Equity at the center of decision-making: How Las Cruces Public Schools is maximizing education technology for all its students

Confronting the problem in a time of uncertainty

To better understand the challenges of transition to remote learning in Las Cruces Public Schools, consider these statistics—74% of their students are classified as economically disadvantaged and 14% of their students are classified as learners with disabilities. The shift to remote learning not only tested the district’s capacity to handle the logistics of a massive deployment of new devices—it also tested the district’s commitment to equity and access. The district understood that any decision about devices was inseparable from issues of equity, and so, within a matter of weeks, the key stakeholders worked together to deploy a massive number of Windows devices and to help provide internet connectivity across the district.

Deploying that many devices in such a short timeframe is worthy of praise in and of itself, but it is the stakeholders’ decision-making process that spotlighted equity and access at a time of uncertainty that is worthy of deeper analysis. As the saying goes, crises rarely create character, they reveal it. In the case of Las Cruces Public Schools, the challenges of remote learning revealed a group of administrators, educators, parents, students, and community stakeholders that chose to incorporate the broader needs of students and educators.

In the past, Las Cruces Public Schools used a combination of computer labs and computer carts to supplement their classrooms. As Maggie Romero, a chemistry teacher with 20 years of experience, explains, “when the first carts were coming in, maybe 10 years ago, there was a cart being shared by two or three classes. At the time, we thought that was the best option.” The switch to remote delivery revealed how outdated this model was and how crucial it was to rethink the potential of educational technologies to help reduce disparities. Las Cruces Deputy Superintendent Dr. Wendi Miller-Tomlinson says, “COVID-19 really pushed us forward by forcing us to rethink our old models like the freestanding computer labs. We had to ask what those labs were really for and who was and was not actually benefiting from them.”

Choosing devices is always also a choice about equity

When the stakeholders took a deeper look at the role of devices in effective remote learning options, they came to the firm conclusion that equity demanded that all Las Cruces Public School students should have access to their own devices that they could use from home. According to Chief Technology Officer Josh Silver, there was a strong temptation to go with the cheapest option and send Chromebooks to every student and educator. Focusing on equity, though, required a closer examination of the devices themselves. 

In the end, the district chose to purchase Windows based HP 360 devices for the students, and Microsoft Surface devices for the educators and staff. The HP 360 devices met the key needs and wants of the students, like durability, inking, baked-in accessibility features and long battery life, while the Microsoft Surfaces enabled essential features like digital inking to support educators in their grading. Further, the devices offered standardization without compromising on functionality.

From Josh’s perspective, standardization is a matter of equity. By using Windows devices, Josh could ensure that students from elementary schools through high schools would have a single login with an ecosystem that could facilitate all their class needs without asking the educators or students to track down and install complicated add-ons. Dr. Becky Alvarado-Alcantar, Special Education Teacher in Las Cruces Public Schools concurs with Josh’s assessment that standardization drives simplicity. In her view, “I am always worried about the number of add-ons you have to put into your Google extensions to get the same features that Microsoft has embedded in their tools already. There's a lot of difficult work for students and educators just to find the add-on that would work for Chromebooks.”

Nowhere is this difficulty more prevalent, and more problematic, than when it comes to the experience of students with learning challenges. Becky’s experience with these students has shown that choosing the right ecosystem can be the difference between students graduating or dropping out altogether. As she notes, “before these changes, I actually had students who dropped out of high school because they couldn't pass the online course requirement for graduation and just gave up. It killed me more than anything else that they didn’t have the right tools.” Josh and Becky collaborated to foreground the experiences of students with disabilities in device selection precisely because the switch to remote learning presented an extra set of hurdles for this student population.

From Becky’s perspective, the Microsoft accessibility features made the decision to pick a Windows device very easy. She explains, “I am a strong advocate for Windows devices because of the consistency across the platform and their investment in accessibility tools like the immersive reader and translation tools. Consistency is huge for students with disabilities. Students are going to find the buttons in the same locations for the tools that they are going to use all the time. Once we establish what the procedures are and what devices we're using, then we customize from there but no matter what you are using in the Microsoft suite, our students know that the accessibility tools are ready to go. You cannot say that for the alternatives like Chromebooks.”

