Aug. 28, 2025
Why Evidence Matters in EdTech
Ever wondered how educational tools and programs are evaluated to ensure they actually work? Dr. Rachel Schechter, founder of UXD Research, pulls back the curtain on this fascinating process during her conversation with Devin Pintozzi on Spotlight for Success.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:00 - Welcome to Spotlight for Success
00:43 - Introducing LXD Research
01:55 - From Nickelodeon to Educational Research
05:05 - Company Spotlight: American Book Company
06:16 - Research Certification and Rapid Evaluation
10:07 - The Importance of Asking for Research
WEBVTT
00:00:06.432 --> 00:00:09.276
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
00:00:09.276 --> 00:00:20.000
I am Devin Pintosi, your host, and we are here at the ASCD ISTE conference on July 2nd and really enjoying the time here in sunny San Antonio.
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.390
I have here is our special guest, dr Rachel Schechter.
00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:26.213
Thank you for joining us today.
00:00:26.213 --> 00:00:34.567
She is the founder of UXD Research and she has a lot of things to share today and we're so excited to have you here today, rachel.
00:00:34.847 --> 00:00:35.570
Thank you so much.
00:00:35.570 --> 00:00:38.344
So we do UX research?
00:00:38.344 --> 00:00:40.189
We do, but it's LXD Research.
00:00:40.229 --> 00:00:40.871
Oh LXD.
00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:43.008
Learning Experience Design.
00:00:43.008 --> 00:00:59.173
I named our company that because learning experiences happen within the classroom, outside the classroom, with technology, without technology, and what we do is we look at how programs are working and how to make them better in all different types of contexts.
00:00:59.393 --> 00:01:00.174
Oh, that's wonderful.
00:01:00.174 --> 00:01:01.646
Let's speak to those contexts.
00:01:01.646 --> 00:01:04.707
What kind of entities do you work with?
00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:14.105
So we partner with school districts and school leaders through the companies that they want to study.
00:01:14.105 --> 00:01:24.706
So, for example, if you're using a digital tool to help support your reading practice, your reading fluency practice, and you want to know well how well is this product working, we're using it three times a week.
00:01:24.706 --> 00:01:26.191
Is that enough time?
00:01:26.191 --> 00:01:27.746
Do we need to be using it more?
00:01:27.746 --> 00:01:29.362
Should we be using you know?
00:01:29.362 --> 00:01:31.149
Can we use it less and will it still work?
00:01:31.149 --> 00:01:42.674
The companies we partner with, the companies and yourself to kind of figure that out what is the dosage that leads to those gains and how big of gains are those gains?
00:01:44.183 --> 00:01:45.750
Wow, that is fantastic.
00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.406
You've gone so many directions with that.
00:01:47.406 --> 00:01:55.549
Can you share with us your journey on how you ended up going into this research track to help so many of these organizations out?
00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:59.710
You know it's so interesting to be around in ed tech at this time.
00:01:59.710 --> 00:02:07.614
So I went to UMass, amherst, and I studied with the founder of Children's Television Research, dr Dan Anderson.
00:02:07.614 --> 00:02:13.293
And not many people know this, but he actually invented Blue's Clues, oh, really, really Wow.
00:02:13.293 --> 00:02:15.968
And when I met him, my mind was blown.
00:02:15.968 --> 00:02:20.456
We can study how children learn from television, wow.
00:02:20.456 --> 00:02:28.099
So he helped set me up with an internship at the first and second season of Dora the Explorer.
00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:51.152
So I was at Nickelodeon, okay, going to 50th and Broadway, going up those stairs as a 20 year old little kid and I got to see the power of research, how one question, maybe even a word in a question, could be the difference between a whole group of kids yelling Yay me and crickets.
00:02:51.713 --> 00:02:55.016
Wow, that engagement is so critical right.
00:02:55.276 --> 00:03:06.493
It's so critical and unless you do the research, you know, with the kids we did three rounds of research for every step of the episode process, of which there were three.
00:03:07.722 --> 00:03:09.324
Wow, that is incredible.
00:03:09.324 --> 00:03:22.044
So it's like really taking an action or an idea and concepting like a narrative, exactly and seeing really pedagogically what is going to work based on numbers.
00:03:22.365 --> 00:03:31.725
Exactly, it was like prototype research at first and then it was kind of like alpha testing and then it was beta testing, and that was done for every episode of Dora the Explorer.
