Educating on EdTech — Lessons from a Booming Market

Published in

Rebel One — RBL1

13 min readJul 16, 2020

The problems within the U.S. education system are extensive. Our stagnated system has resulted in flat-lined testing results, permeating through to an ill-prepared workforce.¹² Current efforts have not addressed core issues, leading to mounting problems across PreK-12, higher education, and continuous learning. COVID-19 has intensified the underlying issues within our system, exposing the need for digital infrastructure; and a clear vision outlining best practices remains unseen. While the world is radically different from 100 years ago, our education system has not adapted accordingly.

As these problems percolate, educational technology (EdTech) companies, nonprofits, and other initiatives are disrupting the status quo and filling the void of lagging policy changes. Here, we highlight these problems, analyze current EdTech solutions, and simultaneously question what still needs to be done. By sharing our insights we aim to stimulate discussion, provoke game-changing founders to construct the next wave of transformational change, and consider new models for education — ones that align with a post-COVID world.

Problems

PreK-12 — Starting in early childhood, there are gaps between educational attainment, school quality and academic progression³. The poverty-education cycle developed by GSV highlights the inequity in our education system, as low income students that start behind, stay behind. They have lower rates of kindergarten readiness (48% of low income students compared to 75% of high income students), high-school graduation (51% vs. 83%) and college graduation (9% vs. 77%)⁴.

Compounding this is the reality that school spending has been stagnant, even with an improving economy, as several states have failed to prioritize quality education and focused their budgets elsewhere.⁵ This has exasperated the poverty-education cycle, leading to overcrowded classrooms, depleted teacher pay (North Carolina public school teachers make ~11% less on average than 15 years ago, adjusting for inflation) and a general lack of digital infrastructure.⁶ These conditions are further intertwined with the notion that standardized test performance is exceedingly important, leading school districts to overemphasize testing and deemphasize learning. This results in poorer outcomes where schools fail to properly prepare students for their future, as prioritization is placed on test-taking.

Higher Education (College and Graduate School) — Problems within higher education are heightened by the inequity in support systems, beginning with learning about advanced degree options and sustaining through to launching a career. Colleges are continuing to raise tuition, ballooning the already $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt,⁷ and pushing 18-year olds to make a critical tradeoff between education and a future financial burden. This limits access, as many fear not only the debt, but also how they will support themselves throughout the college experience. Furthermore, once enrolled, there is often misalignment between professors and students. Some professors, who are experts in their field, are not necessarily trained to teach. This, combined with a rigid system where students are not prepared for their career and “real life” challenges, results in low completion rates, with dropout percentages approaching 50% at many four-year institutions and 80% at many two-year colleges.⁸ Lastly, in today’s economy, exasperated by the effects of COVID-19, college students are struggling to find jobs. Prior to COVID-19, more that 40% of graduates took a first-job that did not require a degree,⁹ indicating that colleges are failing to innovate their systems, and provide the right training and assistance needed to enter the workforce.

Continuous Learning — Defined as the ability to improve skills and/or knowledge in order to perform effectively, continuous learning allows employees to adapt to changes in the workplace. For those currently in the workforce, however, the skills gap and need for retraining is evident. The heightened pace of innovation has decreased the half-life of professional skills to around 5-years, and 92% of US adults think their employers should do more to train them.¹⁰¹¹ As the need for high-skilled laborers and automation increase, workers face new demands. As such, they require assistance from their employers and other learning programs to adapt, specifically as demand grows for socioemotional, creative, technological, and higher cognitive skills.¹²

Landscape Market Map

Funding across EdTech has grown tremendously with over $35B in funding globally since 2010, $3B of investment in 1Q20 alone, and an additional $87B of investment expected over the next 10 years.¹³¹⁴ VCs focused on EdTech are backing passionate, gritty and impactful founders who ardently face the bureaucracy and long selling cycles that characterize EdTech.

