Shift from developing and confirming new interventions to elaborating and refining well-used resources to address equity issues¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

This strategy asks researchers to start from resources schools already use and refine them for equity, rather than injecting newly designed interventions. The report argues schools are flooded with commercial products and that through elaboration researchers might "discover ways to measure and address inequities at scale without collecting much data about individual students." It also emphasizes uncovering infrequent equitable practices already occurring in platforms so they can be supported universally.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Collaboration with practitioners to identify what schools already use that is close to a solution

Constraints¶

• The report notes proposals often start from well-known achievement gaps and thereby take on a deficit frame, skipping elaboration of proximal phenomena of inequity

Target Learners¶

• K-12 and higher education students and teachers using digital learning platforms

Target Learning Goals¶

• Addressing equity issues through refinement of existing digital learning resources

Related Strategies¶

• Focus equity-relevant research at the classroom and systems levels, treating teachers—not just technology—as drivers of change
• For refinement-level use, shift the unit of intervention from the individual to the school building
• Replace monolithic comprehensive studies with smaller, agile research cycles that test one conjecture at a time

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Zacamy, J., & Roschelle, J. (2022, August). Navigating the tensions: How could equity-relevant research also be agile, open, and scalable? Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/159