00:03:31.725 --> 00:03:37.187
So maybe it's not a mystery that hundreds of millions of children watched and loved that show.
00:03:37.187 --> 00:03:37.889
Wow.
00:03:37.889 --> 00:03:41.241
That is so incredible, yeah, so that was a pretty big high for 20 years old.
00:03:41.362 --> 00:03:42.264
I sure was.
00:03:42.284 --> 00:03:43.807
That's what you could imagine.
00:03:44.088 --> 00:03:45.573
That's amazing.
00:03:45.853 --> 00:03:50.473
So I went back to school and, you know, reality set in and I had to go get my first job.
00:03:50.473 --> 00:04:01.546
So I ended up actually working in arts administration for a little while and kind of left the television scene, just because not so easy to get a job in educational television.
00:04:01.546 --> 00:04:05.907
But I did ask the director of research how do I get your job?
00:04:05.907 --> 00:04:08.008
How do I become a director of research at Nickelodeon?
00:04:08.008 --> 00:04:13.052
And she said, rachel, you've got to go get your PhD because we are researchers.
00:04:13.052 --> 00:04:15.367
And I was like I always remembered that right.
00:04:16.502 --> 00:04:29.930
So after working in arts administration and being a teacher, being in the classroom, working with parents, I was like, yeah, I got to go back and see, really like get those answers to all of those questions that kept popping up in my head.
00:04:29.930 --> 00:04:36.670
And that's really what researchers are, right, we just are nonstop question askers and then we try to find that data to help answer the questions.
00:04:36.670 --> 00:04:47.708
So as I was finishing up my PhD, wow, the internet came about and suddenly CD-ROMs were connected to the internet and I was like, wow, that's neat.
00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.447
We can see what students are learning and measure it as they're learning.
00:04:52.447 --> 00:04:53.490
So embedded assessment.
00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:54.331
Okay, I was right there.
00:04:54.632 --> 00:04:56.750
Oh, nice yeah, Right on the ground level.
00:04:56.812 --> 00:04:57.620
Right on the ground level.
00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:08.423
So I looked for a position where I could be researching embedded assessment, and that's how I became eventually the director of research at Lexia Learning Wow, and I was there for eight years.
00:05:08.944 --> 00:05:10.007
Wow, that's amazing.
00:05:10.007 --> 00:05:15.170
Thank you, Wow, and you've kind of worked with some amazing partners over the years.
00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:17.869
Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
00:05:17.869 --> 00:05:22.944
I am Devin Pintosi, Chief Operating Officer of American Book Company.
00:05:22.944 --> 00:05:27.216
We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia.
00:05:27.216 --> 00:05:31.175
All of our materials are printed in USA.
00:05:31.175 --> 00:05:43.300
We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K-12 in mathematics, ELA, science and social studies.
00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:51.759
These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state-specific high-stakes assessments.
00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:54.913
We guarantee score improvement.
00:05:54.913 --> 00:06:03.939
You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com.
00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:05.630
We look forward to hearing from you.
00:06:06.466 --> 00:06:07.771
We look forward to hearing from you.
00:06:07.771 --> 00:06:16.252
Oh yeah, really incredible and really, with Lexia, I was able to work with just school districts of all sizes, learning about what kind of data they were interested in.
00:06:16.252 --> 00:06:23.944
I was the internal creator of all the assessments at Lexia and then, for then, I wanted to work for more companies.
00:06:23.944 --> 00:06:25.050
I mean, that was the main thing.
00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:39.276
I wanted to see how lots of products worked, and not just in literacy, because I came from, you know, studying all different subjects, and that's what brought me to HMH and I was the vice president of learning sciences at HMH as they were kind of working on their digital transformation.
00:06:40.185 --> 00:06:41.307
Wonderful, wow.
00:06:41.307 --> 00:06:45.113
And so you're here at SDA, scd.
00:06:45.113 --> 00:06:48.560
What kind of things are you hoping to get out of the sessions here?
00:06:49.345 --> 00:06:52.692
Well, I actually led my team.
00:06:52.692 --> 00:06:54.375
I brought three team members.
00:06:54.375 --> 00:06:56.017
I ran into someone.
00:06:56.017 --> 00:06:57.206
They were kind of shocked.
00:06:57.206 --> 00:07:00.396
So four team members from LXD Research were here presenting research.
00:07:00.396 --> 00:07:03.733
We were discussants for other research sessions.
