Cut Through the Chaos of Curriculum Adoption with Real-World Insights

The following transcript has been edited for readability. Timestamps have been removed and minor transcription errors corrected. Speaker comments and context have been preserved.

Opening Remarks

Rich Portelance

My name is Rich Portelance, and I'm going to be your host for today. Everybody who's attending will be muted. If you want to ask a question to one of the panelists, there is a Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. Please feel free to use that. Ask the questions. If it's in context, we'll try to answer it during the conversation. If not, we'll answer it at the end of the webinar. Sometimes we don't get to all the questions. And so what we do in that case is we'll send out some follow-on material, including our presentation deck, to all the attendees. And we'll also answer any questions that have been left unanswered in the follow-on material. So, one way or another, if you do ask a question, it will get answered by one of our panelists, either on the podcast, on the webinar live, or afterwards. So, feel free to ask away as we progress through the webinar.

And it's hard to believe, but this is our seventh webinar as part of the Powers Education webinar series. We do one every quarter, and we're very excited to continue that today. And our next one will be on December 17th, it looks like. And the theme for December is the state of standards. We kind of build on themes each quarter. And when we talk about standards and the state of standards, there's no one who really understands that space better than Hillary Rinaldi from Whiteboard Advisors. And we're pleased to announce today that she's going to be coming back. She'll be our first repeat panelist on our webinar series, and that will again be on December 17th.

Okay, it looks like we have a good number of our attendees here. We're going to kick off this webinar now. Again, it's Thriving Amid Uncertainty: Manage Adoptions and Win Contracts. My name is Rich Porterance. I'll be your host today. We have a terrific group of panelists. I'll let them each provide a brief introduction. 

At the top here, we have Jill Pierce from TETA (Tennessee Educational Technology Association). So, that's in Tennessee, and she's the executive director. We have Gina Faulk, who's going to join us from EdGate to answer any questions that come up regarding EdGate's products, services, or information about standards. And from SETDA, we have Ji Soo Song, who we’re excited decided to join us today. He's got a wealth of information on both the federal side and the state side. And then we have Mindy Fiscus from the Learning Technology Center (LTC) in Illinois. Mindy has experience on the policy side, especially where Jill has a lot of technology background. So, we have a very good mix of people who are going to bring about some information, and I think a lot of information on reducing the frictions that occur during adoptions now that we're in a different kind of cycle. We're in a state-led cycle rather than a federal-led cycle. 

Okay. So we talked a little bit about what's coming up in the future. We did the house cleaning. So, I'm going to start off by asking each of the panelists to introduce themselves, and then we'll get into the specific questions. I'm going to start with Ji Soo, and then we'll go around the room.

Ji Soo Song

Thanks so much, Rich, and thanks to the EdGate team for inviting me to speak today. My name is Ji Soo Song. I serve as the director of projects and initiatives at SETDA, and I served previously with the Office of Educational Technology (OET) at the U.S. Department of Education. If you're not familiar with SETDA, we're also known as the State Edtech Directors Association. As the name suggests, we're a professional association that represents state edtech and digital learning leaders from roughly 40 member states, as well as regional affiliate organizations and corporate member organizations that share our mission and vision. We regularly convene our members to help them exchange promising practices on edtech policy development and implementation. We also conduct research and advocacy on behalf of our members as well. Something to know about SETDA, we led the development of the 2024 National Edtech Plan alongside the U.S. Department of Education's Office of EdTech. So, I’m excited to be here. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you so much, Ji Soo. And here is Jill Pierce from TETA. 

Jill Pierce

My name is Jill Pierce. I'm the executive director of the Tennessee Education Technology Association (TETA). We're a nonprofit organization in the state of Tennessee that works with all of K-12 and higher ed. We've been around for over 30 years. We work specifically in edtech, from policy all the way down to privacy, new tools, those things. We also put on the two largest conferences in our state. 

My prior job before I have been a member of TETA for over 30 years. In my prior job, I was a chief technology officer in a school district. I've got about 30 years of experience there, working from putting in the wire to running the computers, to doing the training. So I'm very pleased to be here. We're also an affiliate of SETDA. So, thanks for having me today. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you, Jill. And here is Mindy Fiscus. 

