PROBING OUR TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS: A STUDY OF RISK AND RACE IN AMERICA AND THE EDTECH THAT FOLLOWS

Abstract

This thesis seeks to answer the question of how certain educational technologies, specifically predictive analytics and risk assessment tools, may exacerbate social inequity. Many of these tools were created in order to address the issue of student attrition in higher education, and are used by many schools to identify and support students deemed “at risk.” However, it is important that we interrogate the true impact of these tools, and if they are actually achieving their stated purpose. They are advertised as “convenient,” “neutral,” and “for everybody” and their potentially damaging effects are ignored. Given the growing impact of technology in education and society at large, we ought to question our naive adoption of digital tools even when they are marketed as a “public good.” I argue that even if we may not have direct access to the bit-by-bit mechanics of the technology because companies do not make this information available, we can still examine how they reflect and reproduce racial inequity.