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

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Do we know what software tools school systems actually want? Demand-side analyses typically
reflect the loudest voices in the market that companies are eager to pleasein the case of
education technology, the largest urban districts with the largest technology budgets. But half
of the nations 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, we 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. Many
of these 30 school systems are operating at the leading edge of technology integration. As such,
this sample does not reflect the status quo across all systems of a similar size, but rather points to
where we think such systems are headed as technology inevitably improves and becomes more
affordable and accessible.
K12 software has long been a source of aggravation and disappointment. But many of
the school systems we surveyed believe software can be used strategically to improve student
achievement and overall organizational performance. More and more, school systems are hiring
technology for sophisticated jobs like blending learning environments, supporting data-driven
practices, and recruiting and supporting teachers.
In the interviews with leaders in each of these 30 school systems, we heard about the following
trends in technology usage and demand among small- to medium-sized school systems:
Academic software
Schools and students suffer when software vendors dont cooperate. School systems
want to use a suite of online-learning programs, but vendors are focused on developing
their own proprietary products. This leaves school systems with the challenge of
creating compelling and integrated student experiences from a patchwork of programs
that dont talk to one another.
* Patrick Keaton, Local Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Local Education Agencies From the
Common Core of Data: School Year 201011, National Center for Education Statistics, November 2012, http://nces.ed.gov/
pubs2012/2012326rev.pdf.
Schools and software: Whats now and whats next
Can learning software delight both students and teachers? Schools are clamoring
for online-learning programs that let teachers choose what students work on and
automatically adjusts to student needs, even though most online-learning programs do
only one of these things well. Significant ambivalence remains over how much control
teachers and students actually want or need.
Building trust with educators is essential. The inability to extract meaningful data
from online-learning programs can negatively impact perceptions of product quality
and limit educators trust in these programs. Information about the effectiveness of
online-learning programs should also be communicated with context around how they
are used in classrooms. Efficacy studies should shift their focus from what works to
what works, for which students, in what circumstances.
The next generation of effective and intuitive online learning. Future opportunities
exist for education technology companies to create products with a better mix of
student and teacher control, natively Common Core-aligned content, and more
intuitive design that requires less product training.
Business and operations software

Schools get more attention than the back office. School systems generally appear
more focused on academic- and school-related software than business and operations
solutions. The school systems surveyed also were more likely to use software mandated
by other agencies for back-office functions.
The (small) customer may be right but will not drive supply. Early-stage
and thinly resourced software companies cannot afford to heavily customize their
products for smaller customers, and small- to medium-sized school systems have
limited resources to pay for such changes. Therefore, these school systems often face a
tradeoff between comprehensive, legacy enterprise solutions that can be difficult to use,
disparate point solutions that do not talk to one another, or large enterprise applications
that are designed and priced for much larger entities.
Better solutions created by schools, for schools? A few charter management
organizations (CMOs) are leading the charge to develop more integrated solutions
for human resources, finance, and operations through in-house development or in
partnership with existing vendors. Successful software vendors outside of the K12
market, such as Workday or Zenefits, might also contemplate serving schools down
the line.
ii
CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE
Public school systems human resources and finance systems are so complex, however,
that such vendors may shy away from the K12 space.
Software and data integration

Message to K12 software vendors: There is no I in team. Many K12 software
programs offer limited value on a stand-alone basis and must be integrated with other
software, typically from different vendors, to realize their full potential. Software
integration challenges are primarily cooperation issues, not technical issues per se.
Thus, school systems and investors should demand cooperation at the outset.
A few software products to rule them all. Student information systems (SIS),
human resources information systems (HRIS), and domain management or identity
management systems (e.g., Active Directory, Google Apps Administrator) are sources
of truth because of the critical data that they collect. They sit at the center of most
software integrations. These hub platforms create a highly centralized architecture
around which nearly all other programs must be integratedautomatically or
manually. Such dominant platforms wield strong influence and school systems can
become locked into these vendors as a result.
Room for one more? New hubs may emerge that upset the current balance of power in
software architectures. For example, the school systems surveyed are adopting Google
Apps for Education either alongside or in place of Active Directory and Microsoft
Exchange, which have historically been the default solution. New hub categories may
be created altogether as well. For example, several school systems are exploring talent
management solutions (e.g., software that facilitates teacher evaluation, coaching, and
professional development) that, in the future, could potentially sit alongside the SIS,
HRIS, and identity management products as a fourth major platform.
Manual integration costs schools. Manual integration across various software
platforms and programs causes major headaches and inefficiencies for school systems.
Automated provisioning of software licenses and single sign-on technologies are slowly
addressing some of these pain points. Neither of these, however, helps to integrate
data coming out of disparate software systems. As a result, some school systems are
implementing data marts or data warehouses, and a number of CMOs are actually
attempting to build data solutions in-house.
iii
School systems will pay for help with their data. Education technology companies
that help school systems analyze and manage datalike BrightBytes, Clever, Education
Elements, LearnSprout, MasteryConnect, and Schoolzillaare drawing significant
interest from both customers and investors, which potentially signals healthy growth
ahead for this segment of the education technology market.
IT management and hardware

IT departments are becoming more strategic and valued by their school systems.
In school systems pursuing blended learning, chief information officers and other key
IT leaders increasingly possess hybrid backgrounds that combine deep technology and
instructional expertise. IT departments are becoming less siloed within school system
organizations and are playing a more active and strategic role across the enterprise,
especially with respect to teaching and learning.
Next stop, the cloud. Small- to medium-sized school systems have shifted or are in
the process of shifting to cloud-based software to support instruction and operations.
This stands to make IT management and workflow more efficient, but presents new
hurdles in terms of data privacy and challenges the existing paradigm of central control
over IT systems.
Wanted: Minimum, viable devices. School systems pursuing blended learning are
looking for affordable, manageable, and reliable devices to support their instructional
models and online assessments. Chromebooks appear to be gaining traction along
these dimensions, but remain limited by the inability to support software that must be
downloaded, such as early versions of assessment systems like Northwest Evaluation
Associations (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).
BYOD is the future. As more students and staff own consumer mobile and computing
devices, school systems will be more likely to move toward device agnostic and
bring your own device (BYOD) environments. This in turn will require that schools
implement new networking, device management, and security solutions.
By highlighting the particular trends and burgeoning demand across these school systems, we
hope that investors and vendors will find new opportunities to target neglected pockets of the
market, and small- to medium-sized school systems will work together to spur products that are
better suited to systems of their size.
iv
Schools and software

Whats now and whats next
SHIFTING DEMANDS: HOW SMALL- TO MEDIUM-SIZED SCHOOL
SYSTEMS ARE CONSUMING EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
In prior decades, technology in schools and central offices supported compliance with state
and federal reporting requirements or provided basic student information storage. Today, an
increasing number of schools are hiring technology for far more sophisticated jobs: blending
learning environments, supporting data-driven practice, and running their organizations
more efficiently.1
Besides the stunning technological progress we have witnessed in the last decade, several catalysts
are driving school systems to reconsider their technology strategies. First, schools are looking for
more streamlined and automated workflow solutions to expedite processes such as registering
students for school, managing talent pipelines, reporting academic data, and communicating
with families. Second, school systems are upgrading their broadband and hardware in order
to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) assessmentswhich use computerbased testing on an unprecedented scale.2 Third, school systems are increasing their use of cloudbased software, which is enabling IT departments to shift their focus from managing on-site data
centers to supporting teaching, learning, and operations. Finally, school systems are integrating
technology into new models of instruction through blended learningthe delivery of online
learning inside brick-and-mortar schools. Nationally, an estimated 75 percent of school districts
offer some online or blended options.3
The education technology market supporting these shifts is large and growing. The Software
& Information Industry Association (SIIA) projects that the size of the overall PreK12 market
in 2013 for non-hardware education technology products and services reached an all-time high
of $7.97 billion.4 There is no arguing that a wealth of tools is available to school systems trying
to meet the host of emerging 21st-century needs.
Within this shifting and expanding marketplace, few have analyzed the alignmentor lack
thereofbetween the supply of education technology products and the particular demands of
what we will refer to as small- to medium-sized school systems, which are school systems that
each serve approximately 2,500 to 25,000 students. Although these
Operating at the
school systems may not always dominate national headlines, they

are significant in the landscape of U.S. education. Fifty percent of
frontier of technology
the nations 48 million public school students attend approximately
implementation, these
3,700 small- to medium-sized school systems.5 Understanding these
school systems stories
the education technology market does or does not cater to school
can hopefully lend key
systems of this size.
school systems particular needs provides an important lens on how
We interviewed 30 small- to medium-sized public school
insights for similarly
systemsboth districts and charter management organizations
sized school systems.
(CMOs)across the United States to understand how these school

systems are shifting to using software to support both academics
and operations. Our interview subjects included multiple members
of school systems leadership, instructional, and IT teams in order to
identify these school systems successes and pain points and to look
around the corner to anticipate their future technology needs. Appendix A provides a series of
software maps illustrating the range of software tools that a subset of these school systems uses
currently.
These 30 school systems, listed in Table 1, represent diversity across geography, size, community,
and student demographics. Rather than surveying a random sample of school systems of this
size, however, the sample leans toward early adopters of technology, both in terms of school
operations and instructional software. Operating at the frontier of technology implementation,
these school systems stories can hopefully lend key insights for similarly sized school systems that
are just now dipping their toes in education technology waters.
Besides the size of their student bodies and budgets, what sets small- to medium-sized school
systems apart? As customers, these school systems often make stark tradeoffs in implementing
solutions compared to their larger counterparts. We face two choices for our size organization. I
either way overpay for something, or I use Excel, said Shaun Bryant of DSST Public Schools, a
CMO in Colorado. In other words, school systems often trade off between very low-tech options,
like tracking student progress on spreadsheets and expensive, relative to their budgets, highertech products, with few options in between.
Moreover, even when smaller school systems have the budget to pay for technology solutions,
they find that the search costs of finding the right products remain high. As Superintendent
Jeff Baier of Los Altos School District in California observed, education technology products
resist clear categories. The tech scene is a bit like the wild west right now, he said. All of the
Table 1. Small- to medium-sized school systems surveyed
School system
Type
Area
Headquarters
Grades
served
Number of % Free or
students reducedServed price lunch
% White
% Black
or African % Hispanic
American or Latino
Achievement First
CMO
Urban
New York, NY
K12
8,168
85%
1%
74%
24%
Albemarle County
Schools
District
Suburban
Charlottesville,
VA
K12
13,263
28%
70%
11%
9%
Alliance for College

Ready Public
CMO
Schools
Urban
Los Angeles,
CA
612
10,000
93%
2%
8%
90%
Aspire Public
Schools
CMO
Urban
Alameda, CA
K12
13,630
67%
7%
16%
66%
Distinctive Schools
CMO
Urban
Chicago, IL
K8
2,497
87%
5%
33%
56%
DSST Public
Schools
CMO
Urban/
Mixed
Denver, CO
612
2,724
64%
23%
19%
48%
Education
Achievement
Athority
District
Urban
Detroit, MI
K12
8,682
83%
1%
95%
3%
Educational
Enterprises, Inc.
CMO
Urban/
Mixed
Milwaukee, WS
K8
988
53%
30%
21%
41%
FirstLine Schools
CMO
Urban
New Orleans,
LA
K12
2,802
95%
1%
95%
3%
Galt Joint Union

Elementary School
District
District
Suburban
Galt, CA
K8
3,792
65%
36%
2%
56%
Grand Rapids
Public Schools
District
Suburban
Grand Rapids,
MI
K12
17,000
83%
20%
36%
36%
Green Dot Public

Schools
CMO
Urban
Los Angeles,
CA
612
10,000
96%
1%
20%
79%
Highline Public
Schools
District
Urban/
Mixed
Burien, WA
K12
18,378
70%
25%
11%
37%
IDEA Public
Schools
CMO
Rural
Weslaco, TX
K12
16,742
82%
2%
2%
94%
KIPP LA Schools
CMO
Urban
Los Angeles,
CA
K8
3,056
89%
0%
31%
68%
LA Recovery
School District
District
Urban
Statewide, LA
K12
33,523
86%
2%
95%
3%
Lebanon School
District
District
Urban
Lebanon, PA
K12
4,819
79%
36%
6%
55%
Lindsay Unified
School District
District
Rural
Lindsay, CA
K12
4,130
80%
6%
0%
91%
Los Altos School

District
District
Suburban
Los Altos, CA
K8
4,468
5%
50%
0%
7%
Milpitas Unified
School District
District
Urban/
Mixed
Milpitas, CA
10,033
39%
7%
3%
22%
K12
School system
Type
Minnetonka Public
Schools
District
Noble Network of
Charter Schools
Area
Headquarters
Grades
served
Number of % Free or
students reducedServed price lunch
% White
% Black
or African % Hispanic
American or Latino
Suburban
Minnetonka,
MN
K12
9,739
7%
88%
3%
3%
CMO
Urban
Chicago, IL
612
9,069
89%
1%
51%
43%
Quakertown
Community School
District
District
Suburban
Quakertown,
PA
K12
5,322
27%
87%
2%
6%
Reynoldsburg City
Schools
District
Suburban
Reynoldsburg,
OH
K12
6,204
46%
50%
37%
5%
Riverside Unified
School District
District
Urban/
Mixed
Riverside, CA
K12
42,560
64%
25%
8%
59%
Rocketship
Education
CMO
Urban
San Jose, CA
PreK5
5,129
83%
2%
2%
82%
Summit Public
Schools
CMO
Urban/
Mixed
Redwood City,
CA
912
1,605
26%
22%
3%
50%
Uplift Education
CMO
Urban
Dallas, TX
K12
9,760
69%
5%
20%
66%
Utica Community
Schools
District
Suburban
Sterling
Heights, MI
K12
28,507
30%
88%
5%
2%
YES Prep Public

