Dive Brief:

• Molly B. Zielezinski, a doctoral candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, writes for EdSurge that a combination of access and engagement to technology for traditionally disadvantaged students can help them succeed in K-12 classrooms — and help reduce the drop-our rate for students of color. 
• One way districts can help is by halting the use of tech for remedial drills, instead focusing on helping students engage in authentic tasks that require innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, inferencing, analyzing and synthesizing information from multiple sources.
• Students can also be encouraged to create and develop digital content of their own, and communities and businesses can mitigate costs via nonprofits and public-private partnerships.

Dive Insight:

Some districts, like Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools, are already engaging students with interactive components by combining traditional textbooks with a variety of other content, like newspapers, letters and source documents. With students better engaged in learning, academic performance is improved. Fairfax uses technology and games to engage learners in topics like modern naming controversies for countries or bodies of water.

For subjects like history, it can also deepen learning if educators are transparent about subjectivity. By considering more diverse perspectives and looking to various sources instead of a single text, young learners will likely be more interested, as well as being more self-directed and engaged in the learning process. It's also good for districts to consider carving out time for students to learn soft skills, which are now seen by some education experts as critical​ to academic performance and college and career readiness.