Both the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in December of 2015, and the National Education Technology Plan of 2016 (NETP) outline a national commitment to equity in access to transformational learning. The NETP further sets America’s technology agenda with goals to support personalized, blended and project-based learning, student agency and the development of non-cognitive competencies such as forming relationships, self-awareness, self-control, working cooperatively and caring about the self and others. Our projects take a multi-method approach to studying how urban schools and communities go about meeting these goals.  We are especially grateful for funding from the National Science Foundation, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Spencer Foundation, the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context at the University of Michigan and the Rossier School of Education.