These case stories intend to give an in-depth look at each school’s setting and the details of how ConnectED unfolded in each of the following places: Compton, California; Tuskegee, Alabama; and Orondo, Washington.
Andrea D. Beesley
SRI Author
Maintaining Momentum of 1:1 Programs: Observations from the Apple and ConnectED Initiative
The Apple and ConnectED Initiative provides valuable lessons for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers about what it takes to sustain 1:1 programs in schools serving high concentrations of students facing socioeconomic barriers. SRI’s 6-year study of the initiative illuminates how key factors and conditions came together in some schools to keep their programs going and reveals some important lessons for future endeavors.
Experience has shown that sustaining the progress of 1:1 programs in schools serving under-resourced communities is hard, as technology requires upkeep and the initial burst of focused energy sparked by new initiatives can dissipate. The Apple and ConnectED Initiative was designed with an intentional approach to building a foundation for continued use of technology and to create conditions that would set school communities on a new learning trajectory, leading to continued deepening and expansion of technology use in classrooms. This vision of sustainability involved ramping up the provision of technology and integration support as schools were ready and then removing these scaffolds gradually to allow schools to assume local ownership of their 1:1 programs.
Through SRI International’s (SRI) 6-year study of the initiative, the Apple and ConnectED Initiative provided a unique opportunity to observe how sustainability played out across many schools over an extended time period. This report describes findings from the research about the strategies that schools used to address inevitable challenges to sustainability and what factors and conditions appeared to make a difference. It further addresses the dynamic relationship among these factors and conditions, which can lead to positive reinforcement.
Schools that appeared to maintain momentum of their 1:1 initiatives demonstrated a broad commitment to the program and shared vision for how technology could support instructional goals, strong leadership (often but not exclusively from the principal’s office), and community support. This shared commitment and leadership made it possible to put plans in place for mobilizing resources and devising ways to keep the program going. The continued use of technology and, in some cases, continued growth in practices and community engagement using iPad devices, produced visible benefits for key stakeholders which in turn helped to reinforce commitment.
Bridging the Digital Access and Use Divides in the Apple and ConnectED Initiative
This report focuses on implementation of the Apple and ConnectED Initiative with respect to the dual digital divides along socioeconomic lines in access to technology and its use in instruction. It describes why it was important to bridge those divides in the ConnectED schools and offers some lessons learned for others who are implementing similar initiatives.
Within and beyond the U.S., access to advanced technology for students and teachers is held out as a path toward educational transformation. However, in historically underserved schools and communities, this promise remains elusive. Many schools do not have access to the technologies that can open new learning opportunities for teachers and students (the digital-access divide). Even with increased access to technology, the use of that technology in active and creative ways does not automatically follow in schools serving high concentrations of students facing socioeconomic barriers (the digital-use divide).
This report explores the dual digital divides of disparities in access to technology and its use in instruction through the lens of the Apple and ConnectED Initiative, which has been the focus of a rigorous 6-year research study. It is one of a series of reports on the Apple and ConnectED research that address different aspects of implementing 1:1 programs that provide each student with access to a technological device.
Launched in 2014, the Apple and ConnectED Initiative has supported 114 participating schools across the country with an iPad for every child. Schools received a host of programmatic support including extensive professional learning opportunities for teachers and leaders, technology infrastructure upgrades, and process management. The initiative and this research are explicitly situated in a diversity of traditionally under-resourced communities, with schools ranging from pre-K to secondary and from the inner city to rural migrant communities to Native American villages.
This report presents findings from the Apple and ConnectED research related to
bridging the technological access divide, which refers to providing technological infrastructure, tools, and support.
bridging the technological use divide, which involves moving from passive consumption to using technology in active creative ways.
The Apple and ConnectED Initiative: Research Study Methods
This report describes the methodology of Apple and ConnectED Research, a six-year study of the Apple and ConnectED Initiative that uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to tell a comprehensive story of implementation and outcomes.
