Benetech

Mission: Benetech is an education equity nonprofit that delivers technology, services, and programs to empower the most underserved to learn and pursue their dreams, regardless of ability.  

Vision: Benetech envisions a world where learning is inclusive and equitable. A world where everyone can learn regardless of ability, race, gender, or socioeconomic status. We believe that no person should be excluded because learning materials are inaccessible to them. Our industry-leading technology, services, and programs will empower more than 1 billion people with learning differences and disabilities to pursue education, improve learning outcomes, and realize their dreams.   Our core Truths are: 

• Software for Social Impact. We support, empower, and educate by leveraging software to create positive social impact.  

• Right Stuff Right. We listen to our communities to identify barriers, constantly assessing if our plans address those challenges, then use a results-driven approach to get stuff done.  

• Equitable and Accessible. We ensure our products, services and processes are accessible by all because inclusion is at the heart of what we do.  

• Be Open, Not Closed. We work collaboratively and transparently, openly sharing our work and creating opportunities for others to do the same.  

• Do More Together. We amplify our impact through a culture of cooperation internally, with partners, and with our users.  

• Value Flexibility. Our employees and users have the flexibility to work in ways that are best for them. 

Dr. Lisa Wadors Verne will be the Team Lead for the LEAP project. As Benetech’s Vice President of Programs and the Principal Investigator for the DREAM (Delivering Revolutionary Educational Accessible Materials) Center, funded by the Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Dr. Wadors Verne oversees our global education programming. She has a deep understanding of the issues facing students with learning differences and disabilities and how technology can foster inclusive and equitable education.   As a 10+ year veteran of Benetech, Dr. Wadors Verne is intimately familiar with the Bookshare platform, the research Benetech has done in the past and our need for more rigorous evidenced-based data to quantify our impact and move the organization forward.  Dr. Wadors Verne holds a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from Villanova University, an M.A. in Early Childhood Special Education from Santa Clara University and a doctorate in Special Education and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University, Joint Doctoral Program. She is also the parent of a child with learning difference.

In addition to our Team Lead, Dr. Lisa Wadors Verne, the project will be supported by our Program Officer, Dr. Diane Steinberg, Sr. Manager of Data Insights, Clotilde Vasconi and Director of Marketing, Mario Oliveros. 

 Dr. Wadors Verne will oversee the LEAP project from the Benetech side and will coordinate our response and deliverables to the LEAP Fellows.  With a long history at Benetech and over two decades in educational research and application, Dr. Wadors Verne will provide the context for research at Benetech and help ensure that the project outputs can be implemented in a way that moves the organization towards more evidence-based impact data.   

 Dr. Diane Steinberg is a Program Officer at Benetech responsible for our educational research.  Most recently she has been conducting a small RCT on the effects of Bookshare vs another platform with middle school students.  Working closely with Dr. Wadors Verne, Dr. Steinberg will participate in all meetings with the LEAP fellows and will provide insights into how we might best partner with schools and districts.  She has in-depth expertise in research design, mixed research methods, research implementation, data collection, and data analysis. Her academic training includes a Ph.D. degree in Educational Policy, Organization, Measurement, and Evaluation from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Education, and an M.A. in the Development and Evaluation of Educational Programs from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.  

 Clotilde Vasconi is Senior Manager, Data Insights. As part of our Data team, Ms. Vasconi leads projects to collect and analyze data around impact evaluation, including the development of processes and human systems for data sharing and improved utilization of data in decision-making. She also supports the Data Insights Team in the improvement of Benetech’s data structure, systems and in data analysis. Ms. Vasconi brings 15+ years of experience working in the nonprofit and public sector internationally, and has deep expertise in nonprofit management, impact evaluation, project management and partnership building. On this project, Ms. Vasconi will ensure that the data collected by any future study can be accurately stored and tracked by Benetech’s data structure and that it is flexible enough to be viewed in multiple ways to help with future insights.   

