In the Age of AI, Edtech Needs Inclusive Innovation More Than Ever

This post originally appeared in Edtech Insiders.

The post-pandemic era has led to learning loss and an increased dependence on edtech tools—however,  the majority of edtech tools still lack credible evidence supporting their efficacy. One 2023 report noted that only 39% of the most-accessed learning solutions support their usage with published research, while only 26% support their usage with studies aligned to federal standards. This is true despite the implementation of the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which clearly outlined four tiers of evidence to support edtech adoption in schools

Why have so few edtech products engaged in efficacy research, and especially few in objective third-party research & development or evaluation studies?

  • Some attribute the lack of evidence to the lack of demand for evidence among school purchasers. Historically, many districts have relied on peer recommendations rather than a tools’ evidence base to make purchasing decisions.

  • Others note the noisy credentialing environment, in which organizations with no regulatory authority badge and credential products, makes it hard for decision makers to know which products are truly evidence-based.

  • Still others point to the cost of research—the painful, expensive, and time-intensive third-party evaluation processes that often don’t keep pace with the realities of a fast-moving tech sector. 

However, as a flood of new AI-enabled edtech enters the market at the same moment that schools face the ESSER funding cliff, buyers are starting to cast a more discerning eye on which tools are truly moving the needle on outcomes.

Raising the Bar for Edtech Adoption

This June at ISTE Live, one group of education leaders sought to support the field by outlining some top considerations purchasers should consider when adopting new edtech solutions:

  • Does the tool have a credible evidence base?

  • Will the tool help us address a critical learning need?

  • Is tool adoption and implementation within our budget? 

  • How much time will staff need to commit?

  • How will instructional time be impacted?

  • What data will be collected?

  • Is the tool safe for use with our students (e.g., will student data be collected)?

  • Is the tool just one more thing/initiative for our teachers to deal with (AKA: does the cost of getting buy-in outweigh the reward)?

  • What are the edtech company's intentions?

Simultaneously, a coalition of the sector’s leading edtech arbiters—1EdTech, Cast, CoSN, Digital Promise, InnovateEDU, ISTE, and SETDA— launched five Edtech Quality Indicators to bring more cohesion to the field. Consistent with education leaders' needs, the five indicators state that quality tools should be safe, evidence-based, inclusive, usable, and interoperable

These parallel developments point to a potential shift in the market; nonprofit organizations are engaging in collective impact work to send cohesive and consistent signals into the market, while purchasers are seeking safe, vetted, streamlined, and cost-effective solutions. 

Inclusive Innovation: Preventive Medicine for Edtech

While there is a need for more evidence measuring the potential of edtech, the evidence that does exist is promising… at least for some populations. Laurence Holt’s remarkable EdTech Next article “The Five Percent Problem” cites studies demonstrating considerable student learning gains from leading products Khan Academy, Dreambox, and IXL. The problem he points out is that these gains were realized only by “students who used the product as intended.” How many of the students “use the product as intended”? Often, as few as five percent of students studied, and often those with additional benefits. The obvious question: what do we do about the other 95%?

Enter inclusive innovation, a R&D approach that aims to increase the usability and effectiveness of emerging solutions by focusing on the process by which products are created and evolve. Inclusive innovation refers to a systematic process that elevates the insights of users representative of the diverse backgrounds, needs, and abilities in American classrooms. 

The theory underlying inclusive innovation is that when products are:

  1. Developed in close proximity to diverse, representative users

  2. Designed to incorporate the feedback of diverse users

  3. Built on a pre-existing foundation of evidence-based best practices

… the resultant products are more likely to be implemented as intended, and thus more likely to demonstrate impact on student outcomes. 

We see inclusive innovation as ‘preventative medicine’ for edtech companies. By incorporating early touch points and feedback loops with diverse student populations while products are being developed, companies can expect reliable usage that drives long-term results. 

