Why Digital Equity Is About So Much More Than Access and Infrastructure

Understanding that every school and district will take a different path toward their realization of digital equity, depending on their context and culture, we recommend an iterative, ongoing process which includes six key steps:

1. Assemble a digital equity team to bring a diversity of perspectives, ideas, and experiences to the table.
2. Examine existing practices, resources, and needs. Students and teachers must have foundational access to laptops or tablets that can connect to the internet, as well as privacy and security procedures.
3. Develop a concrete shared vision for teaching and learning with technology so that educators, students, and broader community members understand the greater purpose behind digital equity efforts.
4. Identify areas for improvement through honest self-assessment to identify where you are currently compared to where you hope to be.
5. Take action. Whether tackling challenges around digital access or making improvements to classroom practice, engage in reflection and planning to more coherently identify areas of improvement.
6. Begin again. School communities must continue to foster productive dialogue within leadership teams in an iterative manner to fully realize the promise of the learning opportunities that could be possible.

[Beth Holland is a partner at The Learning Accelerator leading Research and Measurement.]