For too long, K-12 technology leadership has been defined by siloed approaches — prioritizing tools over the systems they operate within. This fragmented focus has hindered innovation and equity, leaving many leaders struggling to make meaningful, lasting changes. It’s a challenge reflected in CoSN’s 2024 State of EdTech District Leadership Report, where 77% of edtech leaders identified “Driving and Sustaining K-12 Innovation” as a top priority. Our work with leaders nationwide has revealed a clear solution: innovation — particularly that which drives forward equitable outcomes for all students — demands a systemic approach. To strengthen equity and sustain impact, it’s not just about the tools: it’s about building cohesive systems that drive lasting change.
At The Learning Accelerator (TLA), we’ve worked to address this challenge in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Educational Technology. Over the past three years, we’ve collaborated to develop a more effective, equity-driven approach to edtech leadership. In 2022, we engaged over 200 educators and leaders nationwide to gather insights into the challenges and opportunities leaders face. These efforts culminated in the EdTech Systems Guide — a framework for equity-driven selection, implementation, and evaluation. Recognized with the 2023 State EdTech Directors Association (SETDA) Equity of Access State Achievement Award, the guide offers both a vision for what’s possible and a catalyst for change for leaders striving to strengthen and innovate within their systems.
Since its creation, the EdTech Systems Guide has helped leaders translate this vision into action. Over the past two school years, we’ve partnered with 22 Massachusetts edtech leaders to bring its principles to life in their schools and systems. Through this work, three key lessons have emerged for leaders ready to drive meaningful and sustainable change in their contexts.
Lesson One: Systems-Level Leadership is Essential in Edtech
Effective edtech leadership prioritizes how tools, practices, and processes interact to achieve equitable, sustainable outcomes aligned with broader educational goals. A systems-focused leader fosters collaboration across departments, breaking down silos to create a cohesive approach. This ensures that new tools integrate seamlessly, align with instructional priorities, and promote equitable access.
For instance, a systems-focused leader might bring IT and curriculum teams together to co-design solutions that address technical and instructional needs, ensuring tools are implemented to support student-centered learning.
This approach also requires leaders to evaluate the broader conditions that impact their strategies — such as funding disparities, access to devices, or teachers’ capacity to adopt new technologies — and adjust to evolving challenges. By embedding equity into every decision and prioritizing system-wide coherence, edtech leaders can create meaningful, lasting change that benefits all stakeholders.
Lesson Two: There Are Key Conditions and Practices for Building Strong Edtech Systems
Achieving the EdTech Systems Guide’s vision requires both enabling conditions that unify leadership and foundational practices that inform decisions:
- Enabling conditions are the critical factors that align school and system leaders’ work across silos and create a unified vision. For edtech leaders to take a systems-level approach, their organizations need a shared vision for teaching and learning as well as mutual commitments to equity and continuous improvement. These conditions foster the coherence and collaboration necessary to unify efforts across a school or district, ensuring that edtech leadership decisions align with broader organizational priorities.
- Foundational practices include forming collaborative teams to break silos and ensure diverse perspectives guide decisions. Auditing tools and building research and measurement capacity uncover inequities, reduce redundancies, and align resources, while engaging stakeholders to ensure leadership meets real needs.
These elements are prerequisites to the selection, implementation, and evaluation practices outlined in the EdTech Systems Guide. Edtech leaders may need to develop or strengthen these foundations before they can fully realize the vision of equitable, sustainable, and innovative systems.
Lesson Three: Tools Exist That Empower Edtech Leaders to Create Change
Leaders we worked with identified three critical areas of need: diagnosing priorities among competing demands, drafting accessible and actionable continuous improvement plans, and seeing practical examples of this work in action. To support them, we created resources designed to provide targeted, actionable guidance:
- The EdTech Systems Self-Assessment helps leaders identify priorities and align efforts with equity goals for impactful improvements.
- The Continuous Improvement Guide offers practical steps for turning goals into actionable plans. Leaders found it invaluable for breaking down big ideas into achievable milestones, ensuring progress remains focused and realistic.
- Case studies that describe the improvement efforts of Chicopee, Uxbridge, and Natick Public Schools demonstrate how edtech leaders in real school systems adopted systems-level edtech leadership that led to tangible improvement.
These tools enable leaders to turn vision into action, creating equitable, cohesive systems that drive meaningful change for all learners.
The Path Forward: Driving Systemic Change in Edtech
Enacting a systems-level approach — grounded in enabling conditions, foundational practices, and targeted tools — is a journey that requires both vision and action to achieve meaningful, sustainable change for students. Resources like the EdTech Systems Guide and our Driving EdTech Systems Series offer leaders the support they need to reflect, prioritize, and innovate in ways that align with their goals and values. By embracing these strategies and leveraging available resources, leaders can transform their schools and systems, ensuring that technology serves as a powerful force for equity and innovation.
If you are in Orlando this week for FETC 2025, join me for my session, “Driving EdTech Systems: Enacting Equity-Driven Practices for Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation,” this Friday, January 17th at 9 a.m. ET. Together, we’ll dive into actionable strategies for leveraging these resources to transform your district’s edtech leadership.