Mindy Fiscus

I’m Mindy Fiscus from the wonderful state of Illinois, right here in the middle of the Midwest. I work for the Learning Technology Center (LTC) of Illinois. I'm the longest-standing employee of our organization. I've been here for… this is my 25th year, so celebrating a little bit of an anniversary this year. You can find out more about the Learning Technology Center at ltcillinois.org. The whole word spelled out with a .org, but we are a program of the state board of education here in our state. We support all things edtech for K12 school districts, from professional learning to coaches in the classroom to purchasing programs, and I also serve as the state coordinator for our state as well. 

So, a lot of different hats under one little office. That office is a hybrid office. So, we work within our educational service centers, and are all located across the state of Illinois, but we like to think of ourselves as the arms and ears of what would be an edtech office in our State Board of Education. We don't have a particular edtech office at the State Board. We serve that role for them. 

So, happy to be here today. Thank you, guys, for having me. 

Rich Portelance

Thanks for coming aboard. We appreciate it. And here is Gina Faulk from EdGate. 

Gina Faulk

Hi, Rich and everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. So, I'm Gina Faulk. I'm the general manager here at EdGate, and I've been with the company for over 10 years now, but I've been in edtech and actually started with print publishing 25 years ago. 

So, I work mostly with business development and developing partnerships with our clients. At the core of what EdGate does, we're all about K-12 standards, and that's helping companies align standards, license standards, integrate standards within their products, help make sure they're meeting standards, and that they understand the standards. And so, we work with all kinds of subject matter experts to help them do that, but we also have tools and software that they can use to do the alignments themselves, or just simply come to us as their go-to source for educational standards. 

In addition to K-12, we also offer CTE standards, we're getting into microcredentialing, and we're following the trends of whatever is coming out. Whether that's AI standards, or it could be SEL (Social Emotional Learning) standards, or something slightly different than SEL. Anything that comes our way, we're helping our clients align to those standards, so thank you so much again, and I'm here on hand just in case any questions come up about EdGate-specific needs that our clients might have, or prospects. 

Rich Portelance

Outstanding. So, as you can tell, we have a great group of panelists. We have a lot of questions to get to. We're going to move kind of quickly today. There's a ton of material here that we want to bring to the forefront. 

Discussion

Rich Portelance

So, I'm going to start with Ji Soo. From your experience, how has the shift from federal to state leadership most changed the adoption process for curriculum and edtech tools? 

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, the short answer to your question is that it has caused changes, and it hasn't caused changes, right? As you all know, edtech adoption decisions and curriculum adoption decisions in the United States are hyperlocal, right? So, in a formal sense, the federal government plays zero role in determining what gets adopted at the end, right? In fact, that's illegal under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). But the federal government agencies, like the Department of Education, can publish guidance around, you know, what local leaders might want to look for and prioritize. 

But with the change in the current administration, and the consequential sort of diminished role of the Department of Education, a lot of that responsibility to provide guidance now falls on states, and states also usually enact policies of their own, especially around student privacy when it comes to edtech tools. And as I mentioned to you, Rich, during our preparation call, this sort of shift can lead to some fracturing, right? States that have been innovators on edtech will continue to lead and provide guidance on what works for their districts. States that have not been investing as much into their SEA's (State Educational Agency) own edtech capacity, or investing in agencies like LTC, may continue to let LEAs (Local Education Agencies) decide what's important for themselves. So, if you're a larger, well-resourced LDA that has a, you know, dedicated edtech department, that might be fine. If you're a rural, much smaller district with a limited budget, that might pose some issues if you don't have the kind of personnel and expertise on your staff. So, yeah, that's what we're sort of tracking from SETDA. 

Rich Portelance

Oh, that's terrific. Now, as Ji Soo mentioned, we did podcasts with each of the panelists. You can find that on the website and on YouTube, and I'm sure there's a link on our website as well. We'll include a link below when we post this live. And I know in the follow-on material there's a link to those podcasts. So, please take a look at those because there's a lot more follow-up material to what we talked about today, and each of the panelists got a chance to expound on what we're talking about from their point of view. 