Schools
CMO
Urban
Houston, TX
612
7,981
83%
43%
16%
39%
* See Acknowledgements for a complete list of the interviewees from each school system.
companies are solving for X but developers are not always clear what X is or what it should
be. Although leaders from school systems large and small might agree with Baiers observation,
smaller school systems lack the resources to vet a wide array of products to find the best solution
for their needs. As Tracy Epp of Achievement First, a CMO that operates in Connecticut, New
York, and Rhode Island, explained, her team has struggled to filter for quality. The marketplace
is saturated with a lot of bright, shiny objects, she said. Its hard to evaluate what are highquality, truly proven products.
If small- to medium-sized school systems successfully navigate this wild west and make
procurement decisions, many then perceive that they do not receive the same level of attention
and support from technology providers as their larger, higher-paying counterparts. As Bill Kurtz
of DSST Public Schools said, Vendors arent going to make any money on the smaller clients,
so its hard to get them to listen to our needs. Of course, this is a reality that arises in any
marketplace, wherein companies are motivated to cater to their highest-paying customers. As
one education technology companys CEO explained, a client who was demanding hundreds of
thousands of dollars in custom changes turned out to be his companys 468th largest customer;
answering to these smaller school systems demands will not always take priority.
As an exception to this, some CMOs have managed to work

with vendors to build customized products to meet their very
We face two
particular needs, with the underlying assumption that those

products will eventually gain traction with other school systems
choices for our
demanding similar solutions. Not every vendor, however, is willing
size organization.
to embark on such bold, expensive, and risky projects. From the

vendor perspective, such collaboration can be risky when a school
I either way overpay
system is unclear on their software requirements or when their
for something,
needs are so customer-specific that it is difficult to create a broader,
or I use Excel.
more generalizable solution.

Given that these school systems will never, on their own, be
the largest customer with the loudest voice in the market, pooling
demand among smaller school systems would, in theory, make
sense. But even among those school systems that appear to share similar pain points, aggregating
demand across such school systems is rare. There are a few examples of institutions, like the
Puget Sound Educational Service District and the KIPP Foundation, which support multiple
school systems and may license software across their networks. Among the 30 school systems
in our sample attempts to pool demand remained few and far between.6 As a result, in addition
to bringing greater transparency of the small- to medium-sized education technology market
to vendors and investors, we hope this research may help school systems identify missed
opportunities to band together to demand particular products or solutions.
Small- to medium-sized school systems may actually offer a promising market for some
software providers. The distinct needs and more limited purchasing power among smaller
customers are not phenomena unique to the education market. For example, in the private sector,
small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) represent a distinct and growing customer base in the
technology services market. Trends in network complexity, growth of cloud services, and bring
your own device (BYOD) environments are driving the U.S. SMB technical support market
to grow to a projected $25 billion by 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4 percent
between 2012 and 2016.7Software companies have stepped in to gain a foothold in the SMB
market, with products like Dropbox, MailChimp, and SurveyMonkey, which offer intuitive
products with easy integrations at affordable price points that SMBs are able to pay.
The small- to medium-sized education technology market is smaller and more challenging for
vendors, who must win customers at higher rates on far less capital compared to the SMB market.
Some vendors, like Alma, a new student information system (SIS) and learning management system
(LMS), have focused on systems of this size in K12 education. Because of limited market size,
however, education technology sales teams often organize around larger customer opportunities.
Beyond inspiring school systems to perhaps better pool their demand,
As school systems
our hope is that by highlighting the particular demands in a subset
wrestle with these
cater to this segment of the market with innovative and sustainable
unmet demands,
some are stuck with
imperfect workarounds
of these school systems, entrepreneurs will seize opportunities to

business models.
SHIFTING DEMANDS: A CLOSER LOOK AT

WHATS NOW AND WHATS NEXT
on top of legacy
Even though the education technology market is booming, our
products, others are
interviews across these 30 school systems revealed a number of areas
piloting new products,

and others are building
solutions in-house.
where software products are not meeting practitioners needs.

As school systems wrestle with these unmet demands, some are
stuck with imperfect workaround solutions built on top of legacy
technology systems; others are piloting new, emerging products;
and still others are attempting to build solutions in-house.
The following sections summarize key developments and gaps
in the education technology market, provide examples of products
and services that are trying to fill those needs, and look aheador
see whats nextto potential market trends. These sections are sorted into four categories:
academic software, business and operations software, software integration and data storage, and
IT management and hardware.
Academic software
Academic software providers are flooding the market with new products that allow schools to
deploy an array of blended-learning modelsthat is, instructional models that combine online
learning and brick-and-mortar environments. The majority of the 30 school systems interviewed
constitute early adopters of school models that leverage technology to deliver and personalize
learning. Many use a sophisticated array of academic software products in their classrooms and
schools. The actual software functionality that these school systems are demanding, however,
remains difficult to pin down and differs by academic model. Moreover, the perception of the
quality of online-learning programs varies greatly depending on how well the software both
aligns to the standards and micro standards that schools are aiming to teach and how well it
supplies data to educators. These market dynamics can be divided into three categories described
below: the degree of control that teachers and administrators

want over academic software, the degree of trust that educators
and administrators have in various software products, and the
The adaptability
role of professional development involved in implementing new
versus assignability
software products.
debate poses deep
Assignability versus adaptability

within academic software
philosophical and
When it comes to control, teachers and administrators across the 30

school systems seem to be walking a fine line between demanding
technical questions for

learning software.
assignable versus adaptive academic software. Assignable software

allows the teacher to choose what online activities students will
tackle. This is important in school models where the teacher is in
charge of targeted standards-based instruction and intervention. Still, an assignable approach
risks the teacher becoming the bottleneck in blended-learning environments in which the teacher
is unable to assign digital content in an effective and efficient manner for each individual student.
Adaptive software adjusts automatically to individual student strengths and needs, a potentially
effective approach when teachers do not want to be involved in assigning content, such as in
learning lab environments or consumer applications where the program steps in to teach the
student. In blended classrooms, however, adaptive content may diverge from what is being
taught in class. Moreover, some teachers struggle in implementing adaptive software. Letting a
kid just work on a computer is uncomfortable for many educators. This makes it challenging to
give students flexible choices over their learning, said Caryn Voskuil of Rocketship Education, a
CMO that operates in California, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. Further adding
to this tension is the question some practitioners have as to where the student fits in. We put
a huge premium on adaptive software because of the differentiation value it offers. But what do
we sacrifice in terms of student ownership? said Nikki Herman of the Education Achievement
Authority (EAA) of Michigan, an independent state school district that operates the lowest
achieving five percent of schools in Michigan.8
The adaptability versus assignability debate poses both deep philosophical and technical
questions about the role of software in the learning environment. School systems currently
appear to be asking for both. As Liz Arney of Aspire Public Schools, a CMO that operates in
California and Tennessee, said:
Teachers want it both ways, the black box of individualized paths and modular
content they can assign at will. I dont want teachers spending inordinate
amounts of time on computers creating individual paths
Teachers want it both

ways, the black box
of individualized paths
and modular content
they can assign at will.
for students. I want software to be more targeted and lighter

weight so that teachers are not re-organizing curriculum
inside a program, but they can use programs to best meet
the needs of their students in a cost-efficient way.
Chris Liang-Vergara, formerly of FirstLine Schools, a CMO in
Louisiana, described his vision of this balance:
You have your diagnostic and adaptive engine but if you
want to [you can] assign the lessons as your own playlist
that makes [the software] more curriculum compatible and
teacher-friendly. The software should not be the students
only experience with the content, and teachers need to be able to integrate it
with other lessons and activities they are doing. So the architecture of the system
needs to reflect this happy medium.
Jake Firman of DSST Public Schools likewise spoke of balancing the two. We want the
adaptability around the content and modality most relevant for a student. Ideally, the tool would
provide that option but then the teacher could manually override, he said.
Assessing the quality of academic software

Whether content is adaptive or assignable, school systems put a high premium on quality in terms
of products with a proven track record of driving student outcomes. Based on our interviews, a
number of products proved most popular across these school systems blended classrooms and
schools: for example, 12 school systems were using Khan Academy, nine were using ST Math,
seven were using DreamBox Learning, six were using i-Ready (with additional school systems
expressing interest), six were using READ 180, six were using Compass Learning, six were using
Accelerated Reader, five were using Achieve3000, five were using Think Through Math, and
three had recently adopted Lexia Reading.
Although these clusters of usage suggest some consensus around which vendors stand out
in the wild west of education technology, school systems were still cautious about declaring
clear winners. In part, this is because vendors are reluctant to share student performance data
with their customers. As Superintendent Cary Matsuoka of Milpitas Unified School District
in California reflected on his districts implementation of numerous software programs across
the district, he said, I would have toned down rhetoric around data-driven instruction. I dont
say that anymore because our experience is that its nearly impossible to get the data out of
our software platforms. Emmile Brack of Aspire Public Schools explained her frustration with
this same dynamic: Software vendors need to not be [difficult]

about us accessing our own data. Its our data. Why do we have
to negotiate for it? Similarly, Firman pointed out that when he is
our experience
assessing potential products, access to data is one of the primary
is that its nearly
filters by which he makes his decision. Its really important that
impossible to get
we have a content provider that doesnt hold our data hostage,

he said. Some schools are trying to solve this problem through
the data out of our
negotiating contract agreements upfront. For example, KIPP
software platforms.
Bay Area Schools, a CMO in California, typically structures its

software license agreements to ensure automated read access to all
student learning data as a standard contract provision.
Because of this dearth of meaningful data coming out of
academic software, numerous school systems leaders described a lack of trust in the quality of
online-learning programs. As John Caesar of Lindsay Unified School District in California said:
We cant just put learners into somebody elses box for 45 minutes and trust
they have learned. Learning programs offer the opportunity to deliver and
personalize skill-based and declarative knowledge, but the real learning comes
together in the art of teaching where these skills are integrated into real life
contextual creativity and problem solving.
Herman of the EAA of Michigan pushed further on what current data from many onlinelearning programs can and cannot tell her about the effectiveness:
We can see activities, the time spent, we can see final mastery, we can see the
questions that students are getting right and wrong but it never answers the
why question. Why did the student not learn this? What is the prerequisite skill
that they are missing?
Some programs do provide data on what students are working on, and in what particular
areas students had to be pointed back to earlier concepts. Educators, however, want more
transparent, granular, diagnostic information on the particular micro standards that are hindering
student progress.
Beyond simply providing teachers with better information, Liang-Vergara believes that having
transparent data is vital to helping educators trust software: Programs need to be able to show
what the student really did to build that trust. Nobody really has this but ST Math comes close
by replaying animations of what [the] student did. Liang-Vergara also sees data transparency as
a temporary necessity to get educator buy-in: They [educators] dont necessarily need this level
of transparency forever. If the teacher builds the trust over the early part of implementation, they
will then trust the reports. Conversely, Greg Klein of the Rogers Family Foundation, which
supports schools in Oakland, Calif., pointed out that online-learning programs are dynamic
and can evolve and change over time, but their reputations may not change accordingly. Schools
sometimes miss when untrusted programs improve and evolve to serve an important need.
Trust gaps are compounded by the fact that most of the school systems surveyed are deploying
multiple online-learning programs in order to satisfy different student needs and use cases. There
is no single magical program that does it all. Because vendors are focused on their own individual
products, school systems are left with the unenviable task of stitching disparate programs together
in an integrated and coherent way. As Mark Finstrom of Highline Public Schools in Washington
said, the value to schools implementing blended learning is in accessing an entire suite of tools,
while vendors are trying to maximize their individual interests and fail to see the big picture.
Beyond just building trust, the why that Herman described also reflects a broader gap in
reliable market information on how various products perform in different circumstances, for
different students. Practitioners have looked in vain for use-case analysis of what products work
for what students and when. As Richard Harrison of Uplift Education, a CMO in Texas, said:
Most of the decisions live in the binary world of is a student doing well or not.
... The pitfall is that theyre focused on the students that didnt do well. Theyre
not really looking at what is making students do well. Analytics would say
what are the data points that would tell you why a student is trending one way
or another?
Of course this information is not necessarily in the best interest of vendors to share because in
demonstrating that they are particularly adept at serving certain students, they are admitting that
their products do not work for all students in all circumstances.
Many school systems reported using educational software to do a wide variety of jobs within their
blended-learning environments. For example, at Rocketship Education, one leader described that
online-learning programs are used for independent work, whole-group instruction, remediation,
collaboration opportunities, homework, corrective instruction, and progress monitoring. Having
identified these distinct cases, the school system now sorts different software products according
to what cases they do or do not support. For example, Rocketship Education has found that some
programs are great for remediation but require too much supervision for homework. This usecase information, however, is either not conveyed clearly by developers, or vendors are trying to
build products that do everything for all students, rather than sorting themselves across different
use cases.
10
Rocketship Educations use-case analyses reflect what other researchers have also
observed in the field. For example, a recent study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Teachers Know Best, investigated what teachers want out of digital-learning tools and identified
a range of both teacher- and student-centered purposes. These purposes included delivering
instruction directly to students, diagnosing student learning needs, varying the delivery method
of instruction, tailoring the learning experience to meet individual student needs, supporting
student collaboration and providing interactive experiences, and fostering independent practice
of specific skills.9
Finally, there is often unreliable alignment among different online-learning programs, even
though these programs purport to address the same set of Common Core standards. Moreover,
online-learning programs assessments may not measure progress in a consistent manner. For
example, some academic software providers tag a single lesson with five standards, but there is
no way for educators to figure out which of the five standards the student may have struggled
with or succeeded in. This makes it impossible to say that program X is trying to measure the
same thing as program Y. Many school systemslike Milpitas Unified School District, KIPP
LA Schools, a CMO in California, and Distinctive Schools, a CMO in Illinoisare bypassing
this problem altogether by using a separate student assessment system, like i-Ready or Northwest
Evaluation Associations (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), to track overall learning
growth. Other school systems are hiring dedicated staff to extract and analyze academic data from
multiple online-learning programs in an attempt to square these disparate measures and gain
deeper insights into where students are excelling or struggling.
Professional development for academic software

