Driving K–12 Innovation in Independent Schools

By Dr. Ashley Cross

Each year, a global advisory board of K–12 leaders, practitioners, and change-makers engages in discourse about the major themes driving, hindering, and enabling innovation at schools. The Consortium of School Networking hosts this initiative and partners with ATLIS. Below are the findings of the report, as well as how they impact independent school education.

Hurdles

A “hurdle” is a significant organizational or human capacity challenge that forces educators to slow down, prepare themselves, and make the leap to innovation. The top three hurdles for schools to address in 2022 are scaling innovation and inertia of education systems, attracting and retaining educators and IT professionals, and digital equity.

Scaling Innovation and Inertia of Education Systems

Whether practicing for effective teaching and learning, organizational business processes, or technology usage, schools are challenged to engage in and effectively scale innovation—adapting what is working well and scaling it out across a school. During the pandemic, the education system as we knew it experienced seismic opportunities for change when learning went fully remote. Yet, in many schools, there is now an even greater pull to go back to the familiar, pre-pandemic models of education. This hurdle reflects both the resistance to change present within many schools and the education and social systems that permeate schools and exert pressure against change.

Attracting and Retaining Educators and IT Professionals

Hiring and keeping school staff is a significant problem for school systems, and many educators are experiencing social and emotional burnout. For IT professionals, there is the added stressor of low pay compared with private companies that are able to offer higher salaries in addition to flexible work schedules and more time off.

Digital Equity

Digital equity includes three interrelated components: digital foundations, conditions for learning, and meaningful learning opportunities. This nuanced hurdle encompasses more than just equitable access to quality digital technologies such as high-speed internet and powerful computing devices in school and home settings. It also includes ensuring that students have the knowledge and skills to use technology in the service of learning, that they interact with robust and accessible content and programs, that students and their identities are represented with and by the technologies themselves, and that students experience meaningful opportunities that empower them as learners.

Some other hurdles the board discussed include:

• Balancing screen time
• Capturing and assessing learning
• Change management
• Data privacy and ownership
• Designing effective digital ecosystems

Accelerator

An “accelerator” is a real-world megatrend that drives the needs and skills expected of learners and practitioners. The premise is that K–12 cannot afford to innovate in isolation; the field must contextualize bigger trends in society at large, which ultimately impact the needs and skills expected of learners and practitioners.

The three most important accelerators for schools to address in 2022 to pave the way for teaching and learning innovation and extraordinary student outcomes are personalization, building the human capacity of leaders, and social and emotional learning.

Personalization

Personalized learning happens when all aspects of learning are directed by the needs of the learner. It encompasses a constellation of strategies that collectively ensures that learning focuses on whole child development, is personalized to the unique needs and interests of each child, and takes a mastery-based approach. This includes teachers shaping the teaching and learners directing the learning in ways that honor the variability of learners’ needs and strengths, including pace, pathways, strategies, and a demonstration of knowledge and skills.

Building the Human Capacity of Leaders

When leaders take actions to strengthen the professional community of their schools, providing opportunities for educators and all K–12 professionals to learn and master new skills—regardless of title or rank—it leads to a strategic vision and opens the door to innovative practices that can enhance student experiences.

Social and Emotional Learning

A core function of education is building skills and understanding for mental, social, and emotional well-being, including empathy, grit, persistence, flexibility, and adaptability. These capabilities shape mindsets and enhance successful learning, collaboration, problem-solving, and civic responsibility. Educators are challenged to think about how social-emotional needs are enhanced or diminished with varying uses of technology and to reimagine school norms to better the well-being of staff, learners, and parents and guardians.

Some other accelerator topics include:

• Changing attitudes toward demonstrating learning
• Collaborative learning
• Crises and innovation inflection points
• Data culture Education-industry partnerships

While not selected as a top-three topic globally, data culture seems to be a more prevalent topic in the independent school community at this time. At the ATLIS 2022: Ignited conference, an entire strand of content was dedicated to institutional research in partnership with the Center for Institutional Research in Independent Schools. The focused track was immensely popular and well-reviewed by attendees.

Tech Enablers

“Tech enablers” are the actual technologies implemented to support extraordinary learning experiences. The top three most important tech enablers for schools to leverage in 2022 to surmount hurdles and embrace accelerators are digital collaboration environments, untethered broadband and connectivity, and analytics and adaptive technologies.

Digital Collaboration Environments

Digital systems, tools, technologies, connectivity, and pedagogy enable high levels of collaboration and support online and in-person learning. Digital collaboration environments include synchronous and asynchronous communication tools—platforms that allow multiuser virtual communications, whether across the room or across the globe. These environments may be tailored for education but are often designed for broader use (e.g., video call technologies).

Untethered Broadband and Connectivity

This refers to ubiquitous broadband internet and the underlying technologies that enable robust connected learning—without requiring devices to be physically connected (e.g., via cables). These technologies enable mobility and learning anytime, anywhere.

Analytics and Adaptive Technologies

These digital technologies collect and use data related to teaching and learning. Analytics refers to the process of analyzing data collected about student learning and the opportunity to leverage data to inform instructional decision-making. Adaptive technologies are tools that suggest next steps, provide remediation, control pacing, or provide feedback based on an analysis of the student’s performance.

Some additional tech enablers included:

• Artificial intelligence
• Cloud infrastructure
• Embedded accessibility technologies
• Hybrid learning tools Mobile devices

Join the Conversation

ATLIS needs you to add your voice to the conversation. Tech leaders can learn from each other and overcome challenges together. How is your school addressing digital equity?