Mindy, you know, as Ji Soo was talking about the different states of state and how you do things, I know you're a free choice state. What does that mean? 

Mindy Fiscus

So, I think that one of the benefits of being a member of SETDA is that you get the perspective from all the different states that are members, and you'll find everything from the top-down kind of philosophy of states that make decisions and make purchases on behalf of all of the school districts in their state, to the extreme. So, everybody likes to call themselves local control, but there are varying degrees of that in our state. I like to call it free choice. We are the extreme level of local control. We do not dictate at even the state level. I know Ji Soo spoke about the national level. We don't dictate even at the state level what you should or shouldn't be using in your classrooms or your schools. And so it can go all the way down to the building level in some of our districts, but most of the time those decisions are made at a district-by-district level. So, we operate a lot on FOMO, which is the fear of missing out on what your neighbors might have, as well as general standards, but you have free choice to make those decisions. And even in some of our classrooms, you will see resources that some teachers use and in a particular grade level that other teachers do not. 

We consider ourselves part of that extreme. And there are other states that would align themselves closer to us. But I think it's important to do a little research on the states that you want to get into or work with, to kind of find out how those things work. When a state does have a very strong leadership level at its state board of education, in my experience, you're more likely to see that those stronger leading organizations make some of those decisions on behalf of everyone. But yeah, let's just be free range here in Illinois, and we try to just corral them the best that we can. 

Rich Portelance

Sounds like a project. 

Now, Jill, tell us about Tennessee because I think you're slightly different. 

Jill Pierce

Correct. Well, I mean, local choice is a big part of Tennessee. We do have some vendors that do have what we call state access, based on that. So, the state may choose five vendors to provide a certain product, and you have to pick one of the five, typically when it's tied to data. But the thing that a lot of people forget about is that a state department, in most cases, can't sign any privacy agreements for local school districts because of the way they are. So, in most cases, if it is a state-controlled product, we see that a lot of school districts still have to go through all the things about being private and dealing with those sides if that wasn't negotiated on the front end. So, you want to be very careful as you go. 

We'll talk a little bit about it later, but when you talk about purchasing, there can be a lot of things there. So even if you are a statewide product, in a lot of cases, that school district may have two or three choices here in Tennessee based on that. We see that not as much in most cases, it's like Mandy said, the district decides what they're going to purchase based on their needs. 

Rich Portelance

Okay, so let's go on a little further, talking about fracturing among states. Ji Soo, some states are investing heavily in edtech leadership, others are scaling back. What does this mean for vendors trying to plan consistent adoption strategies nationwide? 

Ji Soo Song

Unfortunately, it means your job is an uphill battle, right? There's going to be inconsistencies in who you should approach in each state and how, right? A lot of vendors and developers already know, but building relationships with the right people matters in each state. And I'm a bit biased, obviously, but this is where national associations like SETDA and our district-level counterparts at CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) can be really helpful. Our organizations convene folks who lead or advise that kind of decision- making. So, at the very least, we can let you know what they're looking for in their state and district and make those bridges. 

So, yeah, I'm a little bit biased, but I would recommend that you connect with associations like ours or our district-level counterparts at CoSN. 

Rich Portelance

Well, I think it becomes more and more vital to do things like that, right? Because, you know, if we're dealing with 50 states, you know, someone has to be the aggregator of information, and that's what SETDA does. 

You know, Jill, are you seeing unevenness across districts as well in Tennessee, and people you speak with? 

Jill Pierce

Sure. Sure. When you talk about leadership, everybody has bias, I always say, because that goes in when I say bias, they also go in on what their initiative is. So, it's very important when vendors are going in, and they've got a certain product that they're looking at, so here in the state of Tennessee, it very much will depend on what the focus is for that particular district at that time. Now we do see some districts partner for things like initiatives that we may see from the state, or you know, or things that are important, because, you know, there's just so much you can do in K-12 education. So, you do see some similarities, but it does make a difference what that district does as far as priority. 