00:07:03.733 --> 00:07:06.607
We had five research sessions where we were the discussants for the sessions.
00:07:06.607 --> 00:07:13.338
I also co-led and facilitated a table at the ISTE co-design workshop, nice.
00:07:13.338 --> 00:07:15.706
We were with Padlet, we were at the Padlet table.
00:07:15.706 --> 00:07:19.334
So I mean we work with them on their ISTE seal.
00:07:19.896 --> 00:07:20.677
Oh great.
00:07:20.737 --> 00:07:38.396
Yeah, so it was really really nice to you know, to be with a client and talk to educators about new features that they're working on, and that's really why I was hitting the exhibit floor here today, because I wanted to talk to all different companies about their research journey and to be a resource.
00:07:38.976 --> 00:07:39.458
That's great.
00:07:39.605 --> 00:07:43.216
I have a YouTube channel with free videos that I produce.
00:07:43.545 --> 00:07:45.072
Wow, what does that YouTube handle?
00:07:45.324 --> 00:07:52.098
Oh, it's LXDResearch at YouTube and it's really quick less than five-minute videos about research.
00:07:52.098 --> 00:07:54.752
What does educational research look like?
00:07:54.752 --> 00:07:57.091
What's the terminology?
00:07:57.091 --> 00:08:00.233
When someone says SL, level 3, what does that mean?
00:08:00.233 --> 00:08:04.127
And it's both to help the companies, but also the educators know how to ask about research and to understand it.
00:08:04.127 --> 00:08:07.750
That's great, but also the educators know how to ask about research and to understand it.
00:08:08.192 --> 00:08:18.281
That's great, and I understand it's not only that you're working on this research, that you work to make sure that that research is also certified by other third parties.
00:08:18.281 --> 00:08:18.860
Is that right?
00:08:19.281 --> 00:08:25.858
You got it Just like in the olden days, when researchers would submit for publication right.
00:08:25.858 --> 00:08:30.076
That was the moment where the experts would review the study that they did.
00:08:30.076 --> 00:08:33.833
We're moving at a much faster pace in education.
00:08:33.833 --> 00:08:47.678
Right now I have three papers that are currently waiting review in research journals, some I've been waiting for over six months to find out if they might want to publish it or might want me to revise it.
00:08:47.678 --> 00:08:55.140
We don't have that kind of time here in education these products are out and they're in classrooms now.
00:08:55.341 --> 00:09:04.812
So we actually focus on rapid cycle evaluation and because of that, all of our research is externally reviewed by a nonprofit partner.
00:09:05.374 --> 00:09:09.368
Oh, that's so wonderful, that is so great and that's you know, just shows.
00:09:09.368 --> 00:09:12.282
It shows the rigor involved in the research that you're doing.
00:09:12.282 --> 00:09:18.044
You get to help so many school districts and companies to find those best practices.
00:09:18.485 --> 00:09:24.895
Absolutely, and it's called EduEvidenceorg, and whatI really like about it is that's international.
00:09:25.258 --> 00:09:25.780
Oh, wow.
00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:42.270
So they've taken the ed tech research requirements from many different countries and actually have put together an international council on what ed tech quality looks like and what the research should look like, and so we actually are their official, an official US partner.
00:09:42.270 --> 00:09:49.736
Wow, so that way, anything anybody who works with us and does research with us, our work is fast-tracked to get certified.
00:09:50.466 --> 00:09:51.672
That is so wonderful.
00:09:51.672 --> 00:09:58.577
That's a great action that's going on with your research, thank you.
00:09:58.577 --> 00:10:06.899
So let me ask you do you have anything you'd like to share with the ISTE community, as they're completing the sessions and everything here today?
00:10:07.205 --> 00:10:08.067
Absolutely Well.
00:10:08.067 --> 00:10:15.754
The last time I was at ISTE was two years ago and a lot of the folks on the floor told me that the educators were not asking about research.
00:10:15.754 --> 00:10:22.592
So it makes it difficult for me to say that research is important to the educators if the educators aren't asking about research.
00:10:22.592 --> 00:10:30.945
Great news Many more people are asking about research this conference than there have in the past and I would say keep asking.
00:10:30.945 --> 00:10:41.490
Asking, because if you're not asking about the research that's been conducted, or even you know, were teachers involved in making the product?
00:10:41.490 --> 00:10:45.567
Were those teachers involved in the user research, making sure that's meeting their needs.
