GETTING YOUR SCHOOL BOARD ON BOARD FOR EDUCATIONAL TECH

School boards play a critical role when it comes to implementing new initiatives such as educational technology programs and deployments. They typically hold the purse strings for K–12 school districts and are responsible for making sure funds are allocated in a way that best meets district needs and learning objectives.

But getting school boards to approve funding for new tech isn’t so easy. Administrators and IT leaders must keep in mind that school boards are balancing budgets and technology requests but may not be experts in the technologies presented to them.

Plus, school boards are wary about edtech going to waste. U.S. schools spend an estimated $13 billion on more than 7,000 edtech tools each year, but research shows that 85 percent of that spending is wasted on products that are a poor fit or implemented incorrectly for schools, according to the Jefferson Education Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching how education leaders can make informed decisions about technology.