 Mario Oliveros is Director of Marketing and leads product marketing, user growth, and loyalty -, leveraging data and customer insights to design and execute campaigns. This includes digital engagement and outreach to teachers, parents/caregivers and students. Benetech intends to use the data we gather from a future study to demonstrate the impact  Bookshare has on students’ academic performance and Mr. Oliveros participation is this project will help us ensure that the information we gather can be translated into materials and resources that help the organization scale. Prior to Benetech, he worked as a brand strategist for B2B and B2C tech startups and Fortune 500 clients.

Bookshare’s digital platform delivers accessible education content and tools,  enabling students with learning variabilities to personalize their educational experience.

 Access to a high-quality education is a fundamental right for every student. To fulfill this promise, we must ensure that a rich and equitable educational opportunity is available to all students, including students with learning differences and disabilities. Yet, most educational materials are not provided in accessible formats that allow students with learning differences to read and learn in a way that works for them. As many as 20% of students learn differently due to dyslexia, visual impairments and other disabilities. Benetech seeks to address this problem by empowering students with learning variabilities, especially those in underserved communities, with more personalized tools and services so they can learn and pursue their dreams, regardless of ability. 

The right to equal access to educational materials is enshrined in U.S. educational law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. But the reality in education today has not lived up to these legal pillars. All students deserve equal access, including students with learning variabilities and particularly those students from underserved and underrepresented communities.  As we look at national literacy scores in the wake of the COVID 19 Pandemic, it’s clear that students of color in marginalized communities that were already under resourced have experienced greater learning loss and academic challenges than their peers in predominantly white communities with better resourced schools.  It is primarily these students that Benetech and our Bookshare platform seek to serve. Today, Bookshare has served over 1.5 million learners worldwide with more than 120,000 of them between the ages of 5-12. How can we reach and support far more of these students and ultimately drive more impact on their learning outcomes and experience? We need quantitative research and evidence on Bookshare’s impact to scale our engagement with far more students with learning differences and fulfill our mission.   

Bookshare is an accessible digital learning platform and collection of over 1 million accessible titles and educational resources.  Students with a qualifying learning difference or disability such as a dyslexia, visual impairment, or other physical disabilities can access the educational materials from any computer, phone, tablet or smart speaker device.  They simply log into their account, search for a title or go to one that has been assigned by their teacher, download and begin reading and/or listening to their selection in a format of their choice.  Bookshare embraces learning variability and today over 85% of our users are students with some type of learning difference.   Students with learning variabilities can read and learn in ways that work for them including reading along with highlighted text, audio versions, and the platform’s capability to translate math equations into easy-to-understand problems. 

Benetech has completed Level 2 of the Nesta’s Standards of Evidence using qualitative data from case studies, focus groups, testimonials and surveys. Furthermore, we just completed the data collection phase of a Level 3 research study that randomly assigned middle school special education students to a group that used Bookshare’s accessibility features and a control group that used electronic books without accessibility features, to study the impact of Bookshare on reading comprehension and fluency. 

 Foundational Research: Benetech has conducted literature reviews to understand Bookshare users’ reading challenges, including dyslexia, to ensure Bookshare addresses their academic needs. We explored recent research on digital learning accessibility features to incorporate them into the application to help struggling readers gain access to reading materials, including academic content. 

  Formative Research:  Benetech has identified user challenges and development solutions from extensive formative research. Quantitative and qualitative user studies were conducted to assess needs, reading habits, and learning barriers. This has led to the development of new tools, including the dedicated Bookshare Reader app and enhancements like improved search functionality. Customer satisfaction surveys and interviews with members provide valuable feedback to identify additional areas we need to improve, and user stories offer qualitative insights into Bookshare’s practical use. By combining research, user feedback, and iterative development, we ensure that Bookshare continually evolves to meet the needs of its users. 

 To ensure user feedback and validation, we conduct extensive pre-launch user testing. Through usability studies and feedback on mockups, we then refine our tools to be more effective. For example, when testing the new Bookshare Web Reader, a pilot program was conducted in historically marginalized districts. Students with early access provided feedback on usability, features, reading comprehension, and general improvements. This pilot identified crucial features for a successful launch including the addition of persistent bookmarking across devices. 