00:10:45.567 --> 00:10:52.572
As it's being designed, these things should be transparent, written down, documented, validated by a third party.
00:10:52.572 --> 00:10:57.969
It is not difficult to do, it's not expensive to do, but a lot of the companies don't do it.
00:10:58.770 --> 00:11:02.562
Wow, that's something you definitely can't afford not to do.
00:11:02.562 --> 00:11:05.328
It's very important to get the research done.
00:11:05.328 --> 00:11:12.373
There's so many people that need to see the numbers and need to see that there's been some verification, exactly.
00:11:12.813 --> 00:11:23.350
So, even if you're nervous that you might not understand the research yourself, if someone explained it to you kind of on the spot, ask for the paper, ask for the website and you can always look at it later.
00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:29.918
Another great tip there are AI tools where you can upload a research study and it explains it to you.
00:11:30.544 --> 00:11:34.274
Oh, that's so nice, because some of those researchers go way over everybody's head.
00:11:34.274 --> 00:11:35.336
Oh my gosh, me too.
00:11:35.644 --> 00:11:36.998
Like I can barely understand it.
00:11:36.998 --> 00:11:37.745
I'm starting to do it.
00:11:37.745 --> 00:11:42.736
I was like hey, chatgbt, can you summarize this for me or make like a little presentation for me?
00:11:42.736 --> 00:11:46.832
Like as if you were the researcher presenting this to a group of educators.
00:11:46.994 --> 00:11:47.375
Okay.
00:11:47.654 --> 00:11:48.417
And that's your prompt.
00:11:48.857 --> 00:11:51.712
Wow, that is such a great thing that you're doing there.
00:12:03.284 --> 00:12:04.489
So tell us again what is the name of your website.
00:12:04.489 --> 00:12:11.187
It's lxdresearchcom, and on the website there are everything I just mentioned and also I have like an alphabet soup article to tell you about all the different research organizations and for companies, how to get SS certified.
00:12:11.187 --> 00:12:15.234
I have videos and articles all for free and all available through my website.
00:12:15.595 --> 00:12:17.817
Oh, that's so awesome, or our website.
00:12:17.817 --> 00:12:19.059
That's so great.
00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:25.018
Again, this is Dr Rachel Schechter with LXD Research.
00:12:25.018 --> 00:12:27.110
Thank you so much for joining us today.
00:12:27.231 --> 00:12:28.154
Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:06.432 --> 00:00:09.276
00:00:09.276 --> 00:00:20.000
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.390
00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:26.213
00:00:26.213 --> 00:00:34.567
00:00:34.847 --> 00:00:35.570
00:00:35.570 --> 00:00:38.344
00:00:38.344 --> 00:00:40.189
00:00:40.229 --> 00:00:40.871
00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:43.008
00:00:43.008 --> 00:00:59.173
00:00:59.393 --> 00:01:00.174
00:01:00.174 --> 00:01:01.646
00:01:01.646 --> 00:01:04.707
00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:14.105
00:01:14.105 --> 00:01:24.706
00:01:24.706 --> 00:01:26.191
00:01:26.191 --> 00:01:27.746
00:01:27.746 --> 00:01:29.362
00:01:29.362 --> 00:01:31.149
00:01:31.149 --> 00:01:42.674
00:01:44.183 --> 00:01:45.750
00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.406
00:01:47.406 --> 00:01:55.549
00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:59.710
00:01:59.710 --> 00:02:07.614
00:02:07.614 --> 00:02:13.293
00:02:13.293 --> 00:02:15.968
00:02:15.968 --> 00:02:20.456
00:02:20.456 --> 00:02:28.099
00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:51.152
00:02:51.713 --> 00:02:55.016
00:02:55.276 --> 00:03:06.493
