Change Management in Education: A Guide to Navigating Technology Transitions

What Is Change Management in Education?

Change management refers to the procedures and processes that address the human and cultural side of organizational change. Schools are human-driven organizations with a wide variety of stakeholders in any technology change. When technology teams ignore the experience of stakeholders to prioritize a focus on the new technology itself, they eschew change management in favor of simple implementation — a recipe for failure. 

However, when IT teams focus on change management, they provide the communication, training and ongoing support that can make a technology implementation successful. 

Why Technology Implementations Struggle in K–12

The reasons school districts often struggle with technology implementations are almost always related to the people involved. Aric Dershem, chief operating officer and chief information officer at KIPP NYC Public Schools, offers three main reasons for difficulties with tech implementations, all tied to the perceptions of stakeholders: 

1. The change is not connected to a clear and compelling vision for a desired future. 
2. The change does not account for the needs or concerns of those who will be affected.
3. The change feels like it is “happening to” people instead of “happening for” people. 

“When there’s a commonly held, shared vision of the future that's compelling and clearly communicated, changes that move organizations closer to that vision have a much higher likelihood of success and a much lower likelihood of resistance,” Dershem says.

Administrators, teachers, support staff, students and families all have different concerns, priorities and levels of readiness for change, Whitten says. If they don’t understand why the change is happening, how it benefits them or what is expected of them, the implementation is less likely to succeed.

Frameworks for Systemic Change: Kotter, ADKAR and Lewin 

Several change management frameworks have been developed by experts and proven to be successful in various industries, including education. Some of the most well-known frameworks include:

• Kotter’s 8-Step Process, which encourages leaders to take steps such as creating urgency for the change, building a coalition to lead the effort and anchoring the change in the organization’s culture
• The ADKAR Model, which focuses on individual change and is ideal for assessing where a technology rollout might be stalling 
• Lewin’s 3-Step Process, which recommends preparing the organization for change, altering how the organization operates and ensuring the changes stick

District IT leaders may be most successful by choosing components of various change management frameworks to develop their own effective process. Some of the most important aspects of change management for schools include assessing readiness, communicating the reasons for the change and keeping the school culture in mind.

For example, when KIPP NYC migrated from a hybrid Microsoft and Google environment to a single platform, Google Workspace, Dershem and his team built a three-phase digital transformation plan: consolidate, automate, innovate. The plan involved creating a change leadership team of stakeholders to drive decisions on timeline and communications, allowing early access to changes and using the team’s feedback to refine messaging, and appointing early adopters to become “champions” on go-live day in each school to provide in-person support if needed. 

IT’s Role in Educational Change Management

“One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming that implementation and adoption are the same thing,” Whitten says. “They are not. Technology teams are often measured on whether the system is deployed. Stakeholders experience success based on whether they can actually use it effectively in their daily work.”

For technology change to be successful, IT teams must pay attention to what Whitten calls the “people stack,” or the human operating system that powers successful change. To manage the people stack, IT must provide stakeholders with: 

• Clarity about what’s changing and why
• Alignment of goals and expectations
• Skills and tools needed for success
• Trust in the change and its value
• Sustained reinforcement to ensure new behaviors stick 

“IT teams are often some of the most trusted problem-solvers in a school system, which uniquely positions them to become champions for adoption, not just implementation,” Whitten says. The most successful IT leaders do not simply launch systems. They partner to build trust, gather feedback, address concerns and create the conditions for adoption long before the technology goes live.”

Building Stakeholder Buy-In Among Administrators, Teachers and Families 

To get stakeholders on board with a technology change, start early and focus on understanding how the new system will affect various users. 

“Too many schools have overlapping platforms, which makes it difficult for teachers to know what to use, when to use it and how it fits into the bigger picture,” says Meghan Thompson, senior district partnership specialist and implementation coach at IXL Learning. “If educators feel like they are being asked to manage too many systems at once, even strong products can contribute to fatigue.”

Thompson recommends setting up pilot programs for end users to try out the product and encouraging ongoing feedback. “Stakeholder buy-in should come well before the technology is rolled out,” she says. “That means first making sure everyone, from administrators to parents, understands the value and purpose of the tool. You can accomplish this by explaining where the new technology fits in and what it’s meant to replace, streamline or improve.”

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Turning One-Time PD Into Lasting Behavior Change With Training and Ongoing Support 

Each year, IXL Learning leads hundreds of training sessions. The schools that have successful implementations treat training “as an ongoing, tiered process, instead of a one-time event,” Thompson says. “When teachers see the new technology as part of a larger strategy, rather than a separate initiative or a side project, it becomes much easier for them to start integrating the tool.”

It’s a common misconception that training creates adoption, Whitten says. In reality, “training creates knowledge,” she says. “Adoption requires capability. Capability is much broader than training. It is the combination of knowledge, practice, support, confidence, reinforcement and the ability to apply new skills in real-world situations.”

Rather than treating training as the finish line to a new implementation, treat it as the beginning of the learning process. Beyond training, provide opportunities for practice, access to ongoing support and ensure that leaders model the desired behaviors, Whitten says.

Measuring Change Success: KPIs and Feedback

Measuring the success of a technology rollout starts with aiming correctly. Dershem recommends determining the issue you plan to address or the benefit you hope to create when building the business case for the change. “If we invest time upfront in defining what we expect to get from a new technology adoption, we can measure this impact post-adoption to assess our success,” he says.

Avoid the temptation to measure success solely by implementation, and instead focus on human outcomes. “A project is not successful because the system went live,” Whitten says. “It is successful when people consistently use it in ways that improve outcomes for students, educators and families.”

Effective technology leaders understand that their role extends beyond systems and infrastructure. “They become translators between technology and people,” Whitten says.