Learning What Works in Educational Technology with a Case Study of ...

POLICY MEMO 2016-01 | MARCH 2016

Learning What Works in Educational Technology with a Case Study of EDUSTAR

Aaron K. Chatterji and Benjamin F. Jones

MISSION STATEMENT

The Hamilton Project seeks to advance America's promise of opportunity, prosperity, and growth.

We believe that today's increasingly competitive global economy demands public policy ideas commensurate with the challenges of the 21st Century. The Project's economic strategy reflects a judgment that long-term prosperity is best achieved by fostering economic growth and broad participation in that growth, by enhancing individual economic security, and by embracing a role for effective government in making needed public investments.

Our strategy calls for combining public investment, a secure social safety net, and fiscal discipline. In that framework, the Project puts forward innovative proposals from leading economic thinkers -- based on credible evidence and experience, not ideology or doctrine -- to introduce new and effective policy options into the national debate.

The Project is named after Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury Secretary, who laid the foundation for the modern American economy. Hamilton stood for sound fiscal policy, believed that broad-based opportunity for advancement would drive American economic growth, and recognized that "prudent aids and encouragements on the part of government" are necessary to enhance and guide market forces. The guiding principles of the Project remain consistent with these views.

Learning What Works in Educational Technology with a Case Study of EDUSTAR

Aaron K. Chatterji

Duke University

Benjamin F. Jones

Northwestern University MARCH 2016

NOTE: This policy memo is a proposal from the author(s). As emphasized in The Hamilton Project's original strategy paper, the Project was designed in part to provide a forum for leading thinkers across the nation to put forward innovative and potentially important economic policy ideas that share the Project's broad goals of promoting economic growth, broad-based participation in growth, and economic security. The author(s) are invited to express their own ideas in policy memos, whether or not the Project's staff or advisory council agrees with the specific proposals. This policy memo is offered in that spirit.

The Hamilton Project ? Brookings 1

Abstract

Despite much fanfare, new technologies have yet to fundamentally advance student outcomes in K?12 schools or other educational settings. We believe that the system that supports the development and dissemination of educational technology tools is falling short. The key missing ingredient is rigorous evaluation. No one knows what works and for whom. This policy memo articulates general principles that should guide the evaluation of educational technology; these evaluations have the promise to fill in critical information gaps and leverage the potential of new technologies to improve learning. We also present a case study of a new platform, EDUSTAR, conceived by the authors and implemented with a national nonprofit organization. The results from the platform pilot examples reveal several lessons for the future of educational technology.

2 Learning What Works in Educational Technology with a Case Study of EDUSTAR

Table of Contents

A B S T R AC T

2

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

5

CHAPTER 2. LEARNING WHAT WORKS

6

CHAPTER 3. THE CASE OF EDUSTAR

8

CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION

13

AUTHORS

14

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

14

ENDNOTES

15

REFERENCES

16

The Hamilton Project ? Brookings 3

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