School systems expressed deep frustrations with the professional development offered by most
vendors. These complaints reflect the divergence between how customers are using software
products and how vendors think they should be used. Although vendors often complain that
customers dont properly use their products, the customers see a different side to the story.
Vendors implementation and utilization training must begin by identifying where schools are at
and where they want to end up, as opposed to a standardized training focused on how they would
like you to use the program, said Kyle Anderson of Educational Enterprises, Inc. (EEI), a CMO
that operates in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Missouri. Liang-Vergara echoed the same sentiment:
We need to achieve a happy medium for how the product was designed and what the schools
know about their kids. Much like the tension between assignable versus adaptive software,
vendors emphasis on fidelity is often perceived as hindering teachers from doing their jobs how
11
they see fit. As Liang-Vergara said, The supplier needs to be clear
We need to achieve a
upfront about whether there is flexibility for implementation.

Some school systems are going so far as to try to reshape the
happy medium for how
content of vendor professional development sessions, which often
the product was designed
constitute precious hours for teachers. Arney of Aspire Public
and what the schools

know about their kids.
Schools said, They want to change the instructional setting and

tell us how to use it. You need to respect how we use it. Otherwise,
people arent going to hear it. To this end, Arney herself often
edits vendors pre-packaged professional development plans to suit
her teachers needs. Im really hands-on with the trainer so that
they dont waste teachers time or say things that are counter to our
instructional program, she said. Alternatively, some schools avoid
using vendors professional development altogether when they can, because it can drive up the
price of the software. Many vendors, however, require that school systems participate in some
form of professional development or training.
This dynamic may also feed back into distrust of what little data schools are able to extract
from software programs. Teachers acknowledge theyre not implementing [programs] with
fidelity, and so then why would they trust the data? said Amy Pouba of KIPP Chicago Schools, a
CMO in Illinois. As a result, Pouba explained, teachers fear that they are receiving false negatives
from the performance data. Because we dont execute with total fidelity, she said, my concern
is that the data is just not accurate.
On the other hand, vendors offer clear guidance on how their products should be used to increase
the chances of success. Vendors have legitimate concerns when their products are being used for
purposes for which they are not intended. The field in general needs to better distinguish between
design flaws in academic software and flagrant misapplications of programs. It is not a design
problem when customers take a proverbial hammer and find that it works poorly as a screwdriver.
12
ACADEMIC SOFTWARE: WHATS NEXT?

The academic software market will change as content demands under the CCSS
continue to evolve and as school systems become clearer on what they want software
to do for them. Looking ahead, the market may shift in the following ways:
Striking a better balance between adaptive and assignable software. School
systems are clamoring for online-learning programs that combine assignable
and adaptive elements in more compelling ways. Satisfying educators on
this front may require overhauling existing providers software architecture
and offer an advantage to new providers who can offer both assignable and
adaptive content.
Supplying more native Common Core content. In spite of the Common Core
controversy, school systems in states still signed on to the Common Core are
demanding online-learning programs that offer native Common Core content,
which was designed to align specifically with the CCSS (rather than content
that pre-dated the Common Core and has simply been re-tagged to align with
these newer standards). For example, LightSail, a tablet-based literacy tool,
Lexia Learning, a technology-based reading program, and i-Ready, an English
language arts (ELA) and mathematics software program, can all be classified
as native Common Core products. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations study,
Teachers Know Best, echoed this sentiment. In the study, respondents stated
that alignment with college- and career-ready standardsincluding the CCSS
and the Next Generation Science Standardsand teachers lesson plans were
the most important criteria when choosing instructional resources, both digital
and non-digital.10 Unfortunately, content in one software program can be aligned
to the CCSS, but still deliver and assess that content differently from another
Common Core-aligned program, which perpetuates data and analysis challenges.
Sorting academic software by use-case, rather than by features and
functions. The academic software market needs new information to help
customers make purchasing decisions. Use-case data would prove far more
useful to consumers than the lists of features and functions that suppliers
typically provide. Use-case analyses might also provide more relevant
information to education technology consumers than findings from longterm research studies that take years to complete. Publications and tools that
help practitioners sort through content providerssuch as EdSurges product
profiles, the Clayton Christensen Institutes Blended Learning Universe profiles,
Education Elements rating system, or Graphites teacher reviewsmight start
highlighting particular use-case analyses or powerful correlations that emerge
in the data. These analyses could reframe the question of what works to
what works, for which students, in what circumstances.
13
Offering more intuitive software products. The apparent misalignment

between how vendors want their products to be implemented and the ways
in which some schools are actually using the products suggests a need for
more intuitive software. Such software would require less product training and
allow professional development time to focus on teacher practice and student
learning. As one software provider said, Well-designed programs shouldnt
need a ton of PD I didnt need PD to learn how to use my iPhone, its intuitive.
Offering instructional models, rather than one-off content solutions.
School systems are piecing together a variety of academic content software.
This produces a messy patchwork of tools. To address this, Mike Dronen of
Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota said, We need more models as
opposed to these disjointed tools that basically digitize the current paradigm.
Its not one tool that will break through, it is a combination of tools to make
this happen. Looking ahead, given that school systems are actually looking
for suites of products, rather than singular content, vendors need to provide
more compelling integrations with other software. Otherwise, schools might
start buying comprehensive instructional modelssuch as New Classrooms
instead of just one-off content programs.
Business and operations software

Business and operations software programs support everything from finance to payroll to talent
and facilities management, all of which keep school systems running smoothly. Based on our
interviews, however, school systems appear to be more focused on academic and school software
than on business software. Across the board, the small- to medium-sized school systems surveyed
lacked well-integrated, cost-effective back-office solutions; many even continue to rely heavily on
Microsoft Excel or QuickBooks for basic finance and accounting tasks.
In part, the struggle to find solutions relates to the size of these school systems. As Bill Kurtz
of DSST Public Schools said, Were in between markets. We cant call Oracle, but things like
Sage are much too small for us. Mid-market players in between are incredibly messy and none
of the tools talk to each other. Size may also matter for CMOs that are still scaling. The team at
Distinctive Schools, for example, is not prioritizing purchasing a human resources information
system (HRIS); with 250 to 300 employees, the benefit doesnt seem to be worth the cost. Its
own back-of-the-envelope estimate is that five years into its existenceor once it reaches 500
employeeswill be when it seeks an HRIS.
A lack of software integration can cause major inefficiencies, although better solutions are not
always cost-effective. For example, at KIPP LA Schools, hourly employees must manually update
14
their hours in Google Docs, and then the payroll administrator

must enter those numbers into the payroll software by hand.
But school system leaders felt that automated time clocks to
Were in between
expedite this process were initially too hefty of an investment,
markets. We cant call
totaling $15,000.
Oracle, but things like
The variety of logins across different operations software also

causes headaches. As Harris Ferrell of Achievement First said, If
Sage are much too
youre in operations at the school you need to know HR, finance,
small for us.
reporting, SharePoint, etc. All are different logins, [and you] need
to remember whats captured and reported from where.
School systems are also locked into legacy operations software
at the hub of their operations systems. In some cases, school
systems are forced by state or county regulations to use legacy human resources or accounting
software to plug into state-level systems with outdated or non-existent interfaces. For example,
Uplift Education has to enter human resources information manually into the states health-care
system because the older system, which the state mandates the school system use, will not accept
electronic feeds.
But even without these external policy constraints, school systems have locked themselves
into legacy software by building workarounds in the past from which they struggle to migrate
away. For example, Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) in Michigan uses an integrated finance/
HRIS system that the district wanted to improve. GRPS hired developers to build workarounds
so that the product could better meet the organizations needs. These workarounds, however,
made it difficult to implement new software updates, and third-party developers are reluctant to
do additional customizations that the district staff wants. Migrating to a new solution would be
very expensive for GRPS and, in its view, there are no obviously superior alternatives.
Finally, no system has managed to build automatic integration between its HRIS and other
human resources, finance, and academic software. Aspire Public Schools has made the most
progress on this front (see Appendix A) in terms of overall software integration and using
technology to implement robust teacher evaluation and support processes. But few school
systems surveyed have been able to even minimally link their HRIS to their SIS, much less
stitch together broader talent management solutions. In part, these challenges are borne out of
school systems intricate processes in which they remain entrenched, rather than a failure on
the part of providers. Public school systems human resources processes are incredibly complex,
and customers tend to demand software that meets their unique needs as opposed to changing
workflows to better align with products.
15
As with academic software, these various and costly integration
No system has
managed to build
seamless integration
pain points result in difficult market dynamics: some school systems

operate imperfect, siloed systems, and others seek out, or even build,
integrated back-office solutions.
Integrated business solutions
between its HRIS
To address their operational needs, school systems have pursued a
and other human
range of solutions along the spectrum of horizontally integrated,
resources, finance, and
solutions with better functionality on the other. At the far end of
academic software.
less functional solutions on one end versus dis-integrated point

the integrated spectrum, IDEA Public Schools, a CMO in Texas,
uses Skyward, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution
that is commonly used in Texas schools, for HRIS, finance, and
many other related functions. Misty Martin of IDEA Public
Schools said, [I like the convenience] of Skyward. But its difficult
to map our processes to the capabilities of the system. Although Skyward offers numerous
horizontally integrated modules, integrating other third-party toolssuch as SchoolRecruiter, a
tool for applicant tracking, screening, interviewing, and hiringremains challenging. Similarly,
Quakertown Community School District in Pennsylvania uses a horizontally integrated program
called Keystone. The district has taken a number of human resources processes off paper and
has automated benefits enrollment online through Keystones employee portal. Although
Keystone does not currently integrate with Quakertown Community School Districts talent
and recruitment systems, the district said that it has been able to exert a high degree of influence
on making the software work better or differently and has found that the company is responsive
to its user community.
Other school systems use more piecemeal approaches, such as adopting a range of point
solutions and then trying to integrate from there. For example, DSST Public Schools uses a
wide range of human resources and operations tools and then uses QuickBase, an Intuit business
management software, and the QuNexct ODBC software connector for Quickbase, to move
data between disparate applications.
Alternatively, a few of the CMOs surveyed have invested in even more fully-integrated
products to bridge the gaps in their business systems:
KIPP LA Schools is currently in the process of implementing a solution that is being
developed by Paybridge, a national provider of integrated payroll services. The new
product will connect human resources, payroll, applicant tracking, and performance
management across the organization. In developing this new product, KIPP LA Schools
16
team evaluated three vendors for payroll and human resources (ADP, Paychecks, and
Paybridge) and three vendors for performance management (ADP, Cornerstone, and
Paybridge). Ultimately, it chose Paybridge to develop the entire suite.
Uplift Education also adopted a brand new HRIS system this year called Total
Education Administrative Management Solution (TEAMS). Prologic, an education
software development firm based in Austin, developed TEAMS. The system
integrates across numerous human resources and operations tasks, but does not have
a performance management module and requires a manual sync with PowerSchool.
Because TEAMS has built out functionality for tracking student data, however,
Uplift Education is contemplating whether it might be possible to eventually replace
PowerSchool with TEAMS so that its HRIS and SIS operate through a single system.
Because a key functionality of current SIS products is state reporting, Prologic would
need to spend significant resources to track ever-changing state reporting requirements
and to constantly modify its SIS to remain compliant with these reporting standards.
Business and operations software: Whats next?