And just something on what Ji Soo said is that one of the issues that you're going to see is with affiliates like us. We work in the state of Tennessee, but it's important for… You know, we're a CoSN chapter, we're an affiliate of SETDA. Those things, and then we can bring that back to the school district if they can't join directly, because, you know, depending on what it is, or we help facilitate some of that, and then we bring some of those national people into our state conference because it's very hard to spread the wealth if you don't have partnerships like that. And this way, you can start giving schools a broader view of what's out there. Staying in your hole doesn't always help you. You want to make sure that you've got to know what things that are available to you when you're trying to fill a need. 

Rich Portelance

Oh, that's really helpful. And I'm curious, Mindy, what about funding? Are you seeing some scaling back? Are you seeing it opening up? What are you seeing in Illinois when it comes to funding and adoption? 

Mindy Fiscus

So, that's a really great question, and because of the way our state operates, all of the additional funding that we got during the COVID years, with all the stimulus funding, was just funneled in buckets down to our school districts. So, there was very little that was kept up at the state level, and I find that most states did that same operation. So, everything was kind of funneled down to the school districts. So, they were kind of reveling in more money than they've seen in the past. And because of that, we’re able to make some purchases and make some decisions that allow them the flexibility they needed at that time. Right now, that additional funding has ceased, right? So school districts are getting used to spending back on their normal budget. Let's put it that way. So, a lot of tough decisions are having to be made. But I think just like a lot of our school districts didn't have one-to-one devices, a device for every child. When we hit the primary target during COVID in 2019 and 2020, that was something we had to ramp up and get, were devices for all of the students, software to run on those devices, etc. And now that's common practice of the way they teach in classrooms. So, they're having to kind of go back to their normalized budgets and figure out how are we going to afford to operate in this new way that we do business today, and what things are going to kind of fall on the wayside? 

I think in addition to that, they ramped up with a lot of staffing. So, a lot of those additional funds were sent for specialists, whether those specialists were for particular curriculum levels, coaches for integration of math and English in technology, these specialists were pulled out of the classroom. So, we took some of our really great teachers and pulled them out to be mentors and work with other teachers. And now, we're finding a lot of school districts are making the decision to push those back into the classroom, and maybe lose some of the aides, other funding, and resources. We have a little bit of a fear right now, I think, in the sentiment when we talk about funding, what we're hearing from the federal perspective, and what funding will look like in the future. And really looking at it from my view, everything's kind of remaining stable from a school district level right now. Yes, they're dealing with the loss of those extra funds, but there's the federal funding that we hear about in the news, and people are hyped up about it, but it really only makes up 10 to 15% of a funding source for most school districts. Most of their funding does come from the traditional state levels. So, it's an adjustment, but it's really, it might be tough decisions, but they're also making some really good decisions. And so, it's interesting to watch. 

Concern, dialing back a little bit, maybe saying, I want to sign a one-year contract instead of a three. Maybe saying we're going to, you know, roll out three grade levels instead of the traditional five that we do this year, that kind of thing. Really being conscious about where those software and programs are being used, in what grade levels, how they're making a difference, and kind of strategizing, instead of thinking at an entire building or a district level, class, individual classroom, and grade band levels. 

Rich Portelance

A follow-on question: Does anybody have any opinion on states thinking about shifting costs from capital to operational expenses, especially with devices?

Mindy Fiscus

So, I hate to speak for all states, but in our state, if something is less than $500, and if it is not attached to the wall, it is a supply, right? So, a Chromebook, a standard use of those Chromebooks, and things like that, those are considered supplies. They're purchased in supply lines when we look at funding from grants and other state sources. So, that's not a capital expense by definition here. We do have an interesting thing moving across our counties, and I don't know if it's unique to Illinois or not. We have a 1% sales tax. So, if the county votes that you can do a 1% tax based on things purchased in your county, those taxes, that 1%, will go directly back to the schools. It's specific to schools in those counties, but that has to be spent on capital expenses. 

But to answer your question, if you're spending those 1% sales tax on capital expenses, we've now freed up those funds that you normally do for operations and repairs, etc., for the use of Chromebooks, etc. 

