Glenn Kleiman

The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) represents a significant effort to help states and schools leverage technology to modernize K-12 education in the United States. Because state boards of education critically shape education policy in their states, they can use the NETP to drive substantial improvements in digital access and educational opportunities.

The technology is new, but the challenges are familiar. In 1953, a UNESCO report titled “Television: A Challenge and a Chance for Education” offered the following views about the use of the nascent technology in schools: It opens a new era of educational opportunity…. Something new has been added. That something new is exciting, it is challenging, it is revolutionary. It is a social force with enormous potentialities for good or bad.

The average high school start time in the United States is 8:02 a.m., with five in six high schools starting before the recommended 8:30.[1] Limited transportation exacerbates this problem, with many districts opting for a three-tiered bussing system. Under this strain, many districts go to the extreme. Nevada’s Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth largest, starts nearly every high school at 7 a.m. As a result, some students get picked up for school as early as 5:55.