Currently, the business and operations software market provides few compelling products
and integrations. This generates opportunities for companies to create new platforms (e.g.,
strategic talent management) or new permutations of existing systems (e.g., combining
elements of the HRIS, finance, and SIS systems). These opportunities include:
Building or automating integrations. One clear gap in the business and
operations software market is a product that connects disparate systems.
School systems like DSST Public School, Aspire Public Schools, and IDEA Public
Schools employ software developers to write code and integrate products
themselves. Data warehouses and reporting platforms, like Schoolzilla, or
companies that specialize in software integration, like Clever, might also
consider filling this gap in back-office software solutions.
Offering more affordable back-office software. Leading operations solutions
providers outside of education should consider investing in K12 product
managers who understand school systems unique needs and offering
meaningful education discounts to make their products more broadly available
to small- to medium-sized school systems. Existing products that do it all
such as Workday, which merges human resources, payroll, and accountingare
often not affordably priced for small- to medium-sized school systems today.
This leaves a large swath of the market untapped.
17
Software integration and data storage

As described in the prior sections, to meet both academic and operational needs, school systems
are generally choosing to use a wide array of software products, which make strong integration
between products a necessity. Many K12 software programs offer limited value on a stand-alone
basis and must be integrated with other software, typically from different vendors, to realize their
potential. As such, software integration is a key priority for school systems managing numerous
software programs at once. Integrating across products, however, is one of the most challenging
aspects of implementing technology in schools.
For example, a school system that has purchased software to manage teacher recruitment will
have to re-enter manually all data for any teacher that is hired, unless the teacher recruitment
system is integrated with the HRIS. Many other basic processes also require integration: new
teachers need to be set up with e-mail addresses, enrolled in benefits programs, assigned to classes,
and so forth, each of which can require separate software integrations. For student-facing software,
every new software program needs to be integrated to the SIS and tied back to student IDs.
These integrations need to be flexible so as to adjust if students enroll or un-enroll in a school, or
if class schedules change for students or teachers. As the burden of manual integrations and data
transfer increases, school system efficiency decreases. Key tasks begin falling through the cracks
and jeopardize the integrity of student and staff data. As Mike Teng of Rocketship Education
said, So many of the issues with running our schools come back to student identification.
The alternative to onerous manual integrations would of course be an automated process by
which data from one program synced with other programs, and programs effectively talked to one
another. Automating software integration, however, proves challenging, in large part because of
the competitive dynamics among software providers. Comprehending these challenges requires
an understanding of the basic architecture of how schools typically arrange and connect disparate
systems. As many of the software maps in Appendix A illustrate, school systems technology
systems tend to follow hub-and-spoke structures, in which key software platforms (hubs) are
connected to multiple other software applications (spokes). In such school systems, the hub
often represents the single source of truth from which all other integrations draw and supply
information.
The three main software hubs in most school systems are the SIS, which holds each students
unique ID and other personal and demographic data; the HRIS, which holds each employees
unique ID as well as other personal and credentialing data; and the domain management or
identify management system, which administers network credentials for applications like e-mail
and manages user permissions. HRIS data typically ends up being duplicated in a school systems
SIS, whereas the SIS data is not typically entered into the HRIS.
18
A variety of players occupy these spaces. Table 2 lists which SISs the school systems surveyed
use as their hub on the school management side.
Table 2. Student information systems (SISs) used by the school systems surveyed
Number of school systems
surveyed (out of 30) that use product
Product
PowerSchool
15
Illuminate
5*
Aeries
Infinite Campus
* Several other school systems expressed interest in purchasing Illuminates SIS product or were
actively evaluating it as an option.
How does this hub-and-spoke architecture help to explain the painstaking manual integrations
that many school systems must currently undertake? First, the hegemony of certain platforms,
or hubs, can impede integrations between vendors. Because school systems, over the years,
have built all of their integrations on top of one central source of truth, school systems leaders
perceive the cost of changing hub software to be incredibly high. Thus, hub software vendors
wield disproportionate power vis-a-vis their school system customers and other software vendors.
One CMO technology director said, We are locked into [our SIS], but only use it for pieces
and try to work around it when necessary. ... Sometimes we have to hack into our own systems
to get our data out. The lock-in effect is compounded as school systems invest in additional
customizations and integrations in an attempt to improve functionality.
Second, technically speaking, providers at the hub would need robust application
programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate smooth integration. APIs are sets of programming
instructions and standards that allow software to communicate. By opening its API, a company
effectively allows other companies to build automatic integrations on top of its product. But
historically, many K12 providers have demonstrated weak commitment to APIs. Software
companies generally take one of three approaches to APIs. Some companies offer open, publiclyavailable APIs that any customer or third-party vendor can use. Other companies offer closed
APIs to a limited set of partner companies. Still others may offer only custom API services at an
additional cost, but otherwise offer no API at all.
19
Creating an open API that outside developers can access reflects
Sometimes we
have to hack into
our own systems to
get our data out.
a given software companys technical and strategic decisions. On the

one hand, open APIs may pose legitimate security issues for software
providers. But for many hub software providers, limiting access to
their API is a strategic choice, rather than a technical hurdle that
they cannot overcome. These software providers may be reluctant to
partner with other vendors for fear of ceding competitive advantage
among spoke products with which only their hub software
integrates. For example, some SIS companies want to protect their
gradebook software and therefore make integrations to newer third-
party gradebooks difficult. This competitive advantage makes good business sense: being too
open could cost companies economic value and commoditize their products. This, in turn,
might cause investment in the education technology space to dwindle. Still, every school system
surveyed spoke to the enormous time and cost burden brought about by products that do not
automatically integrate; companies and investors alike should aim to find new ways to lessen this
burden on schools, as it stands to benefit students in the long run.
Other logistical dynamics further frustrate automated integration. Vendors resist allocating
the programming talent and resources to develop APIs when this does not typically yield an
immediate financial return. This is especially true of education technology start-ups, many of
which are spokes that operate on extremely limited capital. APIs, which can be expensive to
build, are often not a priority for vendors that are focused on putting their own products in the
hands of customers.
Additionally, software integrations are easier to build when there is a common set of standards
for how data is defined, such that it can be shared on an apples-to-apples basis. Yet, due to
disparate regulatory systems and political debates about what these standards should be, no
standard today has been adopted widely by hub vendors across the education system. For
example, if high school graduation rates are defined differently in different school systems, then
this jeopardizes the programs ability to exchange reliable, comparable data.11 Programs even
ascribe to different data fields for information as basic as grade level (e.g., denoting kindergarten
as either K or 0). Industry groups, like the Ed-Fi Alliance and the SIF Association, as well as
the federal governments Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) program, are attempting
to define common sets of data standards on which school systems can rely. But these common
standards have yet to be universally adopted by vendors or school systems.
Finally, although school systems are currently focused on their struggles to manage and
connect the data going into their systems, retrieving useful datathat can be stored and analyzed
in meaningful waysis even more difficult. This problem is a result of the disparate assessment
20
data that different academic software programs measure and produce. But school systems
struggles to combine data also highlights the fact that there is no single place in a traditional
hub-and-spoke system where data can live and be analyzed independent of the SIS, nor are there
common data standards to allow teachers to compare data from different systems.
As school systems try to tackle these software and data integration challenges, a number of
vendors are attempting to ease the pain of connecting disparate systems. These include provisioning
solutions that automatically assign software licenses to students; authentication solutions that
allow students to log in to multiple software programs with a single set of credentials; and data
warehouse, or data mart, solutions to provide platforms where data from different systems can live.
Tools for provisioning and authentication

One pain point of integration is the provisioning of software licenses to each student in a class,
school, or district. Outside of the enterprise, customers often sign up for new direct-to-consumer
applications using self provisioningthat is, setting up a new account by plugging in their
e-mail address, other personal information, and a password on social networking, banking, or
dating sites.
But each time a school system works with a new software vendor, or as students come in and
out of a school system or change their schedules, a similar provisioning process needs to occur.
Unlike the consumer world, instead of simply using e-mail addresses as students IDs, students
are identified by two unique identifiers: their student ID from the SIS and their networking ID
from the domain management (or identity management) system, which are typically Active
Directory or Google Apps Administrator. The student ID ensures that students can access the
appropriate software for their class, school, or grade and the networking ID verifies their identity.
School systems are looking for an automated way to provision accounts at scale. Without
automated processes, school systems have to manually update student records in vendor
interfaces, e-mail vendors with roster file updates, or expensively write and maintain custom
structured query language (SQL) extractsthat allow for dynamic data extractionfor each
vendor.12 For example, at KIPP Chicago Schools, the central office uses a time-consuming
method of maintaining a master spreadsheet for each school and can copy and paste columns of
the information vendors need to license their products. Other school systems are attempting to
build same sign-on programs by developing naming conventions for usernames and password
to create consistency across various applications, but this is likewise time-consuming. For
example, the IT department at Los Altos School District has built a process in-house for manually
provisioning usernames and passwords that can be used as a universal login. To do this, the staff
members must develop username and password conventions that satisfy all programs and that
21
can generate unique IDs. They then upload those files separately
Right now students
into each relevant software system because there is no automatic
are being asked to
requirements: some vendors require username uniqueness across a
remember different
district, others across a state, and others across the entire user base.
sync. This process is complicated, however, by disparate program
One company, Clever, has stepped in to try to automate some
passwords for different
of these processes. Clever automates the secure transfer of student
tools Vendors just
information between authorized parties (from a school to a vendor).
need to agree on
one username and
password format.
Clever replaces manual, vendor-specific processes, such as e-mailed

CSV files or vendor-specific bulk transfers, which are often insecure,
inconvenient, or both.13 Nine of the 30 school systems surveyed are
working with Clever to automate integration between third-party
software and their central SIS platforms. Many of those customers
are pleased with the integrations that Clever can offer, but want
the company to integrate across more products. At KIPP Chicago
Schools, the IT department has gone so far as to hire a provisionist
to perform Clevers function for programs with which Clever does not yet integrate.
Still, some remain skeptical that Clever can change the game of integration. As Finstrom
of Highline Public Schools explained, Clever does not integrate with all the programs that his
district is using, nor does it currently increase the availability and utility of the data that schools
can access from various programs.
Single sign-on solutions

A second pain point of integrating across disparate systems is in how students log in to access
various programs. As Rafael Gallardo of Highline Public Schools said, Right now students are
being asked to remember different passwords for different tools. This can lead to data being
compromised, thereby breaking the important link between network IDs and student IDs. On
one program, Gallardo observed that students were resetting their usernames and deleting student
ID numbers. We lost track of who they were, Gallardo said. Vendors just need to agree on
one username and password format. Alternatively, school systems could commit to buying only
products that use a particular format, but this would severely limit the tools at their disposal.
A single sign-on program simplifies the login process by providing users with a single set
of credentialsusername and passwordto access multiple software programs. A number of
companies and platforms are stepping in to fill this need. Table 3 lists which provisioning and
single sign-on solutions the school systems surveyed currently use. The most common solution
among school systems was to custom-build a single sign-on process by using Active Directory
22
for authentication, which is used by 12 of the 30 school systems, in conjunction with student
information drawn from the SIS. Seven school systems also reported using Google to automate
single sign-on to software programs with which it partners, including Khan Academy and
Hapara. If Google is not integrated with a school systems SIS, however, then it is difficult to
figure out which students to provision software licenses to because the SIS contains all of the
teacher and student data.
Table 3. Provisioning and single sign-on solutions used by the school systems
surveyed
Number of school systems
surveyed (out of 30) that use product
Product
Active Directory*
12
Google Apps Administrator*
Clever
Education Elements
OneLogin
*S
chool systems using Active Directory or Google IDs must custom-build integrations with their SIS if
they choose not to partner with a third-party, like Education Elements or Clever, to facilitate this process.
Some school systems use Google ID as a single sign-on solution, but do not integrate with the SIS.
Data warehousing
Even if school systems are able to automate provisioning and sign-on at the front end, retrieving
meaningful data from these programs and storing and analyzing that data in a single, centralized
place remains challenging. School systems using numerous content providers struggle to capture
student performance information across programs and platforms and to analyze this data in an
actionable way. As Chris Haid of KIPP Chicago Schools said, I still spend a lot of time figuring
out how data gets migrated from program to program. On the back end, data analysis and
reporting remain challenging, both because data from different programs does not integrate
easily, and because software programs rarely produce useful, actionable data for educators.
Keeping track of data is especially tricky because of the difficulties in preserving data integrity
between systems, particularly in the current hub-and-spoke paradigm. As David Easterby of YES
Prep Public Schools said:
The SIS is the center of the universe and any time you build a custom system, it
does its own independent pull and then builds its own data around it to get the
23
functionality that you want. If the SIS changed the data,
I still spend a lot of time
then potentially everything else could break. The worst
figuring out how data
small amount of data isnt right. And that is hard to catch.
gets migrated from

program to program.
thing is not a hard failure, but a soft failure [in which] a

Because of this risk in manipulating data, a number of school
systems simply use their SIS systems as a data warehouse, even
though these platforms were not designed to host large amounts
of academic data or perform sophisticated analytics. For example,
Milpitas Unified School Districts SIS, Aeries, functions currently as
the districts de facto data warehouse.
Some school systems are finding value with a minimalist approach of deploying a separate
business intelligence tool, like Tableau, to sit on top of the SIS and create more useful and
actionable reports. Other school systems are creating entirely separate data warehouses to provide
more sophisticated analytics. Schoolzilla, a data warehousing solution that spun out of Aspire
Public Schools, can draw data from over 40 academic and operational sources and uses Tableau
as a reporting tool. Overall, eight school systems report using Tableau through a direct purchase
or through Schoolzilla. Additionally, six of the school systems use a product called DataDirector,
a web-based data and assessment management system.
Dissatisfied with the data warehouses and data dashboards on the market, some CMOs have
built their own data systems in-house. For example:
Aspire Public Schools created Schoolzilla, mentioned above, which is now available
to school systems nationwide. It is the most mature of these tools and operates as a
web-based data collection, organization, and reporting platform built using Tableaus
reporting functionalities. Four school systems surveyed (in addition to Aspire) are now
using Schoolzilla.
YES Prep Public Schools, a CMO in Texas, is using a homegrown data mart called the
common data platform to host all of its data from across the school system.
Touchstone Education, a CMO in New Jersey, is also building a lightweight data
management solution with Tembo to combine data from different sources and generate
data reports. As its team said, We didnt want to build a data warehouse and now are
building something flexible and cheap that can be used by others.
IDEA Public Schools is in the process of building a new data warehouse solution based
on Sharepoint that will replace a previous custom-built product called LightBulb. As
Cody Grindle of IDEA Public Schools explained, this next iteration of LightBulb will
24
filter for useful data from various online-learning programs. Every blended-learning
application has its own reporting, but we want to pick the best data and turn it back to
schools, he said.
Software integration and data storage: Whats next?

