Fifteen products have earned the Learner Variability product certification from Digital Promise. The new product certification is intended to serve as a reliable signal for educators, administrators, and families looking for evidence that educational technology (edtech) products support the unique needs of their learners.
Edtech product teams submitted evidence verifying they have designed features, including some that can be manipulated by learners themselves, that support learner variability. The following 15 product teams are the first to receive the Learner Variability product certification:
Achieve3000
Actively Learn
BrainPOP
CommonLit
Ellevation Math
Ellevation Strategies
Levered Learning
Newsela
My Math Academy
Pear Deck
Readworks
Speak Agent
ST Math
STORYWORLD
Tailor-ED
“Edtech designed for learner variability has the potential to provide pathways to equitable, powerful learning opportunities and experiences for every learner,” said Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise. “Digital Promise’s product certifications are designed to help strengthen consumers’ confidence in choosing edtech products that will better support authentic and unique learner needs.”
Learner variability is based on a whole child understanding of learners, in which product developers and educators recognize that each learner has unique cognitive development, social-emotional capacities, and background considerations. Edtech products designed to attend to learner variability are more likely to support the broad range of a learner’s strengths and challenges that can vary in different contexts and that create multiple opportunities for differentiation.
The Learner Variability product certification uses a competency-based learning framework, developed in collaboration with more than 60 educators, a dozen edtech products, and Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Project advisory board.
“Products that earn a seal of certification, like those given by Digital Promise, deliver a high level of assurance and comfort that gives education decision-makers confidence that the product’s bottom line is about helping improve the educational experiences of the students, and not about solely making a profit,” said Dr. Baron Davis, superintendent of Richland School District Two in South Carolina.
The Learner Variability certification is Digital Promise’s second product certification. The organization launched the Research-Based Design certification in February and has certified 37 products to date. Eleven products have earned both certifications. Through Product Certifications, consumers can narrow their options as they select products by identifying edtech that is truly based in research about learning and has the potential to support unique learning needs before trying it out in their classrooms.
Applications are now open on the Digital Promise website for product developers interested in earning the Learner Variability product certification. For more information on Digital Promise’s product certifications, visit productcertifications.digitalpromise.org.