A recent report from LearnPlatform, an education technology company that assists districts in assessing the effectiveness of their digital tools, reveals that only a quarter of the top 100 ed-tech tools used in classrooms meet the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The report evaluates the performance of these widely-used tools in the United States based on factors like data privacy, interoperability, alignment with federal standards, and other indicators. During the pandemic, many companies offered their products to schools and teachers for free, leading to increased usage even without evidence of standards alignment, as educators needed ways to engage their students.
The number of technology products accessed by school districts in a given month has nearly tripled over the past few years; however, the effectiveness of these products is often unclear. Federal, state, and district policies are now demanding that companies provide evidence of alignment with ESSA. For example, large districts like Los Angeles and Chicago now require vendors to provide evidence during the purchasing process. Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds at the onset of the pandemic to assist districts in their recovery efforts. The bill emphasized the need for "evidence-based" solutions, mentioned 17 times in the first 20 pages, indicating a growing demand for proof of a tech tool’s efficacy. Karl Rectanus, co-founder of LearnPlatform, highlighted this trend during a presentation on ESSA and technology at the SXSW EDU conference, stating that understanding the effectiveness, interoperability, compliance, accessibility, and safety of tools is crucial in the era of tech-enabled learning.
LearnPlatform conducted their report by analyzing data from over 11,000 ed-tech products, engaging 2.8 million students and 320,000 educators. The findings were corroborated with publicly available information from reputable associations and organizations, including Common Sense Media, Digital Promise, and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).