Standardizing the experience and engaging students

Choosing educational technology based on simplicity also requires stakeholders to consider the perspective of students who have never owned a device and have not grown up with computers at home. Asking families to navigate multiple platforms with different logins is substantially harder for students who cannot easily call on the adults in their household for help. The simplicity of the Microsoft ecosystem has also enabled educators and students to dig deeper into innovating pedagogy rather than constantly jumping to the “next best App”, which can compound the disparity for students who don’t have experience with technology in their homes. By focusing on simplicity, the students and educators are investing time and energy into understanding the full functionality of Microsoft education solutions and results in facilitating classroom innovations.

OneNote provides an excellent case-in-point. Maggie highlights that from her perspective as an educator, OneNote has been, “the biggest surprise of remote learning. Before the transition, I didn't even know that OneNote existed. Now, I couldn't see myself without OneNote. I can be anywhere at any time and have materials, meetings, and student engagement ready to go at my fingertips.”

She tells the story of one student who was so shy that he barely engaged in classroom discussions at all. Now, through OneNote, this student “is using the accessibility tools in OneNote so that suddenly, he started talking and engaging all day long. He could see everything in one location and access everything very quickly. He could use the speech to text tools to help him understand the materials far better than before we had OneNote. His quality of work has improved exponentially from what I saw in the classroom when we were just doing paper pencil.” The Windows devices allowed the students at Las Cruces Public School to not only navigate the remote learning environment, but to thrive in it.

This is why, as Josh emphasizes, equity and standardization go hand in hand. There is a strong temptation to allocate funds to schools and let them decide which device to pick. Josh says, “we needed to make sure folks knew where to go for help. With a standard device, we were able to really streamline that process. We made sure that help was available with extended hours and with added language support. We really used equity as our north star during this transition. Standardization is about making sure that equity is not negotiable.”

Of course, standardization must happen without compromising functionality. “Our goal was to make sure we could find a device that was robust enough for our older kids, and easy enough for our younger kids. That was not the Chromebook,” says Josh. “Windows devices offered opportunities for a touch screen, a keyboard, and allowed us to leverage fully the Microsoft ecosystem. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are the pillars of the work in Las Cruces ecosystem—period. Windows devices and Microsoft 365 are fundamental to our work as educators and students.”

Focusing on simplicity and standardization has helped shift the entire paradigm of education technologies in Las Cruces Public Schools. As Deputy Superintendent Miller-Tomlinson summarizes, “Before our switch to remote learning, the educator was the user of the technology, whether it was some kind of smartboard, or a computer used to project in the classroom. The biggest shift has been getting the right technology into the hands of students to do more than just research or look up information on the internet. Now we are using technology to empower students to create and tell their stories. We are getting away from the traditional assessment and are being a lot more creative about how students demonstrate mastery of content, and how they demonstrate skills.”

How a focus on equity has paved the way for innovation

Although the initial steps needed to deploy 25,000 devices appeared daunting, Las Cruces Public Schools have benefitted greatly from their focus on simplicity and standardization. With Microsoft Intune, the IT department has been able to deploy thousands of devices that are one login away from students having their full suite of Microsoft tools ready to go anywhere and anytime. That process has made it easier to keep students working no matter what happens to their devices, while also guaranteeing security, consistency, and customization.

It has also made it easier for students with accessibility issues or different modalities of learning to continue to improve and succeed in their academic journey.

Beyond the logistical benefits, the introduction of a one-to-one education technology model built on Windows devices has helped facilitate a twenty-first century educational experience for all Las Cruces students. Maggie summarizes, “The shift to remote learning gave us a big push forward with technology, which I believe was a blessing in disguise. Deploying devices to everyone helped to level the playing field. We are many years ahead of the game now. We were pushed to think of alternative ways of teaching and to make sure all our students were engaged. Never in my years as an educator did I ever think that we were going to have computers like the Surface and HP. They are so powerful and durable. Their capabilities are mind-blowing for me and for the students.”

Educators, academics, and key stakeholders are still learning the important lessons of the switch to remote learning. Las Cruces Public Schools made a decision to embrace equity at a moment of great uncertainty when there were potentially cheaper options available. Ultimately, the district’s leaders understood that making decisions grounded in a commitment to equity reduces long-term costs, through standardization, streamlined support, and fewer additional product licenses—and does so without sacrificing the student experience for those with learning challenges. 

This is what a true twenty-first century model of education is all about: prioritizing the student perspective, including thinking about their abilities and socioeconomic positions, and bringing everyone along, so that students, educators, and families can move forward, succeed, and contribute solutions to the challenges to come.