00:03:07.722 --> 00:03:09.324
00:03:09.324 --> 00:03:22.044
00:03:22.365 --> 00:03:31.725
00:03:31.725 --> 00:03:37.187
00:03:37.187 --> 00:03:37.889
00:03:37.889 --> 00:03:41.241
00:03:41.362 --> 00:03:42.264
00:03:42.284 --> 00:03:43.807
00:03:44.088 --> 00:03:45.573
00:03:45.853 --> 00:03:50.473
00:03:50.473 --> 00:04:01.546
00:04:01.546 --> 00:04:05.907
00:04:05.907 --> 00:04:08.008
00:04:08.008 --> 00:04:13.052
00:04:13.052 --> 00:04:15.367
00:04:16.502 --> 00:04:29.930
00:04:29.930 --> 00:04:36.670
00:04:36.670 --> 00:04:47.708
00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.447
00:04:52.447 --> 00:04:53.490
00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:54.331
00:04:54.632 --> 00:04:56.750
00:04:56.812 --> 00:04:57.620
00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:08.423
00:05:08.944 --> 00:05:10.007
00:05:10.007 --> 00:05:15.170
00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:17.869
00:05:17.869 --> 00:05:22.944
00:05:22.944 --> 00:05:27.216
00:05:27.216 --> 00:05:31.175
00:05:31.175 --> 00:05:43.300
00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:51.759
00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:54.913
00:05:54.913 --> 00:06:03.939
00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:05.630
00:06:06.466 --> 00:06:07.771
00:06:07.771 --> 00:06:16.252
00:06:16.252 --> 00:06:23.944
00:06:23.944 --> 00:06:25.050
00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:39.276
00:06:40.185 --> 00:06:41.307
00:06:41.307 --> 00:06:45.113
00:06:45.113 --> 00:06:48.560
00:06:49.345 --> 00:06:52.692
00:06:52.692 --> 00:06:54.375
00:06:54.375 --> 00:06:56.017
00:06:56.017 --> 00:06:57.206
00:06:57.206 --> 00:07:00.396
00:07:00.396 --> 00:07:03.733
00:07:03.733 --> 00:07:06.607
00:07:06.607 --> 00:07:13.338
00:07:13.338 --> 00:07:15.706
00:07:15.706 --> 00:07:19.334
00:07:19.896 --> 00:07:20.677
00:07:20.737 --> 00:07:38.396
00:07:38.976 --> 00:07:39.458
00:07:39.605 --> 00:07:43.216
00:07:43.545 --> 00:07:45.072
00:07:45.324 --> 00:07:52.098
00:07:52.098 --> 00:07:54.752
00:07:54.752 --> 00:07:57.091
00:07:57.091 --> 00:08:00.233
00:08:00.233 --> 00:08:04.127
00:08:04.127 --> 00:08:07.750
00:08:08.192 --> 00:08:18.281
00:08:18.281 --> 00:08:18.860
00:08:19.281 --> 00:08:25.858
00:08:25.858 --> 00:08:30.076
00:08:30.076 --> 00:08:33.833
00:08:33.833 --> 00:08:47.678
00:08:47.678 --> 00:08:55.140
00:08:55.341 --> 00:09:04.812
00:09:05.374 --> 00:09:09.368
00:09:09.368 --> 00:09:12.282
00:09:12.282 --> 00:09:18.044
00:09:18.485 --> 00:09:24.895
00:09:25.258 --> 00:09:25.780
00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:42.270
00:09:42.270 --> 00:09:49.736
00:09:50.466 --> 00:09:51.672
00:09:51.672 --> 00:09:58.577
00:09:58.577 --> 00:10:06.899
00:10:07.205 --> 00:10:08.067
00:10:08.067 --> 00:10:15.754
00:10:15.754 --> 00:10:22.592
00:10:22.592 --> 00:10:30.945
00:10:30.945 --> 00:10:41.490
00:10:41.490 --> 00:10:45.567
00:10:45.567 --> 00:10:52.572
00:10:52.572 --> 00:10:57.969
00:10:58.770 --> 00:11:02.562
00:11:02.562 --> 00:11:05.328
00:11:05.328 --> 00:11:12.373
00:11:12.813 --> 00:11:23.350
00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:29.918
00:11:30.544 --> 00:11:34.274
00:11:34.274 --> 00:11:35.336
00:11:35.644 --> 00:11:36.998
00:11:36.998 --> 00:11:37.745
00:11:37.745 --> 00:11:42.736
00:11:42.736 --> 00:11:46.832
00:11:46.994 --> 00:11:47.375
00:11:47.654 --> 00:11:48.417
00:11:48.857 --> 00:11:51.712
00:12:03.284 --> 00:12:04.489
00:12:04.489 --> 00:12:11.187
00:12:11.187 --> 00:12:15.234
00:12:15.595 --> 00:12:17.817
00:12:17.817 --> 00:12:19.059
00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:25.018
00:12:25.018 --> 00:12:27.110
00:12:27.231 --> 00:12:28.154
