August 28, 2025 • 12 mins
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.
Organizations: https://lxdresearch.com/decoding-research-review-organizations.
How to get certified: https://lxdresearch.com/how-to-get-essa-certified
Website: spotlight4success.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I am Devin Pintosi, your host,and we are here at the ASCD ISTE
conference on July 2nd andreally enjoying the time here in
sunny San Antonio.
I have here is our specialguest, dr Rachel Schechter.
Thank you for joining us today.
She is the founder of UXDResearch and she has a lot of
(00:31):
things to share today and we'reso excited to have you here
today, rachel.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you so much.
So we do UX research?
We do, but it's LXD Research.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh LXD.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Learning Experience Design.
I named our company thatbecause 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 tomake them better in all
different types of contexts.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Oh, that's wonderful.
Let's speak to those contexts.
What kind of entities do youwork with?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So we partner with school districts and school
leaders through the companiesthat they want to study.
So, for example, if you'reusing a digital tool to help
support your reading practice,your reading fluency practice,
and you want to know well howwell is this product working,
we're using it three times aweek.
Is that enough time?
Do we need to be using it more?
Should we be using you know?
Can we use it less and will itstill work?
(01:31):
The companies we partner with,the companies and yourself to
kind of figure that out what isthe dosage that leads to those
gains and how big of gains arethose gains?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Wow, that is fantastic.
You've gone so many directionswith that.
Can you share with us yourjourney on how you ended up
going into this research trackto help so many of these
organizations out?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You know it's so interesting to be around in ed
tech at this time.
So I went to UMass, amherst,and I studied with the founder
of Children's TelevisionResearch, dr Dan Anderson.
And not many people know this,but he actually invented Blue's
Clues, oh, really, really Wow.
And when I met him, my mind wasblown.
(02:15):
We can study how children learnfrom television, wow.
So he helped set me up with aninternship at the first and
second season of Dora theExplorer.
So I was at Nickelodeon, okay,going to 50th and Broadway,
going up those stairs as a 20year old little kid and I got to
(02:37):
see the power of research, howone question, maybe even a word
in a question, could be thedifference between a whole group
of kids yelling Yay me andcrickets.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, that engagement is so critical right.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's so critical and unless you do the research, you
know, with the kids we did threerounds of research for every
step of the episode process, ofwhich there were three.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Wow, that is incredible.
So it's like really taking anaction or an idea and concepting
like a narrative, exactly andseeing really pedagogically what
is going to work based onnumbers.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Exactly, it was like prototype research at first and
then it was kind of like alphatesting and then it was beta
testing, and that was done forevery episode of Dora the
Explorer.
So maybe it's not a mysterythat hundreds of millions of
children watched and loved thatshow.
Wow.
That is so incredible, yeah, sothat was a pretty big high for
20 years old.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I sure was.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That's what you could imagine.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So I went back to school and, you know, reality
set in and I had to go get myfirst job.
So I ended up actually workingin arts administration for a
little while and kind of leftthe television scene, just
because not so easy to get a jobin educational television.
But I did ask the director ofresearch how do I get your job?
(04:05):
How do I become a director ofresearch at Nickelodeon?
And she said, rachel, you'vegot to go get your PhD because
we are researchers.
And I was like I alwaysremembered that right.
So after working in artsadministration and being a
teacher, being in the classroom,working with parents, I was
like, yeah, I got to go back andsee, really like get those
(04:26):
answers to all of thosequestions that kept popping up
in my head.
And that's really whatresearchers are, right, we just
are nonstop question askers andthen we try to find that data to
help answer the questions.
So as I was finishing up my PhD, wow, the internet came about
and suddenly CD-ROMs wereconnected to the internet and I
was like, wow, that's neat.
(04:48):
We can see what students arelearning and measure it as
they're learning.
So embedded assessment.
Okay, I was right there.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh, nice yeah, Right on the ground level.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Right on the ground level.
So I looked for a positionwhere I could be researching
embedded assessment, and that'show I became eventually the
director of research at LexiaLearning Wow, and I was there
for eight years.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Wow, that's amazing.
Thank you, Wow, and you've kindof worked with some amazing
partners over the years.
Thank you for watchingSpotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintosi, ChiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
Georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
(05:31):
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades
K-12 in mathematics, ELA,science and social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
(05:51):
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We look forward to hearing from you.
Oh yeah, really incredible andreally, with Lexia, I was able
to work with just schooldistricts of all sizes, learning
about what kind of data theywere interested in.
