Strong leaders are essential for the developing and sustaining transitions to digital learning. Leaders know this and want research-back direction to be those strong leaders who make good choices. The Office of Educational Technology (OET), in partnership with the American Institutes for Research, developed a research-based synthesis that defines a set of 27 policies and practices within four focus areas: collaborative leadership, personalized student learning, personalized professional learning and robust infrastructure.
The resulting Characteristics of Future Ready Leadership describes the policies and practices used by successful Future Ready district leaders. The rubric was also instrumental in the Future Ready Leaders project and in creating a set of video segments that any school leader can assembly into a personalized playlist. Practices from schools in eight districts were captured on 50 videos. Together they represent a virtual tour of a highly advanced digital learning environment.
The OET, a branch within the U.S. Department of Education, also is keen to support teacher preparedness as well. For the educators of educators the office offers a policy brief, Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation, which identifies key challenges faced in making teacher ready to effectively integrate technology into classroom. It also provides guiding principles and solutions on how to move the field toward preparing teachers and identifies areas of opportunity and collaboration for stakeholders across the field.