Schools are increasingly tired of painstaking and costly integration among disparate
applications. Importantly, software integration challenges are primarily cooperation
issues, not technical issues per se. Thus, school systems and investors should demand
cooperation at the outset. Even in the absence of a concerted demand for cooperation,
however, the market appears to be shifting in a number of key directions:
New platforms may emerge at the hub: The coming years likely will witness
intense competition in the platform space. The vacant real estate available to
new platforms is limited (see Appendix A) and defining new platform categories
is difficult. The ascension of several new hub platforms, however, could
significantly impact the software integration landscape. Will new hubs emerge
to upset the current market dynamics? A few possibilities are on the horizon:

Google Apps for Education. Nineteen school systems reported using

Google Apps for Education, which offers a new approach to authentication
and potentially tighter integration with software distributed through
Google Play. Google has announced a new product, Classroom, which
weaves together Google Docs, Google Drive, and Gmail to help teachers
create and organize assignments. K12 schools rapid adoption of Google
Apps will likely lead to more opportunities for third-party companies that
enhance the functionality of Google Apps for the K12 market.
LMSs. LMSs have not gained as much traction in K12 as they have in
higher education, with programs like Blackboard and LoudCloud. School
systems, however, may adopt products like Instructures Canvas or Googles
Classroom in order to put more courses online and use more digital content
and resources.
Professional development platforms. Several school systems underscored

the importance of personalized professional development as a component
of teacher evaluation efforts. Companies like BloomBoard, a platform that
delivers customized professional development, are trying to address these
needs. Although the market remains nascent, tools like BloomBoard can
integrate across talent management, professional development content,
and student outcome data in new ways, in turn redefining the hub around
which systems integrate.
25
Platforms built one integration at a time. A different approach to winning

over this platform space is ticking off integrations one-by-one. For example,
Education Elements, a company that helps districts design and implement
personalized learning, offers school systems provisioning and single sign-on
solutions for a growing number of online-learning programs. Clever likewise
appears to be marching upmarket with the release of its own single sign-on
solution, Instant Login. A number of school systems are also building single
sign-on solutions themselves with Active Directory and using a standard
API to integrate with their SIS.14
School systems will increasingly seek out sophisticated and reliable data
analysis and management solutions. Education technology companies
that help school systems analyze and manage datalike BrightBytes, Clever,
Education Elements, LearnSprout, MasteryConnect, and Schoolzillaare
drawing significant interest from both customers and investors. Developing
effective data solutions, however, may be contingent on a number of factors.
These include 1) whether academic software providers share meaningful and
useful data with their customers, 2) whether common data standards emerge
to create consistencies in how data from discrete programs are reported and
analyzed, and 3) what achievement data will look like as schools transition
benchmarks and item banks to align to the CCSS. Currently, dashboards
produced using programs like Tableau tend to include SIS student and
achievement data, but are severely limited by the incomplete performance data
that online-learning providers are willing or able to share with their customers.
Schools may rely on limited data from programs they trust. Alternatively,
customers may stop valuing a platform that can integrate all data. For example,
as Sabrina Pence of FirstLine Schools said:
Our theory of action is to keep it as simple as possible. Teachers
shouldnt have to manipulate data to use it. Weve made i-Ready
our main source of real-time formative data thats our data point.If
teachers want to go back to other programs, they can, but thats not
the main source. We arent as interested in integrating the data from all
programs.I am most interested in what is easily usable by our teachers.
Other schools may turn to assessment platforms to filter online content.
Some platforms can themselves provide a filter for academic software content
by serving as an assessment platform, a recommendation engine, or both. For
example, one company, Knewton, has created a platform that allows third-party
publishers to build proficiency-based adaptive learning applications and uses
data analytics and on-demand assessments to sort and connect resources to
students. Khan Academy, better known for its free online video repository, is
also working hard to build rigorous assessments that could theoretically filter
third-party content on a common, integrated platform.
26
The market may call for integrated solutions, rather than modular systems.
Many of the current inefficiencies of software integration reflect customers
desire to use a wide array of content providers rather than a single integrated
curriculum and student information program. The tradeoff of this modular
content approach, of course, is that other systemsin particular SIS and
LMS architecturehave not caught up to a modular vision. Full-time virtual
providers, however, such as K12 Inc., offer fully integrated systems with a single
platform and curriculum. Although these systems do not offer the flexibility
in curriculum design that the school systems surveyed appear to value, such
highly integrated systems may actually be poised to challenge the hub-andspoke SIS hegemony. None of the school systems we profiled have adopted
single-provider systems like K12 Inc. Early adopters instead appear to be
opting for modular solutions that they have to patch together but that allow for
customization. Down the line, however, mainstream customers may be more
inclined to purchase reliable, fully integrated systems.
Student-facing data will be increasingly important. School systems growing
emphasis on personalization ultimately may place a greater premium on
integrated solutions that are more student facing. What do kids see? I want
our kids be able to tell me what they need to do to do well in a class. [That is]
the key to self-direction and owning what they are doing. We need to give
them a view as to what the whole year looked like, said Jon Deane of Summit
Public Schools, a CMO in California. Liang-Vergara echoed this sentiment: Ive
become much more aware of personalization in a more student-centered and
student-driven way. I look more for whats enjoyable, the data that is student
facing. Right now programs dont do this very well at all.
IT management and hardware

As most school systems in this sample shift or consider shifting their systems to the cloud, they
are contemplating both the benefits and drawbacks of cloud-based solutions. The move to the
cloud offers school systems a chance to save resources and maintain focus on instruction rather
than on database management and software updates. Brack of Aspire Public Schools said, I have
to say I wasnt super enamored with the cloud until I saw the cost-benefit analysis. [Now] we
are trying to go cloud-based with our applications. Our hedgehog is not database or application
management. Our job is to support teachers and principals.
Cloud-based solutions also stand to improve teacher and student workflow. For example,
as mentioned above, in over half of the school systems interviewed, the staff or students were
using Google Apps productivity suite. Cloud-based solutions can also shift the terms on which
students engage and help systems move toward a more anytime, anywhere approach to learning.
27
As Jackie Sigua of Los Altos School District said, We like cloud
I wasnt super enamored

with the cloud until I saw
the cost-benefit analysis.
access because it promotes a lot of collaboration and kids can access

their work anywhere. You cant say the dog ate my homework.
Still, the cloud poses new challenges to school operators, both in
terms of ceding control to third-party hosts and maintaining student
privacy in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA), the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA), and applicable state regulations. Significant uncertainty
exists currently among both school systems and software vendors
about how to address student privacy in cloud-based applications. That said, cloud-based
software solutions are not inherently less secure than applications that school systems host inhouse. School servers can be hacked, teachers can lose their laptops, and under-resourced IT
departments are not always expert in security or have the opportunity to educate all school
system employees in best practices.
Additionally, many school systems lack the infrastructure and bandwidth to support a shift to
the cloud. Although moving to the cloud can relieve IT departments of managing data centers,
it has not done away with network and device maintenance challenges. Legacy software products
may still have strict device requirements, which limit the devices available to schools and require
network professionals to engage in time-consuming updates and workarounds. Trying to run
legacy software across entire school systems on subpar networks can be complex and introduces
performance and frustration issues. The proliferation of computing devicesat both school
and homeare also presenting new opportunities and challenges as schools navigate hardware
procurement and device-usage policies on the ground.
A new supply of products and services, as well as new staffing strategies, are emerging to shape
school systems transition to cloud-based products and services. New hardware solutions that
compete on affordability are likewise seeing uptake as more school systems integrate technology
across their classrooms.
Data privacy
Data privacy is a growing concern among school systems and technology providers alike. There
was no consensus across the 30 school systems interviewed as to how to tackle data-privacy
challenges. Two federal statutesFERPA and COPPAas well as state-specific privacy legislation,
all set out a variety of rules about how and what student data can be shared with software
vendors. A number of the school systems we interviewed mentioned that data privacy appears
to be getting more attention, but there are still many unresolved issues. Some school systems
28
are simply choosing not to host certain student information in

the cloud. For example, one school districts special education
We like cloud access
department does not use Google to host confidential documents.

As the director of technology said, We dont know where it gets
because it promotes a
read or where it ends up.
lot of collaboration and
School systems are also concerned with creating secure

networks while still maintaining student access to useful Internet
kids can access their
resources. At least two school systems have turned to a company
work anywhere. You
called Securly to help manage and secure their networks. Securly

is a cloud-based web filter that tries to solve the problem of over
cant say the dog ate
blocking in schools by allowing educators to safely use learning
my homework.
tools such as Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia in the classroom.

School systems leaders said that Securly worked well with Google
Apps and that the protections extend to students when they work
online from home. In addition, Securlys temporary white list
allows teachers to provide one-time student access for particular
websites as opposed to going through the technology department
to unblock the sites.
IT management: Outsourcing and recruiting talent

Technology talent management is changing to reflect the new and growing role of technology
solutions across the enterprise. As school systems IT management becomes more strategic, basic
data center, networking, and device management tasks are increasingly being outsourced to
third-party vendors. Talent within school systems IT teams is also shifting to include more
instructional expertise and, in some cases, more sophisticated software development capabilities.
Despite the upside of time and cost savings, a number of school systems cited control and
access to their data as key concerns in moving to the cloud. As Aron Michalski of FirstLine
Schools said, Even if we stay cloud-based, we need to stay on top of what we still have control
over. For example, Michalski cited the importance of maintaining direct read access to their data
without restrictions; maintaining the ability to schedule tasks on a third-party server more than
once a day; and maintaining some degree of control over the database import mechanism so that
various programs can be synced. We need to integrate in both directions, he said.
Some school systems are also turning to third-party solutions to host and manage their IT
services. For example, Aspire Public Schools hosts its SIS, PowerSchool, with the third-party
provider Computer Logic Group (CLG). According to Brack, One of [the] best moves we
29
[Aspire Public Schools] made was for CLG to host PowerSchool.
IT is becoming more
It improved performance and uptime. In a similar vein, Highline
strategic and meeting
hardware procurement with vendors. As Finstrom said, Im looking
more frequently with the

instructional team.
Public Schools works with a company called MicroK12 to manage