Various organizations in the field describe such inclusive innovation practices, as ”inclusive R&D”, “co-design”, “co-creation”, “co-development”,” inclusive design”, and “participatory methods”. In practice, all variants of inclusive innovation involve engaging teachers and learners early and often during product development. Whether it’s the creation of user surveys, the development of research questions for focus groups, or the work to match an edtech company with a school to co-design an efficacy study that addresses school-identified goals, inclusive innovation practitioners are working directly with learner communities. 

The Importance of Inclusive Innovation in AI-Powered Edtech 

While AI has the potential to revolutionize education through personalized learning experiences and increased teacher efficiency, it also has the well-documented potential to perpetuate bias, threatening to exacerbate existing inequities in education.

The speed at which AI technologies are developing is rendering traditional research methods (which can take multiple years) unhelpful or obsolete. So, how might R&D help guide AI-powered edtech toward its full potential; to advance educational equity rather than threaten it? 

Rather than eschewing research altogether, we believe that inclusive innovation practices—like rapid-cycle evaluations and iterative co-design—can be leveraged to produce timely and actionable findings for companies. But what exactly are these approaches and how do companies access them?

Many organizations are engaging in this work, often through collaborative efforts. Here are a few examples from the field.  

Leanlab Education: Building Communities and Co-Designing Innovations

Leanlab Education is a nonprofit with a mission “to study and grow transformational education innovations co-designed with school communities”. Leanlab acts as the intermediary between edtech companies and school environments, matching partners on projects and leveraging its in-house research team to facilitate product feedback and research studies aligned to the ESSA tiers of evidence. By involving educators and students in the research design and product development process, emerging learning innovations address real-world challenges and meet the needs of diverse learners—intentionally designing for the margins. 

By pairing enthusiastic education partners trained in inclusive innovation methods with companies seeking third-party research, Leanlab has increased access to inclusive R&D; to date, Leanlab has engaged over 30,000 students in nearly 80 studies. This approach ensures that emerging innovations are equitable, user-friendly, and a value-add to school communities, and thus more likely to demonstrate significant impact.

Central to this work is the newly-launched American Group of Innovative Learning Environments (AGILE) Network, a cohort of public schools, charter schools, and nontraditional learning communities ready to partner in R&D through a centralized (and co-designed) infrastructure. While managed by Leanlab, the AGILE Network is a collective impact initiative built on findings from the Global Edtech Testbed Network and supported by a growing number of partners—including founding partner AERDF, Digital Promise, and ISTE. 

ISTE: Edtech Index 

ISTE (along with acquired non-profit ASCD) is a global education community working to accelerate innovation in education through the smart use of technology. Well-known for their marquee conference, ISTE Live, that convenes more than 17,000 educators annually, ISTE is now using its reach to elevate the importance of evidence-based edtech and inclusive innovation. 

ISTE’s Edtech Index consolidates information and validations on over 1,500 edtech products in one accessible platform, as well as a free teacher ready evaluation tool that helps educators determine the usability of edtech products for their contexts. The Edtech Index measures products aligned to the five domains of quality identified by the partnership of groups in the field: safety, evidence-base, inclusivity, usability, and interoperability. 

Digital Promise: AI, Equity, and Inclusive Networks

Digital Promise’s efforts to advance equitable education systems through R&D takes various forms, including AI literacy and digital equity initiatives, work through their Center for Inclusive Innovation, and the Learner Variability Project. By conducting rigorous human-centered research, making findings accessible, and providing resources for educators, Digital Promise helps create an environment where all students can benefit from edtech advancements. 

The Center for Inclusive Innovation reimagines education R&D by building the capacity for districts and communities across the country to engage in R&D, with a focus on supporting students furthest from opportunity. After their network partners co-design and engage in R&D, project details and solutions are shared with the larger field, highlighting R&D practices in diverse contexts. Digital Promise has also been an early leader in AI in education policy guidance, creating an AI Literacy Framework, leading workshops for school leaders, and advocating with companies, government, and schools for keeping humans in the loop.

