Education Week - April 18, 2018 - 28

Technology
Leadership
Is Tough
Principals face pressure cooker
of K-12 ed-tech priorities

By Denisa R. Superville
PRINCIPALS SIT IN A VERY DIFFICULT POSITION WHEN
it comes to educational technology. They face
pressures about what digital learning approaches to take and what tech products to
buy-from the central office, education companies, teachers, parents, and students. Some
will embrace their choices, while others will
question them-or in some cases, even try to
undermine them.
That's why many ed-tech experts say that
the success of digital learning initiatives often
hinges on the principal's ability to find the
right balance among all the various groups in
a school community. But, ultimately, principals also must make tough decisions based on
the best interests of students.
"Whether [the technology is] for learning
or it's for teaching, we want to look at it, we
want to explore it, and if it's something that we
find is useful, then we'll actually put the money
into it," said Brad Currie, the director of planning, research, and evaluation for the Chester school district in Morris County, N.J., who
helped his district implement a 1-to-1 computing program while he was vice principal of
Black River Middle School there.
To get a sense of where the pressure points
are around some core ed-tech issues, the
Education Week Research Center conducted a
nationally representative survey of 500 principals, assistant principals, and school deans.
The survey found the greatest pressure was
largely coming from vendors and the central
office-not teachers, parents, or students.
Regarding the personalized-learning movement, for instance, 55 percent of principals felt
mild to strong pressure from technology companies to welcome the movement, and 46 percent
felt such pressure from district leaders.

Education Week / April 18, 2018

Technology companies also topped the pressure-cooker list when principals were asked if
they felt pressure to reject or accept computer
science education, with 47 percent of principals feeling mild or strong pressure from them
to do so. District leaders were second, with 39
percent of principals citing such pressures.
Winston Sakurai, the principal of the upper
school grades 7-12 Hanalani Schools, a private
Christian school in Hawaii, said some technology companies have gotten more creative and
aggressive in trying to get his attention. In the
old days, they just sent mailers or catalogs with
their product pitches.
"Now, it's emails from tech companies asking, "Are you interested in this? Can we set up a
phone call? Can we set something up?' " he said.
A few times, education company marketers
have called his secretary directly insinuating that
they had already talked to him and that he was
interested in getting more information about the
product, even though he had never said so.
"The tactics have gotten a little bit aggressive," he said. "I think it could be frustrating
to some people."
Part of the reason for the aggressive outreach is that it's easier to find and contact
principals, he said. But, he added, tech companies are also probably facing stiff competition from a glut of free resources that are now
available to schools, including Khan Academy,
video lessons on YouTube, and free opensourced curriculum crafted by teachers.
Other survey results and follow-up interviews with principals and district administrators also reveal interesting perspectives on the
leadership roles of principals around issues
related to personalized learning, screen time,
computer science skills, and access to technology. They include:
Two years after the Obama administration launched its Computer Science for All
initiative-aimed at ensuring that students
at every grade level have access to computer
science courses-only 7 percent of principals
and school leaders surveyed said teaching the
subject was central to their school's mission
and operations. Nearly a third said computer
science for all was not on their radar screens.
Slightly more than half the principals
surveyed described personalized learning as
a "promising idea" or a "transformational
way to improve public education." Another
31 percent said it was "one of many school
improvement strategies available" to them.
Nearly two-thirds of all principals believed students are getting the right amount
of screen time in school, while 17 percent be-

lieved students were getting too much.
Jethro Jones, the principal of Tanana Middle
School in Fairbanks, Alaska, found some of
those results surprising.
"I think that anybody who is not seeing
[personalized learning] as a transformational
way to improve public education doesn't understand what it can be," said Jones, who
hosts a weekly podcast, "Transformative
Principal," in which he interviews principals
who are making a difference in their schools.
"Truly personalized learning is the way that
deep, meaningful, memorable learning has
always happened."
In the digital age, personalized learning has
evolved to include individualized-learning
plans for students, continual assessments, and
ongoing feedback loops. Schools have also redesigned learning spaces to allow students to
work at their own pace, in small groups, or individually.
It's "about giving kids what they need, when
they need it, and being aware enough of what's
going on in their lives and what their skills are
to be able to give them extra support," he said.
"Technology allows us to do it at scale, but
technology does not allow us to do it, period.
There's an important distinction there that you
don't have to have technology to personalize
learning for your kids."
Brian Partin, the president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, similarly said that personalized learning gives educators an opportunity to provide differentiated
supports for students. He, too, was surprised that
more of his colleagues do not have as positive a
view of personalized learning as he does.

IN TENNESSEE'S KINGSPORT CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT,
where Partin worked as a middle school principal before going on leave to serve as the
NAESP president, the movement to personalize learning is the result of expectations-he
hesitates to use the word "pressure"-at the
state and local levels. It grew from the need
to implement more rigorous state college and
career standards, the district's mission statement to graduate globally competitive citizens, student input, and support from community leaders, he said.
Local businesses have also been part of the
discussion to ensure that students have access
to meaningful computer-science-based learning experiences, beginning in elementary and
continuing through high school.
"When you are talking about ensuring college-and-career readiness for all students,

Education Week - April 18, 2018

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