for MicroK12 to build the relationships with a suite of vendors and
providers. EEI has taken this a step further and outsourced all of its
technology services to a company called Caspian Technologies, which
is E-Rate certified. Notably, this means that even though E-Rate
would not typically cover a chief technology officer to oversee school
system IT, EEI can use E-Rate funds to subsidize this service and
focus its internal energy on instruction rather than IT management.
Even as school systems offload IT services and data center management to third-party
providers, internal IT teams are becoming more nimble and responsive to new challenges in
blended-learning environments. To achieve this, school organizations are breaking down the
barriers that have typically separated IT and curriculum departments. As Ira Socol of Albemarle
County Public Schools in Virginia said, I work closely with our IT department and principals
so that were all on board to support this work together. I dont technically reside in any
particular silo and this is very intentional. Similarly, Vireak Chheng of Alliance College-Ready
Public Schools, a CMO in California, hosts Making-IT-Happen meetings to bring together
teams across the organization. IT is becoming more strategic and meeting more frequently with
the instructional team, Chheng said.
Human capital appears vital to bridging IT and instructional departments in blendedlearning environments. School systems are seeking more IT leaders with instructional expertise
and are increasing the depth of programming experience on their staff. Leaders across these
school systemssuch as Jon Deane, chief information officer at Summit Public Schools, Chin
Song, director of technology at Milpitas Unified School District, and Matthew Peskay, chief of
innovation and technology at KIPP LA Schools, to name a fewbring combined instructional
and technology expertise to their work of guiding blended-learning implementations.
Additionally, eight of the 30 school systems surveyed have at least one full-time developer on
staff. As Teshon Christie of Highline Public Schools said, Having a developer is mandatory
for districts with a tech plan and blended-learning focus. [It] is like having an additional
$500,000 in your budget. Christie noted, however, that attracting talent in this arena can be
challenging: App developer is one of the hottest jobs around.
30
Hardware choices
The proliferation of cloud-based school software is matched by a wide array of devices that
schools are currently using. Many of the school systems surveyed are moving into multi-device
environments with a focus on hardware manageability and cost. These are two dimensions along
which affordable products like Chromebooks have an advantage; 10 of the 30 school systems
surveyed have adopted Chromebooks in recent years, and a number of these systems praised the
ease of deployment, management, and efficiency gains they have witnessed as a result. As Song said,
With Chromebooks, the time to boot up a computer and launch software goes from 5.5 minutes
to less than a minute. It buys me 18 days of school.
A few school systems, however, mentioned durability concerns about Chromebooks and other
inexpensive devices. School systems are also finding that some of the instructional programs that
they use limit their hardware choices. Another frequently cited drawback to Chromebooks was
that some assessments, such as the older (and more commonly used) versions of NWEAs MAP,
require downloads, rather than browser-based programs, which Chromebooks dont support.
Some school systems have responded by choosing only cloud-based software instead of buying
more general-purpose devices. As Amanda Rychel of Distinctive Schools said, Now a major
piece of the [software] vetting process is that the software needs to work on all devices.15
Amidst these hardware debates, five school systems surveyed are embracing the proliferation
of devices by trying to build fully device agnostic environments. For example, Vince Scheivert of
Albemarle County Public Schools said, We support Mac, PC, Chromebook, iPads. You name
it. If its out there [we support it]. This does present challenges in terms of the programs that a
system can support, however. Scheivert said, Anything that requires Java or Flash I hate. You
cant do this [device agnosticism] if its going to be built on programs that require other programs.
Device agnostic programs, of course, are also more expensive for vendors to develop.16
Five of the 30 school systems also reported building BYOD environments, permitting
students to bring laptops, tablets, and smartphones to school to access school applications. Some
school systems, however, expressed worry about maintaining security in a BYOD environment.
As Sigua of Los Altos School District said, We do not currently support BYOD, as its a security
and management issue. We would need to account for each device to ensure that it receives the
proper filtering, anti-virus protection and security settings before allowing them on our network.
Others, however, are moving ahead by building parallel networks. For example, two other school
systems interviewed run guest networks, which students, families, and community members can
log on to from their own devices.
31
IT management and hardware: Whats next?

As cloud-based technology and hardware products improve rapidly, school systems
will see major gains in efficiency, but may face new challenges. Looking ahead, we
anticipate a number of trends in the IT and hardware space:
Cost-effective devices will continue to gain market share. As technology
strategies evolve, school systems are demanding cheap, minimally viable
devices that can meet changing needs. Apple has been successful in selling
iPads to school districtsespecially after bond offerings or other voterapproved leviesbut high prices and concerns over device management may
cause difficulties for Apple over time. Short of floating bonds every three years
to buy devices, school systems will need either low-cost devices that can be
funded out of existing operating budgets or more durable devices with longer
replacement cycles. Chromebooks are successfully pursuing the first strategy,
and in one leaders words, showing a huge uptake among school systems.
Still, many school systems use Microsofts Active Directory for networking and
Windows devices. Therefore, Microsoft may still have opportunities to make
inroads in the K12 education space with its Office 365 (cloud) and Surface
(mobile) products. Disruptive innovation theory offers one explanation for this
evolution in the hardware market: lower-cost products are poised to disrupt
the traditionally relatively high-cost devices that school systems have used.
BYOD environments stand to grow, and with them, the need for networking
solutions to support them. Pressure will continue to build on school systems
to move toward device-agnostic and BYOD environments as the number of
consumer devices owned by both students and staff proliferates. The shift will
create opportunities in areas like mobile device management, network security,
and network traffic optimization.
New talent pipelines may emerge for IT and instructional professionals. As
IT departments increasingly outsource lower level functions and play more
strategic roles in teaching and learning, the need for staff with combined
technology and instructional expertise will grow. This may generate a need
for training or residency programs geared toward honing combined IT and
instructional expertise.
School systems will require better data privacy guidance. As more school
systems migrate to the cloud, data privacy has received significant attention
from media outlets and state legislatures alike. School systems need better
guidance on how to broker vendor terms of service agreements that protect
their students privacy but still provide valuable performance data. School
systems will need to educate teachers and community members on both the
importance of data privacy and the benefits of data-driven blended learning
that make cloud-based systems a reasonable investment.17
32
CONCLUSION
Is the education technology market meeting the needs of small- to medium-sized school systems?
In many ways the proliferation of cloud-based education software products has dramatically
shifted the education technology market toward more affordable and accessible products from
which smaller systems can benefit. These products offer real savings that allow school systems
to offload basic IT tasks. Still, small- to medium-sized school systems may not be able to afford
enterprise or custom software solutions that fully meet their needs. New technology is also
presenting these school systems with new challenges and costslike software integration, data
analysis, and workflow management, to name a few.
If technology companies, investors, and schools share an interest in driving better results for
students, the booming education technology market cannot rest on its laurels. The gaps in the
current market represent significant pain points for teachers and administrators and divert attention
away from teaching and learning. Until technology providers start cooperating by opening their
APIs to integrate across disparate products, proprietary interfaces will force costly integrations on
school systems. Until better integrations and coherent data standards facilitate reliable data transfer
from academic software programs, the education technology market will face an uphill battle of
gaining the trust of educators trying to implement these products to drive student learning.
Looking ahead, the gaps identified in this paper reflect key market opportunities. Enterprising
developers and existing companies should build new solutions to fill these gaps. Investors should
likewise pay attention to the current inefficiencies hindering school systems and fund companies
that not only show growth potential, but also promise a better-integrated user experience for
students and teachers. Finally, school systems should proactively inform vendors about how
they use software and hardware on a day-to-day basis; for smaller school systems, this may mean
pooling their demand to yield products that fit their specific needs. If supply and demand can
better align in these ways, we just might be able to match the software to the school.
33
Notes
Many of the school systems in our sample are operating at the leading edge of technology integration among small- to mediumsized systems. As such, this sample does not reflect the status quo across all systems of a similar size, but rather points to where we
think systems are headed as technology inevitably improves and more schools turn to new solutions.
2
The State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recommends that all future machines purchased for testing
purposes have minimum specifications of a 1.3 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, and an 80 GB hard drive. By 201718, SETDA has
established a goal of 1 Mbps per studentup to 100 times the SBAC recommendation. See Christine Fox, John Waters, Geoff
Fletcher, and Douglas Levin, The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K12 Infrastructure Needs, SETDA,
2012, http://www.setda.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/The_Broadband_Imperative.pdf.
3
John Watson, Amy Murin, Lauren Vashaw, Butch Gemin, and Chris Rapp, Keeping Pace with Online and Digital Learning,
Evergreen Education Group, 2013, http://kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/EEG_KP2013-lr.pdf.
4
These figures represent an increase of 2.7 percent from last years estimate of $7.76 billion and 6.4 percent over the three years of
the SIIA survey. See John Richards and Rhonda Struminger, 2013 U.S. Education Technology Industry Market: PreK12, SIIA,
2013, http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=4801&Itemid=318 (accessed June 3, 2014).
5
Patrick Keaton, Local Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Local Education Agencies From the
Common Core of Data: School Year 201011, National Center for Education Statistics, November 2012, http://nces.ed.gov/
pubs2012/2012326rev.pdf.
6
One anomaly to this lack of pooling demand is a cooperative in Minnesota of 150 schools, with 42 member districts, including
Minnetonka Public Schools. Among other things, these schools have banded together to negotiate a lower price on bandwidth across
their region. As Michael Dronen of Minnetonka Public Schools said, My influence within the co-op is proportional to how open I
am to be influenced.
7
SMB tech support market will achieve double-digit growth through 2016, Parks Associates, February 7, 2013, http://www.
parksassociates.com/blog/article/pr-feb2013-smb (accessed May 13, 2014).
8
Mary Esselman of the EAA of Michigan also explained that the school system aims to use technology to enhance project-based
learning with real-world relevance. These technology use-cases are not adaptive per se, as they often require the design energy
of educators on the ground because project-based, real-world functionalities are not readily available in most off-the-shelf online
curricula.
Teachers Know Best: What Educators Want from Digital Instructional Tools, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, April 2014,
http://collegeready.gatesfoundation.org/Portals/0/Documents/Teachers%20Know%20Best/Teachers%20Know%20Best.pdf.
10
Teachers Know Best.
Attempts to standardize across these data metrics include the Ed-Fi Alliances standardswhich draw on the U.S. Department
of Educations Common Education Data Standards, input from state education agencies, local education agencies, vendors, and
teachersas well as the now dis-assembled entity inBloom, a cloud-based student data infrastructure platform. These efforts,
however, have not taken hold at a sufficient scale to reshape demand for more standardized product interfaces or data.
11
12
Clever School District Whitepaper, Clever, 2013, http://assets.clever.com/documents/clever-district-whitepaper.pdf.
13
Clever School District Whitepaper.
As Todd Silvius of Quakertown Community School District put it, Anything that can be tied to Active Directory for single
sign-on is pursued.
14
To vet potential software providers, Distinctive Schools uses Education Elements technology selection guide to inform its
software procurement decisions. See Kawai Lai, Selecting Digital Content for Your School: A How-To Guide, Education Elements,
April 24, 2013, http://www.edelements.com/selecting-digital-content-for-your-school-a-how-to-guide/ (accessed May 23, 2014).
15
The drawback that some schools see to building multi-device environments is that teachers and students must be trained to use
different tools. As one team member from Green Dot Public Schools, a CMO in California, said, Right now were in a world where
we need both laptops and tablets. This doesnt work too much training [is] needed.
16
There are a host of technical and political data privacy issues over the use of cloud-based technology in public schools. See Joel
Reidenberg, N. Cameron Russell, Jordan Kovnot, Thomas B. Norton, Ryan Cloutier, and Daniela Alvarado, Privacy and Cloud
Computing in Public Schools, Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy, December 13, 2013, http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/
cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=clip (accessed May 23, 2014).
17
34
Appendix A
Software maps of school systems surveyed
The following software maps attempt to illustrate the range of software programs each school
system is using, as well as each school systems general approach to software integration. The
information captured is self-reported by the school systems at a point-in-time. The maps may not
reflect software used in individual schools or classrooms that is not centrally procured. In some
cases, the maps have been simplified to make them easier to view.
35
Alliance College-Ready Public Schools
In-house System
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted System
612; 22 schools; 10k students
Software Integration
Created 2/4/14
school operations
BUSINESS
Employee
Data
Epicore
Cisco
Telepresence
Information
Technology (IT)
ADP
(Payroll)
(HRIS)
User
Accounts
(Communication)
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
MealTime
BMC Track-It!
(Help Desk)
Active Directory/
Exchange
Student
Accounts
(Lunch)
Sage
(Networking)
(Finance)
Authentication
PowerSchool
Schoolzilla
(Data Reporting &
Analytics)
(Student Information
System)
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Pinnacle
(Gradebook)
DataDirector
Online Content
(Data Assessment
System)
Khan Academy (Math)

PowerMyLearning/iXL (Math)
Naviance
(College Counseling)
Revolution K12 (Math)

Achieve 3000 (ELA)
Pearson on iPad (ELA/Math)
McGraw Hill (Various)
EdModo
(Learning
Management)
Bloomboard
(Teacher PD/
Evaluation)
data
36
Solarwinds
(Network, Hardware
Management)
academic
Aspire Public Schools
In-house System
Alameda, CA
Hosted System
Created 9/10/13
school operations
BUSINESS
bswift
Information
Technology (IT)
(Benefits)
Aesop
(Substitutes)
Employee
Data
Employee Data
Substitute Data
Ultipro
(HRIS)
Replicon
OnCourse
Student
Accounts
(Behavior
Management)
Employee Data
(Timesheets)
Employee
Data
Abila MIP
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Finance)
(Networking)
EZ Reports
Attendance
ZenDesk
(After School)
(Help Desk)
Student Accounts
Mealtime
Student
Accounts
Employee Accounts
(Lunch)
PowerSchool
Tableau
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
Microsoft SQL
Server
(Data Warehouse)
Student Accounts
Student & Employee Accounts/

AD Single Sign-on
System)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Naviance
Online Content
Read 180 (ELA)

Dreambox (Math)
Bloomboard
(Teacher PD/
Evaluation)
ST Math (Math)
Think Through Math (Math)
EduSoft
Student
Accounts
(Data Assessment
System)
NWEA
Achieve 3000 (ELA)

