The Fundamental Problem with K-12 EdTech
The standards of technology change, yet many avenues of EdTech remain stagnant. GradeScout wants to step in.
The management and distribution of information between school administrators, teachers, parents, and students has been an evolving issue since the inception of formal educational institutions. In past centuries, it often involved tedious hand-written records and letters; gradually, inventions such as the printer, typewriter, and telephone started to improve the process.
Of course, the single most revolutionary invention in the field has been the computer (and more broadly, the internet). With it arose a new set of jargon which categorizes most software in the EdTech space:
- Learning Management System (LMS)
- "a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs" (source)
- Student Information System (SIS)
- "a management information system ... [which] integrates students, parents, teachers and the administration ... [and] provide[s] capabilities for registering students in courses; documenting grading, transcripts of academic achievement and co-curricular activities, and the results of student assessment scores; forming student schedules; tracking student attendance; generating reports and managing other student-related data needs in an educational institution" (source)
- In other words, this usually includes the student/parent portal, as well as the system where teachers enter grades and other faculty update students' records.
- And several other terms which address more specific areas of the field.
Here's a table which describes how different user groups interact with these two types of EdTech systems:
| User | Relationship with LMS | Relationship with SIS |
|---|---|---|
| Administrators | Manage system settings, user accounts, and course structures | Oversee student data, manage enrollment, and generate reports |
| Teachers | Create and manage course content, assignments, and grades | Input grades, attendance, and student performance data |
| Parents | Access child's coursework and progress (if enabled) | View grades, attendance, and complete school forms |
| Students | Access course materials, submit assignments, and view grades | View their own grades, schedules, and attendance records |
Generally, it is the school (or school district) which contracts companies to provide LMS and SIS services for faculty, students, and parents. As such, the customer of those companies is the school — not the student or parent, even though the latter two groups, which are the largest, are users. As a matter of fact, if you look at the homepage of any LMS or SIS (Genesis, for example), you will observe that it is marketed specifically for school administrators and IT staff.
Furthermore, the school typically becomes dependent on the LMS and SIS which it chooses. Switching to a different provider would necessitate retraining all faculty (administrators and instructors), providing comprehensive information and tutorials for parents, and migrating all of the relevant data — a process which is highly prone to bugs, compatibility issues, and loss of information. Many schools, especially those without a large and highly trained technical department, do not want to consider the idea of trying new software simply because of the hassle it would create for them.
As long as the administrators and faculty are able to do their jobs using the software which is provided to them, it is unlikely that any other factors (save for security risks) would cause a school to migrate to different products. To be blunt, it becomes an attitude of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it," and it will only be considered broken if it appears as such from the school's point of view.
As I mentioned previously, the parents and students, despite being the largest user group for SIS and LMS systems, are not the paying customers. Thus, why should the contractors which produce those programs pay attention to parents' and students' needs? Sure, a minimum standard of quality for parent and student interfaces is necessary to convince a school to invest, but those companies know that the school will keep renewing their contracts because the faculty depend on the provided software to manage their data, and as long as those needs are met, it will stay that way. The contractors will not gain much profit by improving the experience they provide to students and parents, simply because their existing customers will keep paying the same amount, and customers of other companies will be reluctant to switch away.
The problem, then, is this: every LMS and SIS company out there will prioritize the needs of school faculty and administrators over those of students and parents, and that discrepancy will not be resolved under the traditional business model of schools paying contractors.
Users of GradeScout will be familiar with Genesis, an SIS which serves roughly half of New Jersey. However, I think an example which illustrates this problem even better is another SIS called GradeLink.
Look at its homepage: it's beautifully designed, with plenty of testimonials, demo videos, and a form to request an information packet (which is even more beautifully designed). The website is even mobile-friendly.
Screenshots of GradeLink's website and information packet.
However, as mentioned before, everything about these pages is designed for school administrators. You'll notice, though, that at the top of the page there is a dropdown menu titled "Your Role," which links to various other pages explaining how GradeLink is useful to you depending on your role at your school. Unlike many other SIS websites, GradeLink actually includes a page for students and parents. Let's take a look:
Interesting, isn't it? All of the faculty-facing marketing materials look modern and hip, but the actual student/parent portal looks straight out of 2007. Indeed, have a look at how GradeLink's modern student/parent portal UI (from a 2020 tutorial) compares with GradeLink's actual 2007 portal UI (from the Internet Archive):
GradeLink's assignment list user interface as it has appeared recently compared to the same page in 2007 or earlier.
Although the left screenshot is from 2020, it seems that the same interface has been used until at least some point in 2024. That means the portal has largely not changed for 17 years (or more)!
The standards of web development and information technology change, yet many avenues of EdTech remain stagnant, simply because the traditional business model does not prioritize innovation in favor of the end user (the student and/or parent).
This is precisely the problem GradeScout seeks to solve. Today's academic environment is both increasingly competitive and digitized; students need the right tools to succeed, and parents deserve technology that helps them keep up. Even more importantly than any feature, GradeScout offers users the ability to choose — they didn't choose their SIS, and they can't choose another one, but they can choose to use GradeScout on top of it.
Not familiar with GradeScout? Watch our launch video to learn a bit more about it.
To be fair to GradeLink — they very recently posted a video about a revamped UI, but no information about it is shown on their website, and the GradeLink screenshots shown above still reflect the interfaces that were provided until at least fall 2024.