Creating Healthy Policy for Digital Learning

Digital learning “unbundles” education so it can be customized for individual students, writes Frederick Hess for a Thomas B. Fordham Institute working paper. This flexibility also creates quality control challenges for families, schools, and states, who want to promote and ensure high-quality programs without squashing them. Hess recommends demanding transparent financial information from providers who receive taxpayer funds, holding them accountable for student achievement gains when possible, and developing “crowdsourcing” reporting systems to help educators, parents, and students identify the most effective purveyors.