Completely agreed, Ms. Janet Lake. There are tremendous issues of access and equity that muddy the waters of progress in education. While the research is clear, smaller classrooms translate into better learning outcomes, not all folks are willing to accept this finding.

As a teacher I hesitate to pin the holy grail on technology because I fear that folks will take it as a sign of a teacher replacement/improvement instead of a tool for teachers, which it was created to be. But I do believe that the rapid advancement in educational technologies will allow teachers to have more ways to intervene in the learning of more students and in a deeper, more meaningful way. Will teachers be compensated for all of this work? I’m not so sure. Should they still have classrooms with more than 30 students in a class? Absolutely not. Should we stop creating tools to support teacher’s already strenuous jobs by providing tools that gather student work and translate it into useful information from which to plan? For me that too is a resounding no.

While I’m prone to optimism, I do tread cautiously.