🛝 $30 Billion on EdTech. 48 Tools Per Student. Achievement Is Still Falling.

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: K-12 edtech spending hit $30 billion last year, but student achievement keeps declining. Some districts are responding by withholding payment when tools don't deliver results. Meanwhile, new research shows the most popular non-tech intervention, holding kids back in third grade, also backfires long-term.

Data Gem

In a survey of 430 college and university presidents, 48% said AI will have the greatest impact on higher education by 2030. But only 1% said they are highly prepared for it.

Students Are Less Digitally Literate Than Before

K-12 edtech spending reached $30 billion in 2024. 

As many as 99% of teachers now work at schools that provide laptops or tablets. Students spend an average of 98 minutes per day on screens at school, navigating an average of 48 unique digital tools annually.

The result? Academic achievement continues to fall. 

And U.S. students have become less digitally literate, as measured by the International Computer and Information Literacy Study.

"All the things. All the crazy things. Too much leeway and free-for-all," is how educators in Idaho, Maryland, and New Jersey described technology use in their schools to Education Next.

The problem isn't that technology exists in classrooms - it's that it arrived without a plan. 

James Siddall, a school psychologist who studied 1:1 device programs, recalls that even in the early years, "there were a lot of districts moving to throw technology into the classroom, but I don't think there was a really thoughtful, comprehensive process."

COVID accelerated the problem. 

Districts used emergency relief funds to purchase apps and programs by the dozen. When schools reopened, they didn't pull back. Families had grown accustomed to digital access. Administrators required everything to be posted online.

A few schools have found a better path. Washington Leadership Academy, a D.C. high school, narrowed its tools to a select handful and provides ongoing professional development on each. 

Adam Browning, the school's director of academic innovation, put it simply: "Tech is never the starting point. The content is the starting point."

For education innovators, the 48-tools-per-student problem is itself a product opportunity. Edtech consolidation and portfolio management platforms that help districts rationalize their tool stacks could save millions while improving implementation. 

Evidence-based edtech evaluation services, teacher PD platforms focused specifically on effective technology use, and ROI measurement dashboards address the core failure: districts don't know which of their dozens of tools actually help students learn.

One District Stopped Paying for EdTech That Didn't Work

California's Fresno Unified School District entered into an outcomes-based contract with Curriculum Associates for the i-Ready platform during the 2024-25 school year. 

A multi-department committee meets weekly with the vendor to review what's working.

The result: Fresno didn't pay 100% of the negotiated services because some expected student outcomes weren't met.

"Instead of just waiting until the very end, when it's like 'Oh, that's all we got and we owe you how much money?' It's like a partnership from the very beginning," said Ann Loorz, Fresno's executive director of procurement.

A new report from Digital Promise and the Center for Outcomes Based Contracting found that traditional edtech procurement has resulted in "billions of dollars invested with little to no return for learner outcomes." 

The outcomes-based model flips the dynamic: instead of a one-way seller-client relationship, it creates mutual accountability tied to student achievement.

Some districts that piloted the model have begun applying the same logic to other contracts, "to ensure resources are being strategically allocated so learners are positively impacted by interventions."

The era of selling seats and licenses without proving impact is ending - companies that can demonstrate measurable student outcomes will win contracts. Those that can't will lose them mid-cycle. 

The infrastructure gap is clear: districts need outcomes measurement platforms, contract performance dashboards, and implementation analytics to manage these new agreements. And edtech vendors need to redesign products around provable results, not feature lists.

Holding Kids Back in Third Grade Boosts Test Scores. Then It Backfires.

More states are adopting third-grade retention policies. The logic is intuitive: don't let struggling readers move on until they're ready. And in the short term, the data looks promising. Retained students score higher on tests.

But a new economics study of a Texas retention policy tells a different story over time.

Research tracked students who barely missed the passing score on the state reading exam versus those who barely passed. 

These students were essentially identical - but the retained students were 9 percentage points less likely to graduate from high school. At age 26, they earned nearly $3,500 less per year, a 19% decline.

The initial test score gains faded. Absenteeism rose after retention. 

In middle school, retained students were more likely to exhibit violent behavior.

"Retaining low-achieving students in third grade further deepens educational and income inequalities," Zhong wrote.

Brian Jacob, a University of Michigan education professor, noted the policy's real power may be indirect: "In theory you wouldn't have to have retention. In practice, the stick in the background may make everyone in the system more focused."

For education innovators, the research makes a clear case for building the alternative. Early literacy screening and progress-monitoring tools that identify struggling readers before third grade address the problem retention tries to solve. 

High-dosage tutoring and small-group intervention platforms provide the intensive support that retention alone doesn't deliver.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

• Chronic absenteeism subgroup gaps persist across 27 states — FutureEd found low-income chronic absenteeism rose 17+ percentage points from pre-pandemic to peak, and in Washington, D.C., Black students were absent at nearly 49% versus 9% for White students

• 8 in 10 parents want stronger AI guardrails for their children — An Echelon Insights survey of 1,511 parents found 86% want pop-up warnings for sensitive topics, 85% want parent alerts for harmful content, and 79% want parental permission before minors use AI

• Ransomware attacks on US schools exposed 3.89 million records in 2025 — 130 attacks hit US education institutions, representing 98% of all stolen education data worldwide, with the University of Phoenix breach alone affecting 3.5 million people

• 72% of early educators say young students struggle more with basic instructions than two years ago — A survey of 1,163 educators found 59% say behavior has worsened and 77% believe increased screen time is the primary driver of weaker motor skills and developmental delays

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