MyOn (ELA)
iReady (ELA/Math)
Student
Accounts
Clever
(Provisioning)
(Assessment)
Student Accounts
data
academic
OnCourse
(Behavior
Management)
SEIS
(Special Education)
Note: Aspires TN schools

use MasteryConnect for their
Data Assessment System,
ONESOURCE for Lunch and
EasyIEP for Special Education.
Schools and Software: Whats Now and Whats Next
37
Distinctive Schools
In-house System
Chicago, IL
Hosted System
K8; 5 schools; 2.5k students
Created 11/8/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Sage 50
(Finance)
Information
Technology (IT)
Laserfiche
(Document
Management)
TeacherMatch
(Recruiting)
PowerSchool
System)
Silverback
Mileposts
Online Content
(Data Assessment System)
FASTT Math (Math)

Khan Academy (Math)
NWEA
myON (ELA)
(Assessment)
Reading A-Z (ELA)

Reading Assistant (ELA)
Smarty Ants (ELA)
iXL (Math/ELA)
CK-12 (Various)
data
38
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Student Accounts
Schoolzilla
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
academic
EdModo
(Learning
Management)
DSST Public Schools
In-house System
Denver, CO
Hosted System
612; 7 schools; 2.7k students
Created 2/11/14
school operations
BUSINESS
Sharepoint
(Employee Portal/
Knowledge Mgmt
Information
Technology (IT)
SchoolRecruiter
Benetrac
(Recruiting)
(Benefits)
Employee Data
Employee Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Paychex
Sage
Lync - Skype
(Payroll, HR)
(Finance)
(Video Conferencing
/Messaging)
DonorPerfect (Development)
Quickbase
Quickbase
Onboarding Data
Blacktie CO (Development/Events)
(School Operations)
Student Accounts
Employee Data
Employee Accounts
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Networking)
DSST Compass
(Student culture,
Asset Tracking,
Compliance)
Infinite Campus
System)
Google Apps
Polaris
(Networking/
Productivity)
(Ed-Fi ODS/
Data Warehouse)
Assessment Data
Student/Employee Accounts
Single Sign-on
Tableau
Microsoft
OneNote
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
(Productivity)
AD Single Sign-on
Promethean
ActivProgress
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
(Data Assessment System)
Assessment Data
NWEA (Assessment)
Cambridge / ACT EPAS
ExamView (Assessment)
data
academic
1 Manages multiple school functions including teacher observations, stakeholder surveys, school visits, employee onboarding, staff absence reporting, etc.
39
Galt Joint Union Elementary School District
In-house System
Galt, CA
Hosted System
Created 2/11/14
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Follett Destiny
(Library
Management)
QSS/Oasis
(Finance/HRIS)
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Networking)
NutriKids
Student Accounts
(Lunch)
Infinite Campus
Illuminate
System)
(Data, Assessment
& Reporting)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Linkit!
Online Content
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
SEIS
(Special Education)
Accelerated Reader (ELA)

Lexia (ELA)
NWEA
Compass (ELA/Math)
(Assessment)
data
40
School Improvement
Network
(Teacher PD/Evaluation)
academic
Lightspeed
(Content Filtering)
Grand Rapids Public Schools
In-house System
Grand Rapids, MI
Hosted System
K12; 41 schools; 17k students
Created 11/22/13
school operations
Student
Accounts
Sunguard
(Communication)
Employee Accounts
Employee Accounts
Student
Accounts
Employee Data
Novell
Employee Accounts
IBM Maximo
(Finance/HRIS)
(Lunch)
SchoolMessenger
Information
Technology (IT)
Employee
Accounts
(Networking,
Productivity)
Authentication
Student
Accounts
GRPS Total Recall

Kent ISD Igor
(Data Warehouse)
Report
Data
(Facilities)
HP Storage
(Backup)
Cisco UCCX
(Help Desk,
Student Affairs)
Authentication
System)
Horizon
BUSINESS
Online Content
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Moodle
(Learning
Management System)
Khan Academy (Math)

Overdrive (ELA)
Reading Street (ELA)
Discovery Education (Science)
Gaggle
(Productivity)
Edgenuity (All)
data
academic
41
Green Dot Public Schools
In-house System
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted System
Created 9/26/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
BMC Track-It!
Salesforce
(Help Desk)
(Development)
Kaspersky
(Security)
Netchemia
TalentEd
Accpac
(Finance)
(Recruiting/Evaluation)
Tableau
Report Data
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
Employee Data
Employee
Data
Ceridian
AD Single Sign-on
Employee
Data
(HRIS)
Sharepoint
(Onboarding)
Employee Data
Green Dot Data

Warehouse1
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
(Data Warehouse)
Cornerstone
(Talent
Management)
AD Single Sign-on
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Networking)
Authentication
Student Accounts
PowerSchool
System)
EADMS
(Data Assessment
System)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Employee Data
User Data
AD Single Sign-on
Online Content
Bloomboard
(Teacher PD)
NWEA
(Assessment)
Carnegie Math (Math)

Read 180 (ELA)
AdvancePath (Various)
APEX (Various)
data
academic
1 Google Apps, Active Directory/Exchange, KACE-Dell, Kaspersky, and Track-It! are also integrated with the Green Dot Data
Warehouse. These arrows are not represented to simplify the graph.
42
KACE-Dell
(Hardware
Management)
Highline Public Schools
In-house System
Burien, WA
Hosted System
Created 10/31/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Active Directory
/Exchange
SunGard
Plus 360
(Networking)
(Finance/HRIS)
Employee Accounts
Authentication
Student Accounts
Illuminate
DataDirector
(Data Assessment
System)
System)
Student Accounts/
AD Single Sign-on
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Office 365
(Productivity)
Instructure Canvas
(Learning Management
System)
Dreambox (Math)
EdModo
(Learning
Management
Math-Whizz (Math)
STMath (Math)
Think Through Math (Math)
Virtual Nerd (Math)
myOn (ELA)
data
Easy Grade Pro

(Gradebook)
academic
43
IDEA Public Schools
In-house System
Weslaco, TX
Hosted System
Created 10/27/13
school operations
BUSINESS
IDEA Student
Online Enrollment
Information
Technology (IT)
Skyward1
(Finance/HRIS)
Ironport
(Enrollment)
(Content Filtering)
Employee Data
Student/Family Data
HelpDesk2
School
Messenger
(Communication)
(Lunch)
Student Accounts
NutriKids
(Networking)
Authentication
(Help Desk)
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Backup)
Netchemia
TalentED
(Recruiting/ Evaluation)
Authentication
(Library
Management)
KACEDell
System)
Naviance
eSped
IDEA Single Sign-on
Online Content
IDEA Lightbulb
Student Accounts
Clever/Student Accounts
(Special Education)
FitnessGram
(Physical Education)
(Data Warehouse)
Accelerated Reader (Math)
Dreambox Learning (Math)
Khan Academy (Math)
TrakIt
Reasoning Mind (Math)
(Behavior
Management)
ST Math (Math)
SchoolNet
Achieve 3000 (ELA)
(Data Assessment
System)
Compass Learning (ELA)

Imagine Learning (ELA)
iStation (ELA)
Google Single Sign-on
data
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
academic
1 Skyward services include recruiting, HRIS, hourly-time tracking, payroll, position control, finance and accounting, and budgeting.
2 HelpDesk services include human resources, IT, maintenance, payroll, and marketing.
44
CISCO Prime
Infrastructure
(Network Management)
PowerSchool
Follett Destiny
Avamar
(Hardware
Management)
KIPP LA Schools
In-house System
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted System
Created 11/25/13
school operations
SchoolMessenger
Student
Accounts
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Paybridge
Sage
Sonicwall
(HRIS, Payroll)
(Accounting)
(Firewall)
MealTime
HireVue
Microsoft Excel
(Lunch)
(Interviewing)
(Finance)
Zendesk
Quickbase
Jive
(Help Desk)
(Recruiting)
(VOIP)
Illuminate
Illuminate
(Data, Assessment
& Reporting)
Student Accounts
User Data
(Networking/
Productivity)
Clever/
Student Accounts
Clever/
Student Accounts
NWEA
(Assessment)
Hapara
Online Content
ST Math (Math)
(Learning
Management)
Student Accounts
GET Waggle (Math)
(Network
Management)
Google Apps
System)
Dreambox (Math)
Aerohive
(Communication)
Kickboard
(Behavior
Management)
Achieve 3000 (ELA)

iStation (ELA)
eSpark (Math/ELA)
iReady (Math/ELA)
EdElements
BrainPop (Various)
(Blended Learning
Platform)
Typing Club
Student Accounts/Single Sign-on

User Data
data
academic
45
Los Altos School District
In-house System
Los Altos, CA
Hosted System
Created 9/17/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Infosnap
BMC Track-It!
(Enrollment/Online
Forms)
(Help Desk)
SchoolMessenger
Active Directory/
Exchange
(Networking)
Sage
(Finance)
(Communication)
Follett Destiny
Information
Technology (IT)
Student
Accounts
(Library
Management)
PowerSchool
System)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
SchoolPlan
(Data Assessment
System)
Online Content
EdModo
(Learning
Management)
Khan Academy (Math)

HMH Central (Various)
iLearn (Various)
Pearson SuccessNet
(Various)
data
46
academic
Educreations
(Whiteboard)
Solarwinds
(Network, Hardware
Management)
Milpitas Unified School District
In-house System
Milpitas, CA
Hosted System
Created 11/17/13
school operations
ParentLink
(Communication)
BUSINESS
HoneyTask
(Project
Management)
Information
Technology (IT)
Box
(Storage)
Follett Destiny
ZenDesk
(Library
Management)
Google Single
Sign-on
(Help Desk)
Student Accounts
SchoolLoop
QSS / Oasis
(Gradebook Gr7-12)
(Finance/HRIS)
Clever/
Student Accounts
Aeries
KissFlow
(Workflow
Automation)
Tools4Ever/
Student Accounts
System)
Google Apps
iReady
(Networking/
Productivity)
(Assessment)
NWEA
(Assessment)
Online Content
Hapara
(Learning
Management)
STMath (Math)
iReady (ELA/Math)
BlendSpace (Various)
Typing Club
data
academic
47
Minnetonka School District
In-house System
Minnetonka, MN
Hosted System
Created 11/26/13
school operations
Aesop
BUSINESS
Employee
Data
Skyward
(Finance/HRIS)
(Substitutes)
Information
Technology (IT)
Spigit Engage
(Idea Crowdsourcing)
Employee Accounts
Authentication
ParentLink
Student
Accounts
Active Directory
/Exchange
(Communication)
(Networking)
Sharepoint
(Knowledge
Management)
Employee Accounts
Authentication
Skyward
Cognos
Skyward
Data
System)
(Data Warehouse)
(Networking/
Productivity)
Student
Accounts
Schoology
(Learning
Management System)
data
48
Google Apps
academic
Quakertown Community School District
In-house System
Quakertown, PA
Hosted System
Created 12/4/13
school operations
Aesop
(Substitutes)
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Skyward
Employee Data
(Finance /HRIS)
InfoSnap
Active Directory
/Exchange
(Enrollment)
(Networking)
Employee Data
SNAP
(Student Health
Records)
NetChemia
TalentEd
(Recruiting/Evaluation)
Horizon
(Lunch)
SchoolDude
(Help Desk)
Follett Destiny
(Library
Management)
SchoolNet
(Data Assessment
System)
PowerSchool
System)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Blackboard
Online Content
Study Island (Math/ELA)

Project Lead The Way
(Math / Science)
(Learning
Management System)
My Learning Plan
(Teacher PD/
Evaluation)

SAFARI Montage (Various)
Compass (All)
data
IEPWriter
(Special Education)
academic
49
Riverside Unified School District
In-house System
Riverside, CA
Hosted System
Created 10/31/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Follett Destiny
Galaxy Software
(Library
Management)
(Finance/HRIS)
Active Directory
/Exchange
(Networking)
Employee Data
Employee Accounts
Student Accounts
a
Aeries
DataDirector
System)
(Data Assessment
System)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Clever/
Student Accounts
Renaissance
Learning
Online Content
(Assessment)
ALEKS (Math)
Dreambox (Math)
Google Single
Sign-on
Hapara
(Learning
Management)
Haiku
(Learning
Management System)
First in Math (Math)

Khan Academy (Math)
Imagine Learning (ELA)
Study Island (ELA)
CK-12 (Various)
Gooru
(Learning
Management)
NovaNET (Various)
Pearson SuccessNet
(Various)
SIRAS
(Special Education)
data
50
academic
Rocketship Education
In-house System
Redwood Shores, CA
Hosted System
Created 10/11/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Square
Fairsail
(Payment)
(HRIS)
Rocketship
ROLLS
Concur
Student/Family Data
(Enrollment & Lottery)
Box
(Storage)
(Lunch)
PowerSchool
Illuminate Data
& Assessment
Schoolzilla
(Data Reporting &
Analytics)
System)
Student Accounts
(Data, Assessment &

Reporting)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Dreambox (Math)
Equatia (Math)
ST Math (Math)
NWEA
(Assessment)
Lexia (ELA)
eSpark (ELA/Math)
iReady (ELA / Math)
aimsweb
(Assessment)
Clever/
Student Accounts
Education
Elements
BetterLesson
Student Accounts Data
MealTime
Intacct
(Finance)
Student Accounts
One Call Now