Our review of the current market landscape takes a time-horizon approach, thematically assessing the areas that have been disrupted by reviewing over 150 companies across early childhood, K-12, higher education, and continuous learning. This market map was not constructed to be entirely exhaustive, but rather to define trends, and highlight companies innovating along different facets. Some companies are included in their respective area for simplicity, but may offer a wider range of products or services. As we reviewed the startups, non-profits, and more established companies within the EdTech space, where possible, we aim to highlight companies focused on creating optimal learning experiences that foster opportunities for learners, across all ages and demographics, to access, engage and connect with their learning — or put simply — solutions that democratize access to education. When taken holistically, this market map not only visualizes key trends and themes seen across the EdTech industry today, but also addresses areas for opportunity and disruption, paving the way for tomorrow’s EdTech founders.

Early Childhood

This group encompasses solutions geared towards Early Learning and Digital Assistance to Parents. Early learning companies such as Speakaboos and Skybrary use technology to teach the basic tenets of reading, providing platforms with resources for digital exploration. Those bucketed under digital assistance to parents allow parents to make more informed choices about their child’s learning (Care Lulu, Wee School, Bright By Text), discover activities for additional enrichment (Homeroom, Kinedu), and incorporate learning throughout the day (Baby Sparks, Vroom). The overarching goal of these organizations is to fuel learning from an early age, striving towards kindergarten readiness.

Opportunities: This area is primed for disruption, as a holistic solution that prepares students for kindergarten does not exist. Early engagement is critical for student development, and as policymakers fail to outline progressive changes, organizations such as the Bezos Family Foundation have stepped in to provide free engagement activities (Vroom). We believe, however, there is room for companies to overtake this segment with an inclusive product that sells to the future school districts of children. Selling to schools districts, as opposed to parents, could facilitate early learning and help democratize access to education.

K-12

Perhaps the most robust area, the K-12 horizon covers products that target students, teachers, principals and the broader learning environment. Individual Tracking & Adaptive Assessments are a key trend, as educators design specialized learning programs. MasteryConnect, a personalized learning platform, grants extra power to teachers by allowing them to track student progress and intervene as needed. Specialized Learning comprises programs catered towards special education, ESL (english as a second language), SEL (socio-emotional learning) and behavioral management. These student categories target a specific subset of the population and typically have distinct funding streams. For instance, LiftEd integrates with personalized learning plans, providing progress monitoring, intervention and instructional support for special education professionals and students. Subject Specific Learning includes solutions that cover aspects of learning such as improving writing (No Red Ink), mathematics (DreamBox Learning), reading (Amira Learning), science (Mystery Science) or coding (UCode) abilities. These products strive to increase student fluency across a specific area, and many have been increasingly successful. It is difficult, however, for school districts to purchase and incorporate all of these solutions, due to constrained budgets and teacher balance between curriculum and technology.

Now let’s move from student-specific solutions towards those geared to teachers and principals. Tools for Teachers are solutions that use technology to instill an infrastructure of accountability and continuous improvement amongst educators. Gradescope and Bakpax ease the burden of grading, while BetterLesson, LearnZillion, and Nearpod aggregate innovative content, allowing teachers to create and share with their students. Platforms such as TARA enable teachers to transform their lesson planning, providing creative suggestions and best practices, while NeuroTeach Global administers insights around student engagement, so teachers can analyze their strategies. Tools for Principals incorporate devices such as New Leaders that train effective leaders, but also those that assist with school management. Furthermore, Learn Platform, Glimpse, Allovue allow principals to understand and monitor effectiveness, cut inefficient spending, and allocate resources to optimize student support. These SaaS systems focus on the business side of education, giving principals a holistic understanding of their school and its cost structures.

Opportunities: While this area is crowded, with consolidation and partnerships likely, we believe there are still pockets of opportunity for EdTech players. Companies targeting curriculum changes could be poised to succeed, specifically with tools that teach critical thinking and writing skills. Focusing on these content-based skills, while allowing students to learn subjects such as history along the way, could have better outcomes, as they prioritize the skills students need later in life. Moreover, products that support creativity, pushing students to utilize other aspects of their brain, may also have sticking ground.