I was the internal creator ofall the assessments at Lexia and
then, for then, I wanted towork for more companies.
I mean, that was the main thing.
I wanted to see how lots ofproducts worked, and not just in
(06:27):
literacy, because I came from,you know, studying all different
subjects, and that's whatbrought me to HMH and I was the
vice president of learningsciences at HMH as they were
kind of working on their digitaltransformation.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Wonderful, wow.
And so you're here at SDA, scd.
What kind of things are youhoping to get out of the
sessions here?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, I actually led my team.
I brought three team members.
I ran into someone.
They were kind of shocked.
So four team members from LXDResearch were here presenting
research.
We were discussants for otherresearch sessions.
We had five research sessionswhere we were the discussants
for the sessions.
I also co-led and facilitated atable at the ISTE co-design
(07:12):
workshop, nice.
We were with Padlet, we were atthe Padlet table.
So I mean we work with them ontheir ISTE seal.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh great.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, so it was really really nice to you know,
to be with a client and talk toeducators about new features
that they're working on, andthat's really why I was hitting
the exhibit floor here today,because I wanted to talk to all
different companies about theirresearch journey and to be a
resource.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I have a YouTube channel with free videos that I
produce.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Wow, what does that YouTube handle?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh, it's LXDResearch at YouTube and it's really quick
less than five-minute videosabout research.
What does educational researchlook like?
What's the terminology?
When someone says SL, level 3,what does that mean?
And it's both to help thecompanies, but also the
educators know how to ask aboutresearch and to understand it.
That's great, but also theeducators know how to ask about
(08:06):
research and to understand it.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
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 certifiedby other third parties.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You got it Just like in the olden days, when
researchers would submit forpublication right.
That was the moment where theexperts would review the study
that they did.
We're moving at a much fasterpace in education.
Right now I have three papersthat are currently waiting
review in research journals,some I've been waiting for over
(08:41):
six months to find out if theymight want to publish it or
might want me to revise it.
We don't have that kind of timehere in education these
products are out and they're inclassrooms now.
So we actually focus on rapidcycle evaluation and because of
that, all of our research isexternally reviewed by a
(09:03):
nonprofit partner.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh, that's so wonderful, that is so great and
that's you know, just shows.
It shows the rigor involved inthe research that you're doing.
You get to help so many schooldistricts and companies to find
those best practices.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Absolutely, and it's called EduEvidenceorg, and whatI
really like about it is that'sinternational.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So they've taken the ed tech research requirements
from many different countriesand actually have put together
an international council on whated tech quality looks like and
what the research should looklike, and so we actually are
their official, an official USpartner.
Wow, so that way, anythinganybody who works with us and
(09:46):
does research with us, our workis fast-tracked to get certified
.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
That is so wonderful.
That's a great action that'sgoing on with your research,
thank you.
So let me ask you do you haveanything you'd like to share
with the ISTE community, asthey're completing the sessions
and everything here today?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Absolutely Well.
The last time I was at ISTE wastwo years ago and a lot of the
folks on the floor told me thatthe educators were not asking
about research.
So it makes it difficult for meto say that research is
important to the educators ifthe educators aren't asking
about research.
Great news Many more people areasking about research this
(10:27):
conference than there have inthe past and I would say keep
asking.
Asking, because if you're notasking about the research that's
been conducted, or even youknow, were teachers involved in
making the product?
Were those teachers involved inthe user research, making sure
that's meeting their needs.
As it's being designed, thesethings should be transparent,
(10:49):
written down, documented,validated by a third party.
It is not difficult to do, it'snot expensive to do, but a lot
of the companies don't do it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Wow, that's something you definitely can't afford not
to do.
It's very important to get theresearch done.
There's so many people thatneed to see the numbers and need
to see that there's been someverification, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
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 forthe paper, ask for the website
and you can always look at itlater.
Another great tip there are AItools where you can upload a
research study and it explainsit to you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh, that's so nice, because some of those
researchers go way overeverybody's head.
Oh my gosh, me too.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Like I can barely understand it.
I'm starting to do it.
I was like hey, chatgbt, canyou summarize this for me or
make like a little presentationfor me?
Like as if you were theresearcher presenting this to a
group of educators.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And that's your prompt.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Wow, that is such a great thing that you're doing
there.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So tell us again what is the name of your website.
It's lxdresearchcom, and on thewebsite there are everything I
just mentioned and also I havelike an alphabet soup article to
tell you about all thedifferent research organizations
and for companies, how to getSS certified.
I have videos and articles allfor free and all available
through my website.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Oh, that's so awesome , or our website.
