Technology-Enabled Education Innovation Partnership Act
A BILL
To award grants to improve equality of access to technology-enabled education innovations and understanding of how partnerships of educational agencies and research institutions design and implement such innovations in ways that improve student outcomes, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings and purposes
Findings— Congress finds the following:
Technology and the Internet have transformed nearly every aspect of both the global economy and our daily lives. In a technology-rich world, no amount of memorizing information will make a student competitive in the global labor market. America needs an education system that supports students from all walks of life in becoming inquisitive, resourceful thinkers who use technology to pursue knowledge, collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries, acquire new skills, and solve complex problems.
Equality and equity of access is more than access to the same hardware, software, and broadband connections. It includes access to the best digital learning resources and access to teachers who know how to orchestrate the use of these resources in ways that inspire students and produce better learning outcomes.
Technology by itself will not improve student outcomes. What is needed are carefully designed innovations that include not just technology but also good learning content, effective instructional strategies, supports for teachers and school systems figuring out how to use the new approach, and the capacity to collect, analyze and reflect on data that will show whether or not the innovation is having the intended effects.
Effective learning technology implementations addressing the challenging aspects of language arts, mathematics and science that all students are expected to master. This will require partnerships among education agencies, education researchers, and technology developers with the common goal of harnessing technology to provide opportunities for deeper learning to students who would not otherwise experience them.
Purposes— The purpose of this Act is to—
accelerate the development of technology-supported innovations that improve student learning and educational attainment; and
promote the use of technology-supported innovations that improve student outcomes in classrooms serving high-need students.
Sec. 3 Definitions
In this Act:
ESEA terms— The terms local educational agency, professional development, and State educational agency have the meanings given the terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
Eligible partnership— The term eligible partnership means a partnership that—
shall include—
not less than one—
State educational agency; or
local educational agency; and
not less than one research and evaluation partner, ; and
may include other necessary partner organizations, as determined by the Secretary (acting through the Office of Innovation and Improvement), including technology developers or vendors, technical assistance providers, and education associations.
High-need student— The term high-need student means—
a student from a family living below the poverty level for the most recent fiscal year for which satisfactory data are available;
English language learners; and
students with disabilities.
Institution of higher education— The term institution of higher education has the meaning given the term in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)).
Meta-analysis— The term meta-analysis means a statistical technique for combining the results of multiple independent studies of the same or similar phenomena in order to provide a more precise estimate of the treatment effect.
Research and evaluation collaborator— The term research and evaluation collaborator means as an institution of higher education, a nonprofit research organization, or an established evaluator of educational programs that—
is not a member of an eligible partnership;
is independent of a State educational agency; and
has demonstrated capacity to—
conduct valid and objective social science research on the relationship between technology-enabled education innovation programs and outcomes, mediated by qualities of implementation; and
provide timely empirical feedback that contributes to improving technology-enabled education innovation.
Research and evaluation partner— The term research and evaluation partner means an institution of higher education or a nonprofit research organization in an eligible partnership that is responsible for—
designing and conducting an evaluation of the extent to which the partnership’s innovation leads to better outcomes for students; and
researching the way in which the innovation is implemented in different settings and with different kinds of students, and the relationship between implementation practices and differences in student outcomes.
Secretary— The term Secretary means the Secretary of Education.
Technology-enabled education innovation program— The term technology-enabled education innovation program means an educational intervention that—
employs information technology, best available knowledge about how people learn, and an understanding of how programs are implemented in education settings; and
may be implemented at scale with reasonable costs, with the ratio of expected benefits to costs being significantly superior to that for existing approaches.