BCG Reports Technology as a Catalyst for Change in Primary and Secondary Education

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released “Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education,” a report articulating how technology can serve as a catalyst for change in primary and secondary education, today.
The report, written by Allison Bailey, Tyce Henry, Lane McBride and J. Pucket, discusses how teachers, education leaders and policymakers can harness the benefits of technology to improve student performance and outcomes. The authors point to a “closed-loop instructional system,” which is a holistic approach to educational curriculums with technology, that align with educational objectives, standards, curricula, assessments, interventions and professional development.
While technology such as personal laptops, smart phones and more have infiltrated students’ lives, the adaption to the classroom remains slow and holds many challenges. The report talks about how information and communication technology (ICT), infrastructure, funding and paradigms around traditional teaching practices must come together to enrich classrooms through technology.
The report calls for:

• – more spending on technology to reach a level of adoption shown in other industries
• – a transformation of the classroom through technology to move beyond old practices on new machines, and
• – a break down of geographical barriers along with differing learning styles, interests and abilities for more differentiated and individualized instruction for students at all levels.

The authors discuss how online courses and virtual schools are growing in higher education to point to how these same models can be applied to primary and secondary education to bring quality education to home-schoolers and students at underfunded schools.
In closing, the report asks education leaders and policymakers to take decisive action to integrate a closed-loop approach in order to build ICT infrastructures, enable teachers to leverage technology in the classroom, promote the development of quality digital assessments and provide student-centric instruction through technology curriculums in primary and secondary education.
Click here to view the full report. For more information about BCG, a global management consulting firm and business strategy advisor, visit www.bcg.com.