Rich Portelance

Okay, thank you for that. And I know we're talking about 50 states, so you know, that's a perspective. And we have 49 more that we, you know, we obviously can't cover everything on this call, but I do want to talk about district needs and vendor readiness. 

So, Jill, you've talked about how districts must clearly identify their needs before considering new products. What advice would you give vendors on aligning their pitch so that it's seen as solving a real need, not just another shiny tool? 

Jill Pierce

Well, I mean, the best advice I can give is to do your homework before you go in to talk to CTO's, because here's the deal: time is a commodity, and after all the things that have happened, there's not enough of it in a day for those people that are making those decisions. Besides trying to figure out what they need to bring in new or the add-on or things like that, it's got the day-to-day running of that school district. So, you want to really start looking at solutions that solve real problems. 

So, where and there's typically, you know, three buckets that fall in. You've got curriculum, you've got operations, and then you've got basically what we call… And a lot of people don't call this a pot, but it is cybersecurity and privacy. So, those are the three areas that you typically do. You want to be able to answer those questions immediately by doing your homework. 

The other thing is, instead of leading with features of what you've got, you want to lead with understanding whether it's improving on the process already in that district or something new to solve a problem they may not have considered before. Because if you don't do, that in a lot of cases with districts, they're going to shut you down because you've got to go in there think, and if you can't answer the technology problems, we'll get to this in a later question, but there's a lot that vendors need to be prepared for that first time they go in if they want to a district to look at them. And really consider what they have to offer. 

Rich Portelance

Ji Soo, how can state-level guidance help sharpen those vendor pitches? 

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, I agree with Jill. Like, you should familiarize yourself with any sort of guidance that states have provided to districts about, you know, what they should be looking for in their products and services. You should be able to speak their language. We're actually going to be releasing some research on this in the next couple of months, but a lot of local decision-making, for better or worse, right now is compliance-driven, right? No one wants to get dinged right now on their funding. Just look at what the federal government has been doing to warn districts about their funding getting pulled, right? So, as Jill said, do your homework. See what rules and guidance districts are abiding by because they definitely do not want to get dinged. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. And Jill, what are you seeing at the Illinois level in terms of signals coming up from districts? Mindy, I said Jill, and I'm looking at Mindy on my screen. 

Mindy Fiscus

I was just thinking, if I were one of your members or prospective members sitting in the audience, I'm like, "Great. They're telling me I have to do the same thing 50 different times”. And so I want to throw it out before we move forward. Definitely take a look at the SETDA resources, smile and wave, Ji Soo. There are some definitely great SETDA resources there that talk at a higher level of what is all this language that we're speaking, and what are the commonalities of terms, and things like that. The procurement guide, as well, is the brand new release this morning, and the state trend survey will give you an idea of what the nation as a whole is thinking. And I think that once you have those terms and those languages, when you go to a school district's website or even a state board website and you start looking at what are their initiatives specific to that state, you're going to have better luck at finding the information that you're looking for because you're going to have the terms and the language that are being used at a national level. And we're really, really all trying to speak the same language in the same ways when we talk to each other. And so, that's the biggest thing. 

We're going to have a random school district that's all doing like wild things in every state, but the mass majority of them are going to be kind of on the same train, and moving down the same pathway. They're just in individual cars along that train. So, if you know that when you look at a state website or a school district website for a certain county, their challenge is maybe with, you know, reading retention or something, and that's the focus that you have, you're going to find similar pockets to those same challenges across a state or a regional area. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. Okay, let's go back to Jill. When we spoke on our podcast interview, you mentioned creating a checklist covering instructional needs, cybersecurity, data privacy, and interoperability. From a vendor perspective, what should they absolutely have ready to answer before they even walk into the district meeting? 

Jill Pierce

Well, I mean, we've got kind of two ways here. As a vendor, if you're talking to an individual school district, you want to do, and when I said homework, there's homework basically in two parts. And then you've got your national, you've got what the state initiatives are, and then you've got what the school initiatives are. And a lot of times they will go together, but there may be offshoots as far as that. You have to think about it from the standpoint that you're not always talking about curriculum software, you're not always talking about cyber security, you may be talking about operational software, like how we feed our kids, and what cameras we use. 

