Grants

Edtech Evidence Exchange

Project Title

For core support of InnovateEDU

Date

Dec. 08, 2022

Duration

15 months

Description

Despite the promise of education technology (edtech) supporting the achievement of students, edtech has yet to improve student outcomes at scale. The central reason for this is the ineffective selection and use of edtech, which is due to the limited information that decision-makers have access to regarding the technology’s evidence and efficacy. The Exchange, previously known as the Jefferson Education Exchange, was launched in 2018 to help teachers and education leaders make evidence-based decisions about education technology. With previous support from the Corporation, the Exchange conducted research on the implementation variables most likely to affect the success of edtech initiatives. With continued support, the Exchange will iteratively improve the platform that crowdsources implementation and impact data directly from teachers, develop a technology inventory, recruit new partners and continue to generate non-biased evidence of edtech implementation.

Project Title

For general support

Date

Dec. 10, 2020

Duration

24 months

Description

The COVID-19 pandemic is drawing attention to the increasing need for the use of education technology (edtech), as hybrid and virtual settings are now central to most schools’ instructional plans. However, a central barrier to the effective selection and use of edtech has been that decision-makers responsible for selecting and deploying edtech generally do not have information about what affects its successful implementation in schools or districts like their own. Insights about what works in different contexts are not shared across classrooms, schools and districts. Jefferson Education Exchange, launched in 2018, aims to help teachers and education leaders make evidence-based decisions about education technology. With Corporation support, they have conducted research on the implementation variables most likely to affect the success of edtech initiatives. With continued support, they will build a platform that crowdsources such data directly from teachers and shares it among them, while preparing to launch a research center at the University of Virginia.

Project Title

For general support

Date

Jun. 13, 2019

Duration

18 months

Description

Annually, over thirteen billion dollars are invested in K-12 education technology (edtech) in the United States, but only 5 percent of products are used with the intended frequency and approximately 65 percent of purchased student licenses for edtech products are completely unused or meet zero usage goals. So while evidence suggests edtech can have a positive impact on students under the right conditions, there is no currently no coordinated collection of contextualized information so that educators can make informed decision-making about which products to use. The Jefferson Education Exchange (JEX), launched in 2018, aims to significantly deepen and expand edtech implementation analysis to help education decision-makers. JEX aims to help decision-makers (a) better allocate the money they spend on education technologies toward technologies that will be a good fit for their contextualized needs; and (b) provide information that helps educators effectively implement those technologies in their contexts. This grant is for general support.