New School Leadership Toolkit Advances Digital Equity Nationwide

To improve digital equity in school systems nationwide, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN ) launched the Digital Equity Action Toolkit for district leaders. The toolkit provides school system leaders with thoughtful strategies to address and narrow the “homework gap” in their communities. The new leadership initiative and version 1.0 toolkit provides a historic contextual background of the issue, explains the “homework gap,” details broader implications of household connectivity, and lays out steps school districts can take today. These steps include: survey the district’s connectivity and devices; engage the community; ensure sustainability through community assets; and consider outside-of-the-box solutions.

In addition, the toolkit presents six approaches that will enable school districts to strengthen their leadership and spark innovation in pursuing digital equity in their communities:

• Partner with local businesses on Wi-Fi access for learning;
• Maximize the use of existing assets;
• Seek mobile hotspot and/or affordable LTE programs;
• Leverage special broadband offerings;
• Repurpose educational spectrum; and
• Create a mesh network.