement taking under-connection into account. For many U.S. families, home access is still limited to a smartphone with a data plan. According to an EdSurge article, 12 million students lacked access to a working device, reliable high-speed internet, or both as of December 2020. Families who do have service however, may not have access to a high-speed connection, enough data, or enough devices to adequately serve the needs of everyone in the home.

During the extended COVID-19 school shutdowns, technology access was a major challenge for schools and districts, especially for those who serve a high percentage of students experiencing poverty. What’s more, it’s not just students without high-speed wireless access at home; it’s also teachers. It’s especially a problem in rural regions, where broadband internet service might be nonexistent or expensive.

Key Takeaway

Robust edtech integration goes beyond connecting schools to high-speed internet and featuring 1:1 computing classrooms. It also includes promoting responsible technology use, protecting student and teacher data and privacy, and, ideally, providing access outside of school.

Strategies for Success

  • Ensure student and teacher access to the internet and devices in and out of school: Do regular, systematic checks on inventory in the school building and in classrooms, and assess how many devices are missing, lost, unrecoverable, or in need of repair. Develop methods for delivering temporary and loaner devices to students rapidly so that they are not missing out on a single day of class.
  • Ensure student and teacher access to the internet and necessary tools at home: Gather information on internet connectivity from school district families as part of the general school registration process. Survey teachers for home connectivity in a similar manner. Once data is compiled, analyze solutions for connectivity for those who indicate they do not have internet access. Possible solutions could include checking out hotspots or LTE-enabled devices to those in need so they can have access at home, identifying nearby public wifi networks, or installing external wifi in school outdoor areas like parking lots.
  • Create an accessible and robust repair/replacement plan for now and the future: Make sure all students and staff are aware of the process for device repairs, replacements, and loaners. Quick turnaround for repaired/replaced devices is also critical. It is helpful to have a small number of extra devices that can be used as loaners when students’ regular devices are out for repair. In addition, it’s important to plan for the sustainability of the program by budgeting ahead for such factors as durable cases that effectively prevent breakage; device protection plans for repairs; and assessing and replacing devices beginning in Year 3.
  • Deliver student and staff training on digital citizenship topics: It is critical that both students and teachers receive training on care and use of the hardware, responsible use of devices and apps for learning and entertainment, internet safety, and more. Schools are encouraged to use a curriculum such as Common Sense to better prepare their learners to responsibly engage with technology. Revisiting the elements of digital citizenship throughout each year will help to maintain a safe and healthy school environment.
  • Form a student tech team to help with first-tier device issues: With some training from the district IT team or other knowledgeable professionals, a team of students can assess devices that are not working to determine whether they can be reset or repaired in the building (which tech team members often can do) or whether the device needs to be sent out for repair or replacement. Student tech teams not only play a critical role in keeping devices working, but they provide leadership opportunities for students within their school community as advocates for good practices and tech skills with devices.
  • Designate an IT point of contact within the school: Having someone in each building designated as the site-based IT manager helps to ensure smooth systems in managing and maintaining devices. This person can work with the tech team, help manage inventory, oversee the loaner device system, and coordinate with the district IT staff to repair or replace lost and broken devices quickly.

Spotlight: Student Tech Teams

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools used their student tech team as IT support for students and teachers who were navigating virtual learning. A VILS middle school in South Florida assigned each tech team member to two teachers to assist with troubleshooting technology issues, like connecting to WiFi and using other distance learning apps. The tech team also hosted tutorials on video-conferencing platforms for the school community. Prior to school shutdowns, students on the tech team showed teachers how to use tools to record and share lessons to prepare them for distance learning. “This group is really instrumental for our school,” the school’s principal said.

Provide Ongoing Support to Promote Families’ and Caregivers’ Engagement

The school alone cannot ensure the academic success of students. More than 30 years of research has shown that the involvement of families in the school life of their children contributes significantly, but in a variety of ways, to their academic performance15. This is true regardless of families’ race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status16. Schools that invite and support family involvement report better socio-emotional wellbeing of their students, greater academic aspirations, fewer behavioral difficulties, and higher rates of high school graduation and enrollment in post-secondary education17. School-family collaboration is recognized as particularly critical for children who experience a difference in norms and cultures between their school and their family, such as those from socioeconomically disadvantaged families or immigrant families18.

Family involvement can generally be reflected in a range of attitudes and practices at home (e.g., checking homework, supporting children’s school choices, providing a quiet place to study), or by participating in various school activities. Although these two levels of parental involvement are both correlated with better school performance of children19, contrary to the dominant perception, the former is proven to be a better predictor of academic achievement than the latter20.

In 2016, Blackboard revealed a considerable drop over only one year in parents who believe that face-to-face parent-teacher meetings were the most effective way to communicate information to them. Parents now prefer remote methods of communication, like online student portals, and they are less likely to attend parent-teacher conferences or school activities21. Research informs that this growing reliance on digital communication can be positive and actually help parents stay informed, become more involved, and be better able to support their children—all factors driving better student engagement and performance22. In addition, digital technology is also helping improve equity in the engagement of parents, countering socioeconomic or linguistic barriers to their relationship with school. That being said, many families struggle with supporting their children in edtech use for learning at home. For example, in 2016, Blackboard revealed that the top challenge reported by schools who implemented blended learning was educating parents on their role in supporting blended learning for their children23. Similarly, a survey of more than 700 teachers in 40 U.S. states conducted in the spring of 2020, just after schools first shifted to remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shows that parents’ lack of digital literacy skills was a hurdle to the transition to online instruction24.