Designing for Diversity Part 3. Implementation of the Equity and Inclusion Curriculum
In Designing for Diversity Part 1: Where is Equity and Inclusion in Curriculum Design?, we addressed the lack of equity and inclusivity in many curriculum materials and questioned whether established approaches to designing and implementing STEM+CS curricula were suitable to the diverse needs of students. In Designing for Diversity Part 2: The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design, we described The Equity and Inclusion Framework for Curriculum Design (EI-CD) approach for designing and modifying STEM+CS curriculum materials. We introduced two tools—the Equity and Inclusion Design Principles (EI Design Principles) and Equity and Inclusion Planning Guide (EI Planning Guide). They support the implementation of the EI-CD approach, a curriculum design and modification cycle that integrates equity and inclusion into curriculum design. The EI-CD approach encourages state and local education leaders, community stakeholders, student advocates, and other contributors to STEM+CS education to collaborate in building the cultural context into the design or modification of curriculum materials. In this paper, we provide suggestions for how state and local leaders can move towards transformation and change in curriculum use in schools and communities that serve students with diverse needs, strengths, and contributions to society.
Faculty Motivation to do Research: Across Disciplines in Research-Extensive Universities
This study investigated personal, contextual, and motivational factors that influence faculty research productivity across disciplines.
1:1 Teaching and Learning in the Apple and ConnectED Initiative: Lessons from Early Implementation
Through the lens of the Apple and ConnectED Initiative, this report asks the questions, what does a promising start look like when you add technology to education and what types of support can enable conditions for success?
Technology, such as iPad™ devices for students and teachers, has the potential to energize classrooms and bring substantially new types of learning opportunities to children of all ages. These changes are not an automatic result of adding technology to education, and they often take place over a long period of time. This report asks the questions, what does a promising start look like and what types of support can enable conditions for success?
We ask these questions through the lens of the Apple and ConnectED Initiative, which has been the focus of a rigorous 6-year research study. Launched in 2014, the Apple and ConnectED Initiative has supported 114 participating schools across the country with an iPad for every student. Schools received a host of programmatic supports including extensive professional learning opportunities for teachers and leaders, technology infrastructure upgrades, and process management.
The initiative and this research are explicitly situated in a diversity of traditionally under-resourced communities, with schools ranging from pre-K to secondary and from the inner city to rural migrant communities to Native American villages. This report focuses on the first year of iPad use across these schools to describe the initial changes that might be expected to appear when sufficient support is in place to lower common barriers to its adoption.
The report describes early implementation in three successive stages:
Access: Many of the ConnectED schools saw daily iPad use across multiple subjects, even early in implementation. This level of use was facilitated by strategic and technical preparation prior to the introduction of the iPad devices, coupled with initial strategies for their instructional application. Daily widespread use demonstrated how universal technology access has the potential to “level the playing field” and broaden students’ horizons.
Integration: In classrooms where iPad use had become the norm, the learning environments looked different from those in typical classroom settings. In particular, iPad classrooms leveraged immediate access to rich information, offered new opportunities for expression, used technology to increase student engagement, and benefited from more organized and efficient workflows.
Innovation: In addition to more active and engaging learning environments, technology is often seen as holding promise to facilitate meaningful changes to students’ opportunities for learning. This study uses a framework for “deeper learning” to describe emerging opportunities for teamwork, critical thinking, and other skills that prepare students for success beyond the classroom. Teacher surveys and a review of lesson plans reveal some initial steps toward deeper learning for a broad range of teachers, particularly in the dimensions of personalization and communication/creation that were most directly enabled by the affordances of the new iPad devices. More advanced opportunities require careful and creative lesson planning, and were most likely to be seen in the classrooms of teachers who held deeper learning as an explicit goal.
Sustaining a 1:1 Program – Insights From Research
1:1 programs bring initial excitement and, later, deeper learning opportunities. But sustaining and funding over time is a challenge. This paper shares insights on sustaining 1:1 technology programs in economically challenged K–12 settings, based on a large research study of an iPad program.
Building Mathematical Identity After School: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Trial
This paper describes an afterschool program that is intended to connect math to realworld applications and to build math identity. The second paper details an afterschool science curriculum involving design-based learning and collaboration between day-school and afterschool education. The third study discusses an afterschool program in which students build robots and enter them in competitions. The studies addressed both academic and affective outcomes.