 For additional user input, our U.S. Education Programs Team conducts focus groups and feedback sessions throughout the year with our Bookshare Champion Educators, a team of special education and assistive technology teachers and practitioners who implement Bookshare with their students. This expert team of stakeholders is frequently assembled to provide input and perspective on what tools and technology their students need to succeed in school, how students engage in reading, and their barriers to providing accessible materials to all students.  

 Summative Research:  Benetech conducted a randomized controlled trial that investigated whether the use of accessibility features in Bookshare improved reading comprehension and reading fluency of students with learning differences compared to similar students’ use of digital books without accessibility features. The study’s hypothesis was that the use of Bookshare during independent reading time over five weeks for 225 minutes would contribute to the improvement of participating students’ reading comprehension and reading fluency. The participants in the study included two special education teachers from different urban middle schools and their 50+ special education students in eight English Language Arts Resource classes. The data analysis phase of the impact study will begin after the data is collected in June 2023. 

From the years of formative research that Benetech has conducted about Bookshare we have gathered invaluable information that includes: usability of the platform from customer satisfaction survey results, product roadmap feedback for enhanced or new features that will benefit students, input from teachers and parents through our beta programs, ongoing advisory councils and roundtables, information on how Bookshare is used in the classroom and at home, revealing and informative stories, quotes and reviews about the qualitative impact Bookshare has had on the lives of students.  This combination of information over the years has shown us time and time again that Bookshare is helping students with learning differences and disabilities and supporting their learning experience. However, this qualitative, formative research is not enough.  We need to be able to make a more quantitative and direct connection to academic outcomes and/or the learning experience in order to scale the platform in a way that will help maximize our social impact for the 1 in 5 students that can benefit from our technology and services.  

 As mentioned above, Benetech recently implemented a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study the impact of Bookshare in two middle schools within a large urban school district. The data collection phase just ended, and we will be analyzing the results soon. While we need to wait for the results to evaluate any impact Bookshare might have on reading comprehension and fluency, observations from the teachers indicate that other factors may impact the use of Bookshare.  For example, preliminary findings indicate that the middle school students in the RCT reported being self-conscious about wearing the headphones while using Bookshare.  Since headphones are helpful for students who have dyslexia or who are auditory learners, this resistance to use, impedes the effectiveness of Bookshare.   Age of the students, classroom conditions/dynamics as well as social pressures can impact the use of the tool.  To better understand the ideal conditions that lead to academic growth we are interested in conducting a study both at the elementary level and middle school levels can help us position Bookshare better.   

Benetech is interested in pursuing this LEAP Project opportunity now because we seek to maximize our social impact by scaling our engagement and support for students with learning variabilities based on empirical evidence and quantitative research. We want to leverage the LEAP Fellows expertise to help us design a study that would allow us to appropriately account for the myriad of factors that can influence a student's use of Bookshare and enable us to focus and test the most critical elements so we can demonstrate evidence of impact on the student’s academic performance and/or learning experience.  As mentioned above, we have years of qualitative data from focus group interviews, beta programs, case studies, testimonials and surveys that demonstrates the benefits students have received from using Bookshare.  What we don’t have is empirical quantitative data that links the frequency and duration of a student’s use to Bookshare to their academic progress or achievement over time.  This data will be critical to the growth and expansion of Bookshare in our focused underserved community engagement as well as to schools and students across the country. Most public and charter schools and districts in the US are under-funded and are looking to use proven, effective tools that they can afford.   Bookshare access is currently free for students with learning variabilities through support from the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents who use it know it supports learning, however, having quantitative research and empirical evidence that links improved academic performance and enhanced learning experience with Bookshare is critical for increasing the usage and adoption of this service and ultimately the social impact that we can have in providing a more inclusive and equitable education opportunity for all students. 

In addition, we increasingly have both opportunities with and requirements from funders for evidence-based research to help Benetech further demonstrate the impact that Bookshare has on students and its ability to help foster education equity in underserved communities. With the help of the LEAP fellows over a 12-week sprint, we believe we can design a study and use this plan to source funding and partnerships that will support our business plan and sustainability.  