That's so great.
Again, this is Dr RachelSchechter with LXD Research.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Thank you so much for having me.
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I am Devin Pintosi, your host,and we are here at the ASCD ISTE
conference on July 2nd andreally enjoying the time here in
sunny San Antonio.
I have here is our specialguest, dr Rachel Schechter.
Thank you for joining us today.
She is the founder of UXDResearch and she has a lot of
(00:31):
things to share today and we'reso excited to have you here
today, rachel.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you so much.
So we do UX research?
We do, but it's LXD Research.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh LXD.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Learning Experience Design.
I named our company thatbecause 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 tomake them better in all
different types of contexts.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Oh, that's wonderful.
Let's speak to those contexts.
What kind of entities do youwork with?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So we partner with school districts and school
leaders through the companiesthat they want to study.
So, for example, if you'reusing a digital tool to help
support your reading practice,your reading fluency practice,
and you want to know well howwell is this product working,
we're using it three times aweek.
Is that enough time?
Do we need to be using it more?
Should we be using you know?
Can we use it less and will itstill work?
(01:31):
The companies we partner with,the companies and yourself to
kind of figure that out what isthe dosage that leads to those
gains and how big of gains arethose gains?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Wow, that is fantastic.
You've gone so many directionswith that.
Can you share with us yourjourney on how you ended up
going into this research trackto help so many of these
organizations out?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You know it's so interesting to be around in ed
tech at this time.
So I went to UMass, amherst,and I studied with the founder
of Children's TelevisionResearch, dr Dan Anderson.
And not many people know this,but he actually invented Blue's
Clues, oh, really, really Wow.
And when I met him, my mind wasblown.
(02:15):
We can study how children learnfrom television, wow.
So he helped set me up with aninternship at the first and
second season of Dora theExplorer.
So I was at Nickelodeon, okay,going to 50th and Broadway,
going up those stairs as a 20year old little kid and I got to
(02:37):
see the power of research, howone question, maybe even a word
in a question, could be thedifference between a whole group
of kids yelling Yay me andcrickets.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, that engagement is so critical right.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's so critical and unless you do the research, you
know, with the kids we did threerounds of research for every
step of the episode process, ofwhich there were three.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Wow, that is incredible.
So it's like really taking anaction or an idea and concepting
like a narrative, exactly andseeing really pedagogically what
is going to work based onnumbers.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Exactly, it was like prototype research at first and
then it was kind of like alphatesting and then it was beta
testing, and that was done forevery episode of Dora the
Explorer.
So maybe it's not a mysterythat hundreds of millions of
children watched and loved thatshow.
Wow.
That is so incredible, yeah, sothat was a pretty big high for
20 years old.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I sure was.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That's what you could imagine.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So I went back to school and, you know, reality
set in and I had to go get myfirst job.
So I ended up actually workingin arts administration for a
little while and kind of leftthe television scene, just
because not so easy to get a jobin educational television.
But I did ask the director ofresearch how do I get your job?
(04:05):
How do I become a director ofresearch at Nickelodeon?
And she said, rachel, you'vegot to go get your PhD because
we are researchers.
And I was like I alwaysremembered that right.
So after working in artsadministration and being a
teacher, being in the classroom,working with parents, I was
like, yeah, I got to go back andsee, really like get those
(04:26):
answers to all of thosequestions that kept popping up
in my head.
And that's really whatresearchers are, right, we just
are nonstop question askers andthen we try to find that data to
help answer the questions.
So as I was finishing up my PhD, wow, the internet came about
and suddenly CD-ROMs wereconnected to the internet and I
was like, wow, that's neat.
(04:48):
We can see what students arelearning and measure it as
they're learning.
So embedded assessment.
Okay, I was right there.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh, nice yeah, Right on the ground level.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Right on the ground level.
So I looked for a positionwhere I could be researching
embedded assessment, and that'show I became eventually the
director of research at LexiaLearning Wow, and I was there
for eight years.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Wow, that's amazing.
Thank you, Wow, and you've kindof worked with some amazing
partners over the years.
Thank you for watchingSpotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintosi, ChiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
Georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
(05:31):
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades
K-12 in mathematics, ELA,science and social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
(05:51):
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We look forward to hearing from you.
Oh yeah, really incredible andreally, with Lexia, I was able
to work with just schooldistricts of all sizes, learning
about what kind of data theywere interested in.
I was the internal creator ofall the assessments at Lexia and
then, for then, I wanted towork for more companies.
I mean, that was the main thing.
