Schools and Software: What's Now and What's Next

What software tools do school systems actually want? Demand-side analyses typically reflect the loudest voices in the market that companies are eager to please--in the case of education technology, the largest urban districts with the largest technology budgets. But half of the nation's 48 million public school students attend approximately 3,700 small- to mediumsized school systems.* These school systems face some of the same struggles as large districts in delivering high-quality blended learning and running effective and efficient central offices. They also face distinct challenges in the marketplace, as they find themselves unable to afford large enterprise solutions or powerless to push suppliers to customize to their particular needs. To answer the question of what these school systems want, the authors surveyed education leaders in 30 small- to medium-sized public school systems that each serve between approximately 2,500 to 25,000 students to shed light on developing education technology trends and desires. K-12 software has long been a source of aggravation and disappointment. But many of the school systems that were surveyed believe software can be used strategically to improve student achievement and overall organizational performance. An appendix provides software maps of school systems surveyed. [This report was written with contributions from Aylon Samouha.]