Each year, K12 school districts spend $16 billion on educational technology (edtech) products. Research has shown that over $1 billion of this investment is wasted, with purchased licenses unused, under-used, or not achieving the intended result. With serious revenue shortfalls and, as a result, budget cuts looming and the potential for increased spending on things such as deep-cleaning and transportation, this is a major problem… and an opportunity to make swift, targeted financial decisions in edtech.
With districts facing tough decisions about which edtech programs to cut, relevant local data and analytic insights is more critical than ever. What information do district leaders need to make the most informed decisions? Below are 5 pieces of data a district should consider when reviewing its edtech finances.
(Don’t have time? Not sure where to start? Need to find savings fast? Have LearnPlatform by Instructure perform an edtech audit for your organization.)
1: EdTech Tool Inventory
When asked, edtech directors and IT leaders often estimate the number of tools they use at between 100-150 different products. With an edtech inventory, those same districts identify over 1,000 edtech tools in use in 2020, on average. Streamlining and consolidating potentially redundant products is a low-lift/high reward savings opportunity , especially in remote-learning environments.
2: Baseline Usage
In today's environment of budget constraints, cutting what isn’t used is better than “across the board” cuts. Since upwards of 55% of paid student licenses can go unused, the savings can be meaningful as well -- saving full-time employee salaries or re-allocation to PPE.
3: Engagement: Depth of Use Compared to Goal (Fidelity)
While it can be a relatively straightforward decision to cut paid licenses that have gone unused, districts should consider how much they are expected to be used and why they aren’t meeting those goals. Is equity, access, implementation, training or communication a factor? It’s critical for districts to look closely at engagement data, parse it by student populations, such as race/ethnicity and free/reduced lunch, to uncover and address equity gaps and maximize the best use of funds.
4: Effectiveness
Ultimately, the most valuable data point is whether a specific edtech intervention is having an impact on student outcomes. This analysis relies on the availability of a success metric (usually summative assessment or a proxy, see Engagement as a Measure to Close the Digital Divide). Just as with depth of use, it’s essential for districts to hone in on specific student populations to identify equity gaps that may have arisen.
5: Total Cost
Tracking direct cost data (what districts are paying for access to specific edtech tools) and indirect cost calculations (the costs to find, vet, purchase, maintain, train and sustain each intervention) to the above data points provides the information needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of their edtech and identifying potential cost savings in real dollars. It is important to remember that even if tools are free, there are real and calculable indirect costs involved in vetting tools for compliance and supporting tools through professional development.
So what should district leaders do if they don’t have this data at their fingertips? Consider a Rapid EdTech Audit by LearnPlatform’s experienced experts, which comes with a 5x savings guarantee, or implementing an edtech effectiveness solution in your district in under 30 days, essential infrastructure for states and districts in 2020.
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