So, depending on your vendor people, they need to know those things. So, they have to be ready to talk about implementation, because, again, we go back in time. So, when you do that, districts want to know not just what the tool does, but how it fits into their existing systems. How much support will you provide, and how do you measure success? Now, if it's curriculum-based, that's a little bit easier to do because you'll have testing. When you talk about operation or cybersecurity, you've got to be able to answer those questions. And there are ways to do that, but you need to know that. 

And I found that if you are a salesperson, and you come in and you can't answer some of those more technical questions, then you need to have a technical person available with you to answer those questions. Because if they came in to talk to me as a CTO, the first thing out of my mouth was, "How are you handling data privacy?" You know, “How do we upload your kits?” Those kinds of things. And again, I know that gets specific, but if you're coming in to talk to an individual school district, if they like what your product does, those are the questions you've got to be able to answer before they can do an RFP (Request for Proposal) or even think about buying your product. 

The other thing is when vendors position themselves as partners in problem-solving, not just as salespeople, they end they begin to stand out as individuals because schools want partners. They want somebody they can call, and they can do that. So, they need to really keep that in mind because, yeah, I can come in as a salesperson, but if you're there trying to solve a problem for me, and you can answer those specific questions, I'm going to give you more of my time because you're doing something that helps me. 

Rich Portelance

Jill, there's a question that came in about the diversity of data privacy agreements, and I think you know, you're kind of touching on that, so I want to see if we can cover it. and it asks if there's any commonality in understanding the terms like what PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is, and what user-generated content is? Is there a standard DPA (Data Privacy Agreement) or questionnaire that can converge the industry to be more efficient without compromising thoroughness? 

Jill Pierce

I'm a little biased because Tennessee is part of a 16-state consortium, and we work with A4L (Access 4 Learning), which is another organization that has a national data privacy agreement. I think Illinois works with them, too. I think I'm overspeaking there because I work with Mindy's counterpart, Dwayne, quite a bit. A lot of the states that are involved with SETDA work with them. SETDA has sessions we've done with that. We use that. There's a national DPA. 

The biggest issue that we're running into, and our state does that, is that we help get those agreements. It's also a way for smaller school districts to have a little bit of power behind themselves so they can get signed, because that usually is a big issue. If you can know for a fact as a vendor when you come in, especially if you're handling any PII, which we're talking about student data, okay, or staff data, because that's become an issue too. If you're handling any of that for you know cybersecurity, curriculum, or operations, you've got to be able to answer whether you keep that data secure, and knowing whether you can sign a national agreement comparatively is a big step in the right direction, because in most states Tennessee's laws are a little bit different than most, but in most states they're not going to sign or buy it if you can't say that you can sign those type of agreements, and a lot of other states have their own. But they tend to follow the same line. How do you keep our data private when we're using your product? Just to put it in simple terms. 

Rich Portelance

All right. Thank you. Ji Soo, anything to highlight on those items when we talk about states and what they're prioritizing? 

Ji Soo Song

Perfect timing, because as Mindy mentioned, we published our annual state edtech trends report this morning. And just for some context, we've been publishing these reports every year to show what education leaders at the state level care about when it comes to edtech. This year, we asked a new question. We asked states what elements they've emphasized in guidance to districts around edtech and AI adoption. So, in decreasing order, 95% of respondents said data privacy and security, 68% said intuitive usability by teachers, 59% said interoperability with other technologies that a district might use, 50% said inclusiveness and accessibility, and then 45% said evidence of impact. So, you can read all those stats in our trends report. You can find that on SETDA.org. So, I encourage you all to take a look at that report, get a sense of what states are prioritizing in this moment as far as those elements go. 