Parallel to this are solutions that expand social-emotional learning and incorporate whole learning or comprehensive student development (CSD). Already implemented by a handful of school districts, CSD is a research-based framework that considers the other factors (hunger, attention span, family issues) that impact learning, and is designed to ensure that children cultivate a wide arrow of knowledge, skills and habits.¹⁵ For example, restorative practices that alleviate tension between students and coaching children on how to handle conflict, are areas for further exploration and disruption. We believe that these tools have tailwinds from COVID-19, as socio-emotional development and mental health concerns have become increasingly important to both educators and parents.

Higher Education

Higher Education is separated into the different categories students face as they transcend through an institution — Discovery & Application, Student Aid, and Workforce Prep & Career Launch. Companies within the discovery and application phase including AdmitHub and College Vine, respectfully, use AI to give free admission advice and bring data-driven college guidance to families. Furthermore, ApplyBoard connects international students to educational opportunities around the world. Nonprofits in this area including College Spring and College Possible, assist with test-prep and college readiness.

Companies within student aid strive to solve the $1.5 trillion student debt crisis by offering a new means for students to save for college, apply for aid, and monitor their spending. RaiseMe allows students to earn micro-scholarships to help pay for college, Edquity arranges emergency aid resources for students in need, while LeverEdge utilizes group buying power to negotiate better student loan rates. These innovative organizations are breaking the construct of traditional lending, giving students financial knowledge and power.

Workforce prep and career launch incorporates companies integrating work and education through micro internships (ParkerDewey), project-based work experience (Riipen, Start Small), and networking (Graduway). These internships give students the hands-on experience needed for entry-level positions. Furthermore, career launch platforms such as Handshake and Crash, respectfully, connect students with relevant roles and allow them to make targeted company pitches.

As the problems with higher education persist, several Alternative Methods for Accreditation have arisen, with diverse ways of obtaining college credit. Make School is a project-based bachelor’s degree. Students have zero out of pocket costs for the program, and pay tuition through future earnings. Holberton School, a two-year college alternative, teaches full-stack software engineering through project-based learning. It also has no upfront tuition, charging a percentage of graduates’ future incomes. On the other hand, platforms such as StraighterLine have built affordable ways to earn college credit, while SUNH and CSU Global are online and self-paced universities.

Opportunities: With COVID-19 shifting instruction online, the traditional college experience is fading. As such, we believe levers for continued growth are organizations similar to those mentioned above that shift financial risks off of students and have programs that teach skills directly applicable to the job market. Financial burden is an increasingly strong barrier to entry for higher education. Products that alleviate this burden will be increasingly attractive, as they not only increase accessibility by decreasing downside risk, but also democratize the path towards higher education. Additionally, while the alternative solutions noted above are already in place, they are in their nascent stages, and we see additional pockets of opportunity to align student incentives with educator or employer objectives. Some revolutionary models include companies subsidizing undergraduate education (similar to MBA sponsorships), companies administering interest-free loans (if a student signs a job offer), and companies including loan repayment as part of a benefits package.

Lastly, there is capacity to expand the career launch category, as it is unlikely to be a winner-take-all market. Companies that partner with institutions to present risk-free opportunities for on-the-job training or support the career launch process in other manners, can scale as they embed themselves within university culture and fill gaps within current career programs.

Continuous Learning

Continuous learning blends into the Future of Work, with opportunities to close the skills gap by providing upskilling or reskilling. Solutions within Career Enhancement & Readiness build personalized career education and job matching (Pairin), prepare the workforce for tomorrow’s jobs (Guild) and offer career learning plans and personalized coaching for job seekers (BoardInfinity). Nonprofits such as Year Up assist young adults by providing the classroom training and internship experience needed to forge a meaningful career, while Innovate+Educate focuses on competencies and skills to create new pathways to training and employment. Skills-Based Learning encompasses products training a specific hard skill. Notable examples include Resilient Coders, which trains people of color for jobs as software engineers, AlwaysHired, a bootcamp for sales jobs and Design Lab, an online UI/UX courses.

