Renae Bryant has served as director of plurilingual services for the Anaheim Union High School District since 2017, overseeing programs that support roughly 27,000 students, including thousands of English learners. She has secured over one million dollars in grants for the district, including a $425,000 Project LEARN Spencer Foundation Grant, and led the four-year development of a Plurilingual Master Plan built around the CAL Principles for Dual Language Education. Bryant coauthored The Ed Branding Book: How to Build Educational Leadership with Social Influence in 2024 and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of La Verne and California State University, Fullerton, where she earned her doctorate in organizational leadership. Her present focus on integrating artificial intelligence into professional learning connects directly to how organizations such as CALIE help teachers apply classroom technology thoughtfully.
The California Association for Leading Innovation in Education (or CALIE, formerly known as CUE), is a California-wide network for people who support teaching, learning, and educational innovation. Its work connects classroom practice, professional learning, educator support, and equity in educational technology.
Many schools already provide devices, digital platforms, online materials, and classroom apps for teachers and students. While devices and Internet access can open up learning options, schools still have to design and support the instruction around them.
Teachers still need support to decide whether a tool improves access, participation, feedback, assessment, and follow-up work. Classroom technology includes digital tools that teachers and students can use during lessons.
Digital learning refers to instruction that uses technology to strengthen how students learn. A student device, learning platform, online assignment, video tool, database, digital assessment, or collaboration space can become part of instruction when it helps students practice, create, communicate, research, or demonstrate what they understand.
Teachers make immediate classroom decisions. They decide whether a tool fits a task, whether it can be used successfully, and whether it gives students a clearer way to participate.
CALIE addresses that need through professional learning that provides educators with practical strategies and tools that they can apply with learners. Technological support can fall short when it teaches a platform without also helping teachers connect a tool to instructional goals.
A teacher may know how a tool works, but still needs to decide whether it improves student engagement, access, evidence of learning, or feedback. Stronger support links technology use to planning, classroom activity, assessment, and the work that follows a lesson.
CALIE designs professional learning that can adjust to a school or district’s priorities. Its approach includes co-designed learning, methods for responding to different learner needs, and attention to barriers that may hold back a student’s growth. CALIE also states that its learning experiences can range from a single campus workshop to planning across a district.
Equity is another factor that determines whether students benefit from classroom technology. In this context, equity means students have a fair chance to use digital tools in ways that support learning. The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan separates this issue into design, access, and use divides, so schools must look beyond whether students have devices.
CALIE’s Effective Technology Guidelines give school and district teams common criteria for reviewing technology use. The guidelines direct teams to examine how technology supports teaching and learning, where barriers appear, and where improvement should begin. That gives schools a structured review process instead of leaving individual teachers to make technology decisions alone.
Teachers also benefit from learning with other educators who understand classroom demands. CALIE’s local affiliates and chapters create regional spaces for events, collaboration, educator networking, and tailored professional learning. Those connections enable educators to compare classroom problems, share examples, and adjust their ideas through peer experience.
School and district leaders shape whether technological support becomes sustainable. They decide how teachers receive professional learning, how staff support implementation, and how digital learning programs meet students’ and teachers’ needs. The federal School Leader Digital Learning Guide treats digital learning as a continuing leadership responsibility, from planning and funding through implementation, upkeep, and later adjustments.
CALIE’s practical value appears after a tool is used in the classroom. Its resources give educators and leaders a way to revisit technological use as student needs, platforms, and school priorities change. This ensures that classroom technology remains an ongoing professional decision rather than a one-time adoption.
About Renae Bryant
Renae Bryant is director of plurilingual services for the Anaheim Union High School District, a role she has held since 2017. She has secured more than one million dollars in grants for the district and led the multiyear creation of its Plurilingual Master Plan. Bryant holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of La Verne, where she also teaches as an adjunct professor alongside California State University, Fullerton, and coauthored The Ed Branding Book in 2024.