October 27, 2025
Columbia University brought together superintendents and EdTech leaders this week for an honest conversation about what actually works in schools.
I was honored to join fellow superintendent Mark Schwarz and industry veterans Jennifer Ferrari and Jennifer Spindler on a panel called “ROI Reality: How School Districts Actually Perceive Value from EdTech Companies.”
Here’s what we talked about—and what I’m still thinking about.
The panel was called “ROI Reality.”
Four of us—two superintendents, two industry professionals—tasked with explaining how districts actually evaluate technology partnerships.
The room was full of EdTech founders, executives, and fellow educators who wanted to understand what really drives our decisions.
Not buzzwords. Not sales pitches. Not what looks good in marketing materials.
Reality.
And here’s what became clear: When you strip away the jargon and talk plainly about what matters, meaningful conversation happens.
The conversation started with a reality check.
Most people in K-12 don’t use the term “return on investment.”
The fact is, that’s not how educators think about our work.
But we do think about value every single day—what works for our teachers, what serves our students, what our communities need.
We talked about three things that matter to districts: Time. Trust. Results.
Jennifer Ferrari added a perspective that framed the conversation.
She referenced research from ERDI identifying ten critical areas facing K-12 education—each with distinct district needs, market signals, and investment opportunities.
She was right. Sometimes there’s a gap between the problems we identify as critical and where we’re willing to invest resources.
That creates confusion for companies trying to build what we actually need.
Jennifer Spindler jumped in with a question from her years in the industry:
“What matters most? How can businesses solve the most pressing needs for school professionals and families—fill gaps in the landscape and actually move the needle?”
That’s the question every EdTech company should start with.
First, the panel explored time.
Imagine this scene—and you don’t have to imagine hard, because it’s happening right now:
Teachers arriving before sunrise. Leaving after dark. Grading papers at the kitchen table after their own kids go to bed.
Common sense says if your EdTech product requires a semester-long rollout and 10 hours of training, we don’t have it.
Here’s the simple truth: The products we keep are the ones that work in Week 1.
No manual required.
I shared our experience with ThoughtExchange—a stakeholder engagement platform. We replaced dozens of fragmented listening sessions with one streamlined process.
Our staff got time back. Our community got heard.
Then we discussed trust.
This is where the conversation got quiet.
You deserve to know what breaks trust between districts and vendors.
It’s when the sales pitch doesn’t match the implementation reality.
It’s when data handling makes our community nervous.
It’s when tech support treats us like ticket numbers instead of partners.
One example that resonated: our assessment analytics platform—the one that uses AI to help us compare performance with similar districts.
Not wealthier districts. Not different demographics. Similar districts.
The trust they’ve earned? They show us fair comparisons. They respect our context. They help us learn from peers instead of competing with them.
Mark Schwarz told a story that illustrated the challenge perfectly:
Two districts, same platform, completely different needs based on their communities and contexts.
His point: The best industry partners don’t just sell a product—they listen to how each district is different, stay sensitive to feedback, and stay agile enough to respond.
Time. Trust. And then the question everyone in the room wanted answered: Results.
How do superintendents actually measure whether something works?
Here’s what became clear in the discussion:
When teachers choose to use your product without being told—that’s success.
When parents feel more confident in our schools because of your tool—that’s success.
When we face budget cuts and your product survives—that’s success.
The reality is every dollar we spend is a taxpayer’s dollar. We answer to boards. To parents. To voters who expect results.
Mark and I compared notes on this.
The products that survive deliver three things: staff satisfaction, high adoption, and measurable community impact.
Everything else becomes a line item we eliminate.
So how do we bridge the gap between what we need and what gets built?
One example I shared generated significant interest.
I’m currently working with a startup as an advisor—helping them meet current real district needs while they build a product designed to solve the problems we face.
The difference? They’re listening during development, not selling after it’s done.
After the panel, multiple people wanted to know more about this partnership model.
Because here’s what we all recognize: We want EdTech companies to build solutions with value and purpose—but that requires us to engage early, honestly, and with our time.
The fact is, complaining after launch is easy. Partnering during development is harder—but it’s how we get tools that actually work.
What I’m taking away from this experience.
There’s real appetite in the EdTech space for honest feedback.
Companies want to build better tools. They want to be real partners.
What’s needed? Access to practitioners willing to have unfiltered conversations about what actually happens in schools—not polished focus groups, but authentic dialogue.
The challenge is capacity. Superintendents are managing mandates, emergencies, and community demands every day.
Partnering with EdTech companies has to be worth our time—not just for their product development, but for our districts.
When we get that balance right—when the engagement creates value on both sides—that’s when real innovation happens.
That’s the kind of dialogue that moves education forward.
When we get partnerships right—between districts and vendors, between educators and innovators—we create better tools for every classroom.
That’s worth showing up for.
All my best,