Opportunities: As career switching becomes more prominent and automation leads to massive job shifts, individuals will look to strengthen their technology-based and soft-skill capabilities. Companies will be tasked with constructing additional models of training as part of a benefits package, priming this area for growth. As such, we believe solutions that emphasize innately human skills such as empathy, strategic decision making, ethical thinking and communication are well-positioned. By focusing on impending job-seekers, these tools have the ability to increase confidence throughout the interviewing and onboarding processes, and by focusing on existing employees, there is potential to increase job satisfaction. We also believe there is potential for continuous learning solutions to partner directly with higher education institutions, to strengthen skill-learning and existing solutions.

Multi-Stage Learning Solutions

These elongated buckets include areas that transcend across the time-horizons and are mechanisms to support schools, educators and more importantly learners as they cascade through their educational journey. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are software applications that assist with administrative tasks including documentation, reporting, delivering educational courses. For example, Noodle Partners helps colleges establish and manage online and hybrid programs. More topical for students (and parents) are Engagement, Communication and Retention solutions. At the K-12 level these tools allow schools to reach parents (Remind) and seek to decrease absenteeism (EveryDay Labs, AllHere). Within higher education, these companies support students by increasing engagement and providing access to resources that allow for on-time graduation. Upswing is a virtual assistance and student service platform, Stellic helps students proactively manage their college journey, while Re-Up Education partners with universities to re-enroll students who have dropped out.

The final area, Tutoring & Mentorship, is a key component of EdTech, available throughout the student lifecycle. Students of Strength and Toot are more affordable tutoring systems focusing on K-12, while PeopleGrove matches students with mentors and community resources. Later on, Paragon One coaches students to help them land competitive jobs, while Nepris connects learners with industry professionals, exposing them to different career options. These solutions allow students to develop meaningful relationships, thereby paving a path for their future.

Opportunities: Bundling is a necessity for continued growth. Software services (LMS and Tools for Principals) offer the ability to integrate resources and tools, and help schools reach outcomes. They deliver implementation and change management support, connect to the broader network, and give educators a macro snapshot of their school, along with micro inputs of individual teacher effectiveness and specific student engagement. The ability to fully and effectively integrate school operators, curriculums, and startups into one platform and simultaneously provide operational support is an area that is we believe poised for tremendous growth. There are also substantial opportunities to increase engagement and retention, specifically for learners that identify as low income. According to Opportunity Insights, increasing the representation of low and middle-income students at selective colleges could significantly enhance intergenerational income mobility in the United States.¹⁶ The follow-on efforts of this are drastic. While acceptance rests on admission processes, the engagement and retention of these students are opportunities for impact-focused companies to democratize access to higher education.

Final Thoughts

Sweeping changes have emerged due to the impact of COVID-19. In March, educators rapidly adjusted teaching methods and curriculum as the pandemic unfolded. Now, as institutions reveal their plans for the 2020–21 school year, a move towards digital, blended and flipped learning is evident. With a need to integrate technology in the classroom, EdTech is even more essential, and the pandemic may be the gateway to a new system of education. As solutions unfold around learning environments, daycare, transportation, test-taking assessments and more, we see increased flexibility as one of the biggest beneficial impacts. If classroom learning dissipates, students will gain control over their schedules conducting their learning when, where and how they choose. Teachers, along with other school professionals, will obtain a greater understanding of students’ personal situations, and potentially place less pressure on typical performance metrics.

It is harmful, however, to think that technology is always the answer. Before implementation, educators should consider a product’s broader purpose — what implementation will help them achieve, how outcomes will be measured, and what (if any) are the downside effects.¹⁷ Going forward, educators and their institutions must partner collaboratively with EdTech players, ensuring that solutions align with pedagogical research and modern frameworks. While the education system has not historically witnessed transformational change, as bureaucracy maintains a status quo of incremental improvements and step-function adjustments, the combined impacts of COVID-19 and a collaborative approach between educators, institutions and EdTech players could push the incremental to the transformational. And if outcomes are measured appropriately, policymakers should be pushed to follow suit.

I would love to hear from you if you have questions, feedback, or simply want to discuss. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn.

Educating on EdTech — Lessons from a Booming Market

Written by Rebecca Milian