I wanted to see how lots ofproducts worked, and not just in
(06:27):
literacy, because I came from,you know, studying all different
subjects, and that's whatbrought me to HMH and I was the
vice president of learningsciences at HMH as they were
kind of working on their digitaltransformation.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Wonderful, wow.
And so you're here at SDA, scd.
What kind of things are youhoping to get out of the
sessions here?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, I actually led my team.
I brought three team members.
I ran into someone.
They were kind of shocked.
So four team members from LXDResearch were here presenting
research.
We were discussants for otherresearch sessions.
We had five research sessionswhere we were the discussants
for the sessions.
I also co-led and facilitated atable at the ISTE co-design
(07:12):
workshop, nice.
We were with Padlet, we were atthe Padlet table.
So I mean we work with them ontheir ISTE seal.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh great.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, so it was really really nice to you know,
to be with a client and talk toeducators about new features
that they're working on, andthat's really why I was hitting
the exhibit floor here today,because I wanted to talk to all
different companies about theirresearch journey and to be a
resource.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I have a YouTube channel with free videos that I
produce.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Wow, what does that YouTube handle?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh, it's LXDResearch at YouTube and it's really quick
less than five-minute videosabout research.
What does educational researchlook like?
What's the terminology?
When someone says SL, level 3,what does that mean?
And it's both to help thecompanies, but also the
educators know how to ask aboutresearch and to understand it.
That's great, but also theeducators know how to ask about
(08:06):
research and to understand it.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
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 certifiedby other third parties.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You got it Just like in the olden days, when
researchers would submit forpublication right.
That was the moment where theexperts would review the study
that they did.
We're moving at a much fasterpace in education.
Right now I have three papersthat are currently waiting
review in research journals,some I've been waiting for over
(08:41):
six months to find out if theymight want to publish it or
might want me to revise it.
We don't have that kind of timehere in education these
products are out and they're inclassrooms now.
So we actually focus on rapidcycle evaluation and because of
that, all of our research isexternally reviewed by a
(09:03):
nonprofit partner.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh, that's so wonderful, that is so great and
that's you know, just shows.
It shows the rigor involved inthe research that you're doing.
You get to help so many schooldistricts and companies to find
those best practices.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Absolutely, and it's called EduEvidenceorg, and whatI
really like about it is that'sinternational.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So they've taken the ed tech research requirements
from many different countriesand actually have put together
an international council on whated tech quality looks like and
what the research should looklike, and so we actually are
their official, an official USpartner.
Wow, so that way, anythinganybody who works with us and
(09:46):
does research with us, our workis fast-tracked to get certified
.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
That is so wonderful.
That's a great action that'sgoing on with your research,
thank you.
So let me ask you do you haveanything you'd like to share
with the ISTE community, asthey're completing the sessions
and everything here today?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Absolutely Well.
The last time I was at ISTE wastwo years ago and a lot of the
folks on the floor told me thatthe educators were not asking
about research.
So it makes it difficult for meto say that research is
important to the educators ifthe educators aren't asking
about research.
Great news Many more people areasking about research this
(10:27):
conference than there have inthe past and I would say keep
asking.
Asking, because if you're notasking about the research that's
been conducted, or even youknow, were teachers involved in
making the product?
Were those teachers involved inthe user research, making sure
that's meeting their needs.
As it's being designed, thesethings should be transparent,
(10:49):
written down, documented,validated by a third party.
It is not difficult to do, it'snot expensive to do, but a lot
of the companies don't do it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Wow, that's something you definitely can't afford not
to do.
It's very important to get theresearch done.
There's so many people thatneed to see the numbers and need
to see that there's been someverification, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
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 forthe paper, ask for the website
and you can always look at itlater.
Another great tip there are AItools where you can upload a
research study and it explainsit to you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh, that's so nice, because some of those
researchers go way overeverybody's head.
Oh my gosh, me too.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Like I can barely understand it.
I'm starting to do it.
I was like hey, chatgbt, canyou summarize this for me or
make like a little presentationfor me?
Like as if you were theresearcher presenting this to a
group of educators.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And that's your prompt.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Wow, that is such a great thing that you're doing
there.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So tell us again what is the name of your website.
It's lxdresearchcom, and on thewebsite there are everything I
just mentioned and also I havelike an alphabet soup article to
tell you about all thedifferent research organizations
and for companies, how to getSS certified.
I have videos and articles allfor free and all available
through my website.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Oh, that's so awesome , or our website.
That's so great.
Again, this is Dr RachelSchechter with LXD Research.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Thank you so much for having me.
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