The Promise of EdTech

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, colloquially known as “the nation’s report card,” is an annual test that tracks math and reading proficiency for fourth and eighth graders. When the 2022 report card was released, it painted a bleak picture of the state of education. Fourth grade math scores, after climbing 15 points from 2000 to 2019, dropped five points from 2019 to 2022. Reading scores fell four points over the same period.

These results, declared an article in The New York Times, “showed in stark terms the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren.” While the move to remote learning affected all students, it was particularly disruptive for elementary and middle school learners.

“Those are some of the most formative years for learning math and reading,” says Kat Mitchell ’17. “Having to deal with that transition to online and also having to understand those concepts by looking at a screen, where your attention may not be 100% and you’re not able to work with your peers or have one-on-one time with your teacher, it really created those learning gaps.”

Mitchell works at Curriculum Associates, an education technology (EdTech) company that has played a leading role in helping schools and students regain lost learning. Originally founded as a textbook publisher, Curriculum Associates moved into the EdTech space in 2011 with the introduction of i-Ready, a digital platform that supplements classroom learning with individualized lesson plans.

The i-Ready interface looks like an online game. “Students take an adaptive diagnostic assessment three times a year,” Mitchell explains. “Based on their results, the program generates personalized learning paths for each student. These lessons are targeted to bring students to and above grade level. Throughout the year, i-Ready generates several reports for the teachers and parents to analyze.”

Buried under the various headline statistics documenting pandemic-fueled learning loss is the fact that not all learning was lost equally. Several studies have found that students of color and students from lower income households were disproportionately affected. Although tools like i-Ready are not without barriers––their use requires devices and internet access––they can help level the playing field.

“One way in which EdTech tools can create a more equitable learning environment is by providing personalized instruction,” says Mitchell. “If you’re in a class of 30 students and one teacher, it would be extremely hard for that teacher to go around each day and provide an individualized learning plan for all 30 students.” Digital tools, she adds, should not replace teachers or the individual attention they give their students. Instead, such tools provide educators with data to optimize their one-on-one time with students.

Students who engage with i-Ready and use it regularly have achieved strong results. The tool has a feature called “Stretch Growth” that is designed to help students who have fallen behind their grade level accelerate their learning and get back on track. Because of i-Ready’s impressive record, it has become increasingly popular in schools across the country. According to Mitchell, roughly one-third of American k-8 students use the tool in one form or another.

Mitchell did not intend to pursue a career in EdTech, but she’s always been fascinated by learning. “Teaching sailing in the summers and volunteering with the Special Olympics at Tabor, really drew me to working with kids and learning more about how people learn,” she says.

At the University of Richmond, Mitchell majored in Leadership and picked up a minor in Education. She interned with the U.S. Department of Education the summer before her senior year. As graduation approached, she planned to go into teaching, but then a friend told her about Curriculum Associates.

“I’d never heard of EdTech,” she says. “But I did a little research and learned more about i-Ready and the individualized curriculum and how the product adapts to each student. I was just blown out of the water.”

Mitchell is currently in the middle of a three-year rotational program that has exposed her to a wide range of operations within the company. She worked directly with teachers during her time on the client support team, assisted with public relations efforts on the communications team, and is currently helping to develop new business as part of the regional marketing team. All of this experience has made her a firm believer in the power of EdTech.

“I think with the advancement of technology and the use of it in the classroom, it will allow for a more personalized and more tailored approach to education,” says Mitchell. “The ability to elevate those students that need extra support and really bring them up to their fullest potential is something I think EdTech tools have the ability to do.”

The Intersection of People and Platforms

Njeri Semaj ’95 has been teaching high school and middle school Spanish since 1999. She has worked in public and private schools up and down the east coast in addition to running a summer immersion program in Spain. While the transition to remote learning during the pandemic was a new experience, the veteran teacher adapted with ease.

“I had a really good time on ‘Zoom school’ because my classes were like The Muppet Show,” she says. “It wasn’t very uncomfortable. I just changed the delivery of my material. You have to meet the needs of your audience on the other side of the screen.”

While the pandemic highlighted the burgeoning promise of EdTech, Semaj does not believe digital tools will supplant traditional teaching. “I love digital platforms and whatnot, but as far as I can tell, people like the combination of a person and a platform,” she says. “It’s not going to be exclusively one or the other.”

Since 2022, Semaj has had a front row seat to this intersection. In addition to her full-time teaching, she works as a curriculum developer for Mango Languages, a language learning app similar to DuoLingo. The product was originally designed for adults to use in a non-academic setting, but the pandemic prompted the company to design a version that schools could use to augment classroom teaching.

“What I’m doing is creating lesson plans that function like a digital textbook for an actual teacher to be able to use to plug and play,” Semaj says. “It’s not very different from using the online version of a textbook. I’m writing lessons like I would write for my own classes. They’re the meat that will go around the bones of the Mango app.”

As the company continues to grow, Semaj appreciates how it has prioritized the perspective of seasoned educators. She says, “I like that Mango has hired teachers to make sure that their content is realistic and relevant for the target audience, which is student learners in a digital classroom setting.”