(Communication)
(Expense
Management)
(Knowledge
Management)
SWIS Suite
(Behavior
Management)
(Blended Learning
Platform)
Student Accounts/Single Sign-on
User Data
data
academic
51
Summit Public Schools
In-house System
Redwood City, CA
Hosted System
Created 9/17/13
school operations
BUSINESS
Information
Technology (IT)
Emma
TriNet
(Communication)
(HRIS, Payroll)
Mango Apps
(Knowledge
Management)
FlexMaster
(Network
Management)
Management Data
Secur.ly
EdTec School
Portal
MealTime
(Lunch)
(Finance, Compliance)
Tableau
(Content Filtering)
(Data Reporting
& Analytics)
SolarWinds
(Hardware
Management)
Illuminate
Student
Accounts/
Data
Illuminate
System)
(Data, Assessment
& Reporting)
NWEA
(Assessment)
Assessment Data
Student
Accounts Data
Clever/
Student Accounts
Samanage
(IT Management)
ShowEvidence
(Project Based
Learning)
gPanel
(Google Admin)
Personalized
Learning Platform
(Student Interface)
Google Single
Sign-on
Clever/
Student Accounts
Activate
Instruction
(Playlists)
Google Apps
(Networking/
Productivity)
Bloomboard
(Teacher PD)
Naviance
LiveSchool
(Behavior
Management)
Khan Academy (Math)

Curriculet (ELA)
Middlebury (For Lang)
BrainPop (Various)
CK-12 (Various)
data
52
academic
SEIS
(Special Education)
Utica Community Schools
In-house System
Utica, MI
Hosted System
Created 10/11/13
school operations
Aesop
Employee
Data
(Substitutes)
SchoolMessenger
(Communication)
BUSINESS
IBM iSeries
Information
Technology (IT)
Employee
Data
Student
Accounts
Active Directory
/Exchange
(Networking)
Kronos
(Time Clock)
(Finance/HRIS)
Employee
Accounts
Authentication
Web Help Desk

(Help Desk)
PowerSchool
BrightBytes
System)
Student Accounts
(Data Analytics)
DataDirector
(Data Assessment
System)
Online Content
TIENET
(Special Edcucation)
Dreambox Learning (Math)

NWEA
eSpark (Various)
(Assessment)
data
academic
53
About the Clayton Christensen Institute

The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think
tank dedicated to improving the world through disruptive innovation. Founded on the theories
of Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen, the Institute offers a unique framework for
understanding many of societys most pressing problems. Its mission is ambitious but clear: work
to shape and elevate the conversation surrounding these issues through rigorous research and
public outreach. With an initial focus on education and health care, the Institute is redefining
the way policymakers, community leaders, and innovators address the problems of our day by
distilling and promoting the transformational power of disruptive innovation.
About the Charter School Growth Fund

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a nonprofit fund that invests in the nations
highest-performing charter school operators to dramatically expand their impact on underserved
students. Founded by national philanthropists to help transform K12 education, CSGF has
funded over 40 charter school management organizations (CMOs) that represent some of the
most innovative and successful public school networks in the United States. Similar to a venture
capital firm, CSGF provides financing, business planning, strategic support, and other resources
to help portfolio members build sustainable networks of high-performing charter schools.
Disclosure
Alex Hernandez works for CSGF, which has a mission-related investment in Dreambox Learning
and is a philanthropic supporter of many of the CMOs surveyed for this paper. Aylon Samouha
currently works as an independent design consultant for Achievement First.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this project comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We thank the
Foundation for its support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented in
this report are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the
Foundation. Also, thank you to the following participants for sharing their insights:
Achievement First
Tracy Epp, Chief Academic Officer

Harris Ferrell, Chief Information Officer
Jon Schwartz, Vice President, School Operations
Albemarle County Public Schools
Robert Rejonis, Infrastructure and Support

Services Manager
Vince Scheivert, Chief Information Officer
Ira Socol, Design Program Manager
Vireak Chheng, Director of Informational Technology
David Hyun, Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Russell Ng, Director of Student Information Systems
Jonathan Tiongco, Director of BLAST Implementation
Aspire Public Schools
Liz Arney, Director of Innovative Learning

Emmile Brack, Vice President of Operations
James Gallagher, Director of Instruction
Distinctive Schools
Daniel Delgado, Vice President of Operations & Finance

Keith Palz, Director of STEM
Amanda Rychel, Director of Instructional Design
and Strategy
April Shaw, Director of School Support Operations
Mary Stafford, Chief Operating Officer
DSST Public Schools
Shaun Bryant, Head of Technology

Jake Firman, Senior Manager of Education Technology
Nicole Fulbright, Director of Curriculum and Assessment
Bill Kurtz, Chief Executive Officer
Jacob Roddy, Director of Operations and Business Systems
Education Achievement Authority (EAA) of

Michigan

Educational Enterprises, Inc. (EEI)
Kyle Anderson, Director of Systems Development
FirstLine Schools
Burt Lo, Coordinator of Instructional Technology

Integration
Robert Nacario, Director of Educational Services
Karen Schauer, Superintendent
Lois Yount, Principal, River Oaks Elementary School
Grand Rapids Public Schools
Alliance College-Ready Public Schools
Mary Esselman, Deputy Chancellor

Kristie Ford, Instructional Coach
Nicole Herman, Instructional Coach
Galt Joint Union Elementary School District
Jay Altman, Chief Executive Officer

Chris Liang-Vergara, former Director of Instructional
Technology for Personalized Learning
Aron Michalski, Director of Operations
Sabrina Pence, Co-Director, Arthur Ashe Charter School
Carolyn J. Evans, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum

Craig Ghareeb, Coordinator of Network and
System Administration
Ronald Gorman, Executive Director of High Schools
and Alternative Education
Ray Johnson, Coordinator of Technology Support
Mary Jo Kuhlman, Assistant Superintendent of
Organizational Learning
Teresita Crdenas Long, Executive Director of
Special Education
Green Dot Public Schools
William Campbell, Vice President of Technology

Kevin Keelen, Chief Information Officer
Highline Public Schools
Teshon Christie, Assistant Director, Technology Services

Mark Finstrom, Chief Technology Officer
Rafael Gallardo, Learning Technology Manager
Rebekah Kim, Principal, Midway Elementary School
Rachel Klein, Director, Student Advancement
IDEA Public Schools
Cody Grindle, Director of Software Development

Misty Martin, Vice President of Human Resources
Efren Montenegro, Vice President of Information Systems
Intrinsic Education
Marcos Alcozer, Director of Technology

Ami Gandhi, Curriculum Coordinator
Brian Kates, Director of Finance and Operations
Melissa Zaikos, Chief Executive Officer
KIPP Chicago Schools
Nicole Boardman, Chief Operating Officer

Chris Haid, Director of Research and Analysis
Jin-Soo Huh, Director of Technology
Amy Pouba, Chief Academic Officer
KIPP LA Schools
Marcia Aaron, Executive Director

Khalilah El-Amin, Associate Director of Human Capital
Sarah Hughes, Chief of Staff
Kyle Salyer, Director of Finance
Lebanon School District
Marianne T. Bartley, Superintendent

Ted Graeff, Chief Information Officer
Tim McCormick, former Director of Technology
Michael Murphy, Assistant to the Superintendent for
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
Lindsay Unified School District
John Caesar, Director of Technology and

21st Century Learning
Joe Dixon, Principal, Reagan Elementary School
Thomas Rooney, Superintendent
Peter Sonksen, Technology Coordinator
Los Altos School District
Jeff Baier, Superintendent

Alyssa Gallagher, Director of Strategic Initiatives and
Community Partnerships
Jackie Sigua, Director of Information Technology
Lousiana Recovery School District
Nash Crews, Chief of Staff

Patrick Dobard, Superintendent
Kevin Guitterrez, former Deputy Superintendent,
Curriculum and Innovation Initiatives
Adam Hawf, former Deputy Superintendent, Portfolio
Brandon Phenix, Director of Blended Learning,
ReNEW Schools
Touchstone Education
Nishita Gupte, Chief Operating Officer

Joan Massey, Chief Academic Officer
Al Motley, Chief Technology Officer
Ben Rayer, Chief Executive Officer
Milpitas Unified School District
Damon James, Principal, Thomas Russell Middle School

Cary Matsuoka, Superintendent
Chin Song, Director of Technology
Wendy Zhang, Assistant Superintendent of
Business Services
Minnetonka Public Schools
Michael Dronen, Executive Director of Technology

Dave Eisenman, Director Instructional Technology
Dennis Peterson, Superintendent
Eric Schneider, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction
Sara White, Staff Development & Q-Comp Coordinator
Noble Network of Charter Schools
Kyle Cole, Chief Academic Officer

Donnell Layne, Director of Information Technology
Tressie McDonough, Principal, UIC College Prep
James Troupis, Chief Talent Officer
Quakertown Community School District
Nancianne Edwards, Director of Human Resources

Tom Murray, Director of Technology & Cyber Education
Todd Silvius, Cyber Program Technology Coordinator
Reynoldsburg City Schools
Rhonda Eberst, Research and Development,

Summit Road Elementary School
William Kerr, Technology Director, Hannah Ashton
Middle School
Denise Lutz, Principal, Hannah Ashton Middle School
Tricia Moore, Director of Partnerships and
Shared Services
Teresa Smith, Principal, Herbert Mills
Elementary School
Riverside Unified School District
Tracy Arner, Coordinator of Instructional Technology

David Haglund, former Assistant Superintendent of
Instructional Support
Angela McKinney, Manager, Computer Applications
Jay McPhail, former Director of Innovation and
Learner Engagement
Rick Miller, former Superintendent
Rocketship Education
Lynn Liao, Chief Programs Officer

Mike Teng, Director of Instructional Technology
Caryn Voskull, Manager of School Model Innovations
Summit Public Schools
Jon Deane, Chief Information Officer

Diane Tavenner, Chief Executive Officer
Bryant Wong, Chief Technology Officer
Uplift Education
Yasmin Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer

Richard Harrison, Chief Academic Officer
Diana Meyer, Director of Human Resources
Ben Van Maanen, Senior Information Technology
Director
Utica Community Schools
Stephanie Eagen, Assistant Superintendent for Business

and Finance
Catherine Einhaus, Director of Elementary Programs
John Graham, Executive Director of Information
Technology
Christine Johns, Superintendent
Robert Monroe, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching
and Learning
YES Prep Public Schools
David Easterby, Vice President, Information Services

Jennifer Hines, Chief Operating Officer
Roberto Martinez, Senior Director, Academics
About the authors

Julia Freeland is an education research fellow at the Clayton
Christensen Institute, where her research focuses on innovative policies
and practices in K12 education. Prior to joining the Institute, Julia
worked at NewSchools Venture Fund. She holds a JD from Yale Law
School and a BA in Comparative Literature and Latin American Studies
from Princeton University.
ALEX HERNANDEZ is a partner at Charter School Growth Fund
(CSGF) where he leads the firms next-generation schools practice
focused on personalized learning. Prior to joining CSGF, Alex was an
Area Superintendent for Aspire Public Schools and, before that, worked
for Disneys venture capital arm, Steamboat Ventures. He earned an
MBA and MA Education from Stanford University and a BA in Politics,
Philosophy, and Economics from Claremont McKenna College.
Copyright 2014 by Clayton Christensen Institute

All rights reserved.
www.christenseninstitute.org

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Schools and software: Whats now and whats next

Business and operations software

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

Software and data integration

Schools and software: Whats now and whats next

IT management and hardware

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

Schools and software

Schools and software: Whats now and whats next

each serve approximately 2,500 to 25,000 students. Although these

school systems may not always dominate national headlines, they

the nations 48 million public school students attend approximately

3,700 small- to medium-sized school systems.5 Understanding these

school systems stories

the education technology market does or does not cater to school

can hopefully lend key

systems of this size.

school systems particular needs provides an important lens on how

We interviewed 30 small- to medium-sized public school

insights for similarly

systemsboth districts and charter management organizations

sized school systems.

(CMOs)across the United States to understand how these school

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

Table 1. Small- to medium-sized school systems surveyed

Alliance for College

Galt Joint Union

Green Dot Public

Los Altos School

Schools and software: Whats now and whats next

YES Prep Public

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

As an exception to this, some CMOs have managed to work

particular needs, with the underlying assumption that those

choices for our

demanding similar solutions. Not every vendor, however, is willing

to embark on such bold, expensive, and risky projects. From the

I either way overpay

system is unclear on their software requirements or when their

needs are so customer-specific that it is difficult to create a broader,

more generalizable solution.

Schools and software: Whats now and whats next

Beyond inspiring school systems to perhaps better pool their demand,

our hope is that by highlighting the particular demands in a subset

wrestle with these

cater to this segment of the market with innovative and sustainable

of these school systems, entrepreneurs will seize opportunities to

SHIFTING DEMANDS: A CLOSER LOOK AT

Even though the education technology market is booming, our

products, others are

interviews across these 30 school systems revealed a number of areas

piloting new products,

where software products are not meeting practitioners needs.

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

below: the degree of control that teachers and administrators

role of professional development involved in implementing new

debate poses deep

Assignability versus adaptability

When it comes to control, teachers and administrators across the 30