Families, even those who might not be tech-savvy, have something to offer their children in terms of appropriate and purposeful use of technology. They can support children’s use of technology by developing an understanding of how they can help children take care of their devices, when children need to have access to their devices, how school is already protecting children’s data, how to protect children’s privacy and security, and even when to ask children to put down the device to engage in physical activities. Schools that support family engagement in boosting student at-home digital use can expect better outcomes25.

Key Takeaway

All families can support children’s use of technology in many ways. Schools that support family engagement in boosting student at-home digital use can expect better outcomes.

Strategies for Success

  • Provide multiple opportunities for families and caregivers to stay informed and involved in their children’s use of technology: It is important to offer a variety of formal and informal ways that parents and caregivers can receive information and engage in dialogue with the school around use of technology. Leverage the Tech Team to deliver in-person and virtual device orientation sessions to help families understand how they can support their students’ learning and how to care for the device (e.g., making sure it is charged each night and ready for learning in the morning; viewing it as a teaching tool and not a toy; integrating technology use into family rules set by the parent—like device-free dinners or powering down at bedtime)
  • Provide needed technology support and information for families and caregivers who don’t speak English proficiently: This can be through the translation of the texts, use of translators in meetings, or creating visual, text-free documents. Some schools also conduct meetings in several languages. Teachers and school administrators can record video messages about events and that can be sent to parents and used with free online translation tools.
  • Consider recording or streaming school events, so that parents and caregivers can participate remotely: Virtual parent-teacher conferences can also provide more flexibility to parents who may have schedule restrictions during the school day.

Spotlight: Virtual Family Engagement

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Verizon Innovative Learning Schools created regular virtual opportunities for parents to learn about what was going on in the school and to learn skills for supporting their children during distance learning. For example, a middle school in Louisville, Kentucky, held biweekly virtual parent engagement nights which covered a variety of topics. Other schools, like a pair of middle schools in Compton, California, and Cleveland, Ohio, conducted virtual cooking classes with parents to promote engagement and help parents become more comfortable with the technology their children were using. A middle school in Silver Spring, Maryland hosted virtual parent town hall meetings in the evenings and held breakout rooms by language, so parents could participate and provide feedback in their primary language without needing to use translators for the entire event. As a result, parent participation increased tenfold.

Maintain Equity as a Mindset

In order to successfully shift to a culture of teaching and learning supported by 1:1 digital technology, equity must stay front-of-mind during all phases of planning and implementation. In a recent Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) survey, IT leaders highlighted digital equity as the most pressing issue, with 97 percent of respondents saying their concerns regarding students’ home access to devices and the internet for remote learning increased since the pandemic began.

It is important to understand each student’s context and experience and how they impact their attitude toward school, technology and learning. Development and learning are complex systems and affected by multiple levels of environment in which an individual lives, from the immediate environment of family, neighborhood, and school, to broader contexts in which families and communities are situated26. Therefore, schools and classrooms should be learner- and community-centered. Lower educational outcomes can be partly explained by the mismatch between students’ home lives and what is required of them in school27.

This means it is necessary to develop an understanding of the particular inequities students might face outside of the school. Educators in high-violence communities, for example, need to be aware that many students may have experienced trauma and understand how to enact trauma-informed teaching practices. Or educators in communities with high numbers of immigrants must be aware that many families from certain countries or mixed documentation status may have heightened concerns about student data collection. In the same way, learner-informed knowledge is a prerequisite for integrating technology in an inclusive way so that students from all communities can effectively use it to achieve their goals. For example, digital resources can be a great equalizer for English learners and can significantly improve their learning by creating more comfortable and effective opportunities for communication, increasing students’ independence in learning, and reducing their anxiety level28. However, digital resources may result in a compounded gap for English learners if leaders purchase and implement them without considering whether their design is appropriate for use with the linguistic background of their given students and at the intended grade level or whether their teachers are equipped to provide culturally and linguistically responsive support.

Key Takeaway

Because learning and development are fundamentally influenced by the context in which they take place, schools and classrooms should be learner- and community-centered. In the same way, learner-informed knowledge is a prerequisite for integrating technology in an inclusive way so that students from all communities can effectively use it to achieve their goals.

Strategies for Success

  • Let the data be your guide: Identify the indicators of diversity in your student population (e.g., racial/ethnic groups, learning differences). This can help you better see where you should start, what types of considerations you should take into account when developing the technology plan, purchasing tools, or designing teacher PD activities. Tools like the Learner Variability Navigator can help you better understand and address the unique needs of each student.
  • Connect with communities: Avoid assumptions about your students’ backgrounds. Connect with communities to collect relevant information about the experiences and needs of different groups of your students in terms of technology use, knowledge, or concerns.
  • Allow your students to have a voice: Listening patiently to students and giving them safe opportunities to share their experiences can lead to deeper understanding around their needs in use of technology and more intentional practice.

Spotlight: Reframing the Student Experience

A VILS middle school in Louisville, Kentucky, which opened its doors in the fall of 2018 had an 86 percent Black student body. Many schools would refer to these students as “at-risk,” says the school’s VILS coach, but at this school, they are “at-promise. So we have a whole different way of looking at how we want to educate these young men.” With new devices and data plans for every student, learning was not limited to the school building or the school day. In its first year, the school had the highest percentage of growth for African-American male students in the district and was among the most improved middle schools in the state based on test scores over three testing windows. Teachers at the school acknowledged that the devices and access provided by the initiative were among the key reasons for the school’s immediate success.

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