AERDF: Finding Bold and Equitable Solutions

The Advanced Education Research & Development Fund (AERDF) maintains an extensive portfolio of inclusive R&D projects that incorporate learner and educator perspectives from start to finish. Inspired by federal Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) initiatives, AERDF’s focus on equity-driven R&D ensures that breakthroughs are developed that address systemic inequalities in education, with a focus on Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty.

AERDF’s advanced R&D projects involve sustained collaborations with educators, researchers, and communities to co-create solutions that are effective and inclusive. Their work creates bridges across the ecosystem, tackling challenges like assessments, math outcomes, and literacy, and showcases their findings for the larger field. 

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: Partnering to Co-Build

As a funder and collaborator in the edtech field, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) supports the development of evidence-based, co-created personalized learning experiences through the use of technology. CZI partners with organizations conducting and promoting inclusive R&D–including Leanlab Education, Digital Promise, and ISTE–as well as educators and students to co-build tools and reimagine education.

CZI engages in co-building through their edtech innovation studio, Render. With their collaborative product development approach, Render is creating AI-customized math materials, tools focused on elementary literacy, and administrative applications for classroom grouping. Reflecting their inclusive approach, Render’s co-building opportunities are posted online and matched to educator interests.

The Path Forward: Scaling Access to Inclusive Innovation 

As AI continues to reshape the edtech landscape and schools look for breakthrough solutions that improve outcomes for all students,, there is an opportunity to establish inclusive innovation as an expected norm. Stakeholders across the edtech ecosystem—educators, researchers, solution providers, funders, and policymakers—can all engage in inclusive innovation and guide the transformation of K-12 education. 

Through collective action, we can ensure the future of edtech, particularly AI-powered edtech, is not only innovative but also inclusive. 

Here’s how each group can get started:

  • Educators, district leaders, and students can get involved in R&D projects, with opportunities aligned to their needs, interests, and capacity. Leanlab Education, In Tandem, Transcend, and Digital Promise are only a few examples of robust innovation communities. 

  • Schools, when seeking out new edtech, can check validations in the Edtech Index, use Evidence for ESSA or other reviewing bodies, or include inclusive design criteria in RFPs. 

  • Solution providers can co-build promising edtech with the communities they aim to serve, tapping third-party research organizations that use inclusive R&D methods or design internal R&D efforts on co-design principles

  • Funders, policy makers, and solution providers can leverage open research, guidelines, and other resources to support inclusive R&D efforts, improve developing edtech, and collaborate more effectively. 


AGILE Network Launches to Accelerate Inclusive Education R&D

The American Group of Innovative Learning Environments (AGILE) Network offers a centralized infrastructure for research, development, and evaluation.

Research nonprofit Leanlab Education launched the American Group of Innovative Learning Environments (AGILE) Network at ISTELive24 with members from learning environments across the country, including school systems, teachers, and non-traditional learning environments. Comprised of education communities on the cutting edge of innovation, the AGILE Network works to accelerate the pace of education research and development (R&D), while elevating historically underrepresented educator and student perspectives. 

By leveraging a centralized infrastructure that facilitates “matching” between R&D opportunities—development of emerging technologies and research studies—and participating schools and educators, the AGILE Network aims to become a critical piece of American education R&D infrastructure, designed to keep pace with rapid development cycles in the private sector. 

Member schools and educators influence the development and evaluation of emerging education solutions, including curriculum and technology—addressing a well-documented evidence shortage in the market. Studies in the 2024-2025 school year will cover topics including generative AI, literacy, assessment, and mathematical reasoning. 

