For many years, educators and polic

For many years, educators and policymakers looking for strategies to close the achievement
gap and improve student learning have sought solutions involving new uses of technology,
especially for students placed at-risk. Unfortunately, the results of technology initiatives have
been mixed. Often, the introduction of technology into classrooms has failed to meet the
grand expectations proponents anticipated. The educational landscape is replete with stories
and studies about how at-risk students were unable to benefit from particular innovations
seeking to use computers for teaching.
There are, however, successes among these efforts, and they reveal some common
approaches to technology use. Based on a review of more than seventy recent studies,1
this
brief describes these approaches, particularly as they apply to high school students who
have been at risk of failing courses and exit examinations or dropping out due to a range
of personal factors (such as pregnancy, necessary employment, mobility, and homelessness)
and academic factors (special education needs, credit deficiencies, and lack of supports for
learning English). The brief then outlines policy strategies that could expand the uses of
technology for at-risk high school youth