1.     Can we demonstrate that Bookshare use improves students reading comprehension, fluency and/or vocabulary development?  

a)     How frequently does a student need to use Bookshare to see an academic benefit such as increased reading comprehension, fluency and/or vocabulary development. 

b)    How long (duration) does a student need to use Bookshare to see an academic benefit such as reading comprehension, fluency and/or vocabulary development.   

2.     Does the use of Bookshare change a student’s belief about their ability and/or confidence to succeed in school, improving their learning experience? 

Benetech has over 20 years of informal formative data, yet we need an increased understanding and quantitative data on how Bookshare impacts and grows reading and learning skills and/or improves the learning experience.  These skills include increased comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary, all key indicators in reading growth.  Longitudinal studies (that look at students in two different age groups over two years) will also help us better understand how our product changes behavior and confidence in students with learning differences while helping us quantify our impact on student academic achievement.   

At this time in our outreach, we believe that a mixture of formative (pre-post reading scores) and summative research (RCT) can demonstrate how Bookshare improves academic outcomes.  This information will be critical in supporting the organizations long term goals for growth, scalability and sustainability. 

Through the LEAP process we are hoping to get guidance on how we would design a study to address our current, pressing research questions highlighted above as well as provide us a resource or tool to establish a dedicated and ongoing process to regularly run new and informative evidence-based impact studies.  

At the end of this 12-week process, we intend to put the outputs into action in the following ways.  First, we plan to use the research design created by LEAP fellows and the project team to inspire existing funders who have expressed interest in Benetech getting more evidence of impact, to fund a research study.  In addition, this plan will help us identify new potential funders and give them an opportunity to support our technology, services and research going forward.  We plan to hire a fulltime research manager to help execute the grant proposal process as well as to manage the research projects. We believe this LEAP project will help us move from informal, qualitative data collection to validated research that can be distributed to schools, districts, and communities across the country.  

 Given that empirically based evidence is preferred in some educational settings, it is our intention to create a multifaceted outreach campaign to disseminate the results.  If we can prove that Bookshare improves reading and learning outcomes and/or the learning experience, we will be able to demonstrate that Bookshare positively influences academic performance and SEL.  Additionally, since fluency and vocabulary are the building blocks of reading, this data will help increase the use of Bookshare in the younger elementary grades because it will demonstrate that it is not just a tool that helps students with learning variabilities “read to learn,” but that the tool also helps children “learn to read”.  

Participating in this LEAP project will give Benetech the opportunity to continue to enhance our operational insights and scale our impact through evidence-based research.  Having outside experts support us with research planning, design and recommendations will ultimately drive support for providing vastly more students with learning differences with the tools they need to for an improved and equitable educational experience.  

Short Term Desired Outcomes  

• Benetech is better positioned to carry out meaningful research project and gather impact data thanks to: 

• High quality research plan that will lead to successful fundraising efforts and the launch of study within 6-9 months 

• Benetech staff have more expertise and knowledge to carry out subsequent steps to launch the study (identify the right researcher, etc.) thanks to the guidance of LEAP fellows 

• Leverage the learnings and insights gained during the project to improve our services to Bookshare users, or at least expand/improve Benetech’s internal tools to collect data and analyze it and better evaluate our impact. 

Long Term Desired Outcomes  

• Benetech is able to demonstrate that Bookshare has a positive impact on reading comprehension, fluency, vocabulary for students with learning differences and/or impact on their confidence and learning experience. 

• Using this data, Benetech is able to: 

• Scale its engagement and outreach to the education community and ensure that students with learning differences have equal access to high quality education.  

• Enhance its services (training, platform, tools etc.) to provide a more personalized educational experience needed by these students, particularly those in underserved communities 

•  The culture at Benetech evolves to pursue and support a longer term committed national research agenda whereby we are running quantitative impact studies annually, and partner with researchers who can benefit from our large pool of data to advance the field.