The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education on Tuesday night approved a more than $4 million contract for the online educational platform i-Ready, which has recently drawn scrutiny from parents concerned about screen time.
The original proposal was for a nearly $10 million two-year contract, but after some board members raised concerns, district staff agreed to reduce it to one year, with the condition that the district track its impact over the course of the year.
In recent weeks, families have voiced concern about i-Ready and the growing influence of technology in classrooms. Families have argued that students don’t like the program and have questioned its efficacy amid growing concerns about screen time in the classroom.
i-Ready is an adaptive learning platform. Students take a screening assessment that identifies strengths and weaknesses and that takes personalized instruction, amounting to about 90 minutes per week, to hone in on those areas.
At Tuesday night’s board meeting, CMS staff said i-Ready serves as a universal screener to help identify where students are struggling, a state requirement. They said eliminating the program would require a replacement screener. Staff also said the program amounts to only a few minutes per day and does not replace instruction by a teacher.
Board members Shamaiye Haynes and Cynthia Stone voted against the contract. Haynes said she wants CMS to consider alternatives.
“I have all the confidence that just as we bought i-Ready and these other tools, there is something out there, despite the convenience of it all, that we can use that won’t be misused — inadvertently misused — by us,” Haynes said.
Other board members said eliminating i-Ready without an alternative would be irresponsible. Board member Dee Rankin said he understood parents’ concerns about screen time, but felt that i-Ready was only a part of that conversation.
“I understand that there needs to be maybe some reviewing of our procedures around screen time, and not more specifically tied to i-Ready," he said. "I think i-Ready is catching the brunt of this because maybe that’s the most interactive tool that’s being used — that parents use, that students use — that we can identify.”
CMS said in response to family concerns, the district plans to refine its approach to screentime in general. District officials also said they believe i-Ready has helped improve students' scores. Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight noted i-Ready serves multiple functions — as a screener, as a diagnostic tool and an intervention and can be easily implemented districtwide.
“Twenty-four months ago, we had multiple products, we had schools doing different programs at different schools,” she said. “So we had schools actually using more technology platforms.”
Board member Liz Monterrey-Duvall shared intense frustration as a parent about the program and questioned whether the district has too many screening assessments. She wanted to see the district weigh other options.
“It’s not helpful,” she said. “I’ve talked to so many educators and I just don’t think that this is making their life easier.”
She ultimately voted in favor of the contract after it was reduced from two years to one year with the plan to reassess its impact.