The AGILE Network represents the diversity of learning experiences in the United States, welcoming public districts, charter schools, independent schools, non-traditional environments like micro-schools, and individual educators. To combat existing inequities in education R&D, members have been intentionally assembled to prioritize historically marginalized learner communities. Twenty learning environments are joining the 2024-2025 cohort, including:

  • Academy for Integrated Arts (Missouri)

  • Allegiance STEAM Academy (California)

  • Astra Nova Schools (National)

  • Catalyst Schools (Illinois)

  • Distinctive Schools (Illinois)

  • Ednovate (California)

  • Limestone Community School (Kansas)

  • Milpitas Unified School District (California)

  • Oak Ridge Schools (Tennessee)

  • Prisma Online School (National)

Of the new network, Leanlab Education Founder and CEO Katie Boody Adorno shared, “The AGILE Network will reduce barriers to engage school communities in the co-development and co-design of emerging technologies with researchers. By systematically elevating school community perspectives, we believe we will accelerate the pace of breakthroughs in the field of teaching and learning.”

Following the kickoff convening, Kevin Nham from Ednovate remarked, “I’m looking forward to partnering with edtech companies to develop tools that will truly impact student achievement.” Catalyst Schools’ Nick Tomasso added, “I’m excited about opportunities to grow in my own practice by collaborating with like-minded educators.”

The AGILE Network is a collective action initiative and builds on a decade of Leanlab Education’s leadership bringing together learning communities and education technology companies to co-design, co-develop, and study education innovations. The AGILE Network framework was developed through a planning grant with InnovateEDU and the Center for Education Market Dynamics (CEMD) and is based on the guiding Tenets and Principles published by the Global Edtech Trialing Network. 

Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF), the world’s first Advanced Inclusive R&D organization dedicated to scientific discovery and invention for PreK-12 education, is a founding partner, contributing essential R&D infrastructure expertise, resources, and advanced R&D projects currently seeking breakthroughs in reading, executive function and math, and assessment. “The AGILE Network serves a critical need to enable education R&D to actually be inclusive and done with educators,” said Chris Liang-Vergara, Chief Learning Officer at AERDF.

Digital Promise and ISTE are contributing network partners, nominating qualifying educators and school districts, and supporting inclusive innovation convenings. Initial funding was provided by the Siegel Family Endowment and Walton Family Foundation, among others. Education, nonprofit, and supporting partners are expected to increase following the pilot year of the network. 

Try It. Use It. Study It.

Educators and students are the source of truth on the classroom experience, and they hold invaluable knowledge as the end users of many edtech products. Leanlab Education’s research taps into their expertise by bringing together innovative educators and school districts to collaborate with edtech companies seeking to solve real problems in education. 

Bending the Market

In an environment where top-down federal regulation demanding rigorous evidence of edtech is unlikely, we must work to leverage market forces for good. To do so, we need to work to find the middle ground between solution providers' natural go-to-market inclinations and revenue obligations and R&D; where do those two intersect? School Systems and Educators. 

Protect Teacher Time At All Costs

Despite the headlines, a few new studies suggest that staff shortages may not be our biggest barrier as students return to school this fall. Instead, the rate of learning recovery post pandemic is threatening to perpetuate persistent (and potentially widened) inequities among students along lines of race and class.

Mission-Driven, Community Focused

NAME

Laura Gowans

ROLE

Chief Operating Officer

BIO

Hi! I’m a KC native that graduated from Lee’s Summit North High school before moving to California and Paris for a few years for school. Now I'm back in Kansas City, living in West Plaza with my husband and two cats. I am the President of SocialHeart, a nonprofit that hosts events to raise money for emerging local charities, such as our monthly Kansas City Young Professionals meetups. In my free time I love hiking, reading, and traveling!

WHY I GRAVITATE TOWARDS THIS WORK…

I’m only interested in working at organizations that are actively trying to make the world a better place. During Covid, it became apparent that teachers and schools, already under-resourced, were going through unprecedented challenges. I love Leanlab’s mission of elevating community voices while directly giving back to teachers and schools, asking them what THEY need and the best way that we can help.

FUN FACT

For my husband’s 30th birthday, I threw him a surprise party and built a custom zombie-themed Escape Room from scratch.