I also encourage you all, we mentioned it before, to take a look at the procurement guide that SETDA published this year alongside our members. Using those indicators of edtech quality that I mentioned above, you know, safety, usability, interoperability, inclusiveness, and evidence of impact, you know, our members helped us develop some key model questions that vendors should be able to answer as they interact with districts. The guide also includes some examples of certifications, badges, and pledges that the vendors have earned or signed on to to show their alignment and commitment to these quality indicators. So, that procurement guide can be found at https://SETDA.info/edtechprocurementguide.

Rich Portelance

Thank you for that. 

Gina, I was going to ask, since we're kind of on that topic, if you can weigh in a little bit, because we've had the conversation about vendor readiness, and one of the things that's critical is aligning content, making sure you come in the door ready to go, not kind of doing it afterwards. And Mindy is nodding, when we had our conversation, you talked about the same thing, as you know, you have to come in prepared. Do you know what some of the things that EdGate is doing to assist vendors these days in this kind of state of decompression, and as states are picking up more and more of the responsibility, how is EdGate adjusting? 

Gina Faulk

Yeah, we got that question a lot. Like, what's changed now that decisions are made at the state level, and really, with standards, the standards were set by the states starting years ago. So, we have all the individual state standards, and we're tracking them. As every state changes, adjusts, or modifies its standards every year, even if it's in future years, too. We can look out and see, okay, New Jersey is set to change their math standards next year. So, we collect all those so that, when we have them in our system for our clients, they can write to those standards. 

But yeah, so we have all kinds of things, whether it's our subject matter experts who are here to help, or our tools, where they can align their content to those current or future standards. We use a global alignment process too, so that you're tagging it with a taxonomical term, so that it maps to all states. There's a crosswalking capability that we offer, so that you don't, like, someone, Joyce, I think in the comments said, about you know you don't want to go sell Common Core to Texas. Exactly right. You want to be able to go get in front of the buyer, and actually say I'm aligned to your standards. California is using one set, New Jersey is using something completely different; you want to be up on all of that. So, the crosswalking is super important. 

And then, as far as adoptions, we also help companies that are looking to get their materials adopted by doing a third-party review. So, if they've already done their alignment, but they're not quite sure how 100% accurate it is, we will do another review to make sure that it's adequate. We show their gaps, too. Are there standards that they're not meeting? We can point those out so that they can write content to meet those standards. 

But I'm so glad we're having this meeting today because we're all about standards, of course, but there's so much that goes into play in the decision-making about procuring content well above and beyond just the standards. So, to have Mindy, Jill, and Ji Soo talk about all of those other procurement guides, and those other items that we're not even involved in, we're just one little niche cog in all of these decisions that need to be made. 

But yeah, I think that's the long and short of it. Gives a quick overview at least. 

Rich Portelance

Well, thank you. Thank you. 

I want to talk a little bit about strategic alignment and implementation. Jill, when we spoke, you emphasized fidelity, ensuring districts implement solutions aligned to strategic plans for vendors. How important is it to study and reference a district's strategic plan in their conversations? 

Jill Pierce

And I want to go back to something Mindy said, because she kind of mentioned this. So, states have their alignment with their state boards, and those kinds of things, and their initiatives that come down from different departments, and then schools do too. You know, every school district in 50 states, there’s no way. But obviously, if you're keen on certain school districts or things like that, you've got to take the time to learn. When we talk about being prepared, their district strategic goals in most all states and school districts are posted on their website. But their challenges and context, as far as things that they do, are referenced to their publicly available data. And what I mean by that is that board meetings, minutes have to be posted. 

So, Mandy and I were having a conversation with you, Rich, you know, yesterday, talking about going back six months, but most budget decisions were decided between January and typically April because school years are from July to June, and then you'll see them go. So, you can go back and look at those things, and you know, with the power of some new technology we all have access to, you can actually take those minutes, run a little script on them, and know exactly what you do, and you can see what they're buying those kinds of things and see if they're addressing special needs. 

And then you need to look, you have to know what you're selling. One of the biggest things I've run into a lot in my 30 years as a CTO is a salesperson who didn't know the products they were selling. They didn't understand how the curriculum worked, and that's a faux pas. I'm not saying that people can't; not everybody has to be an expert, but they do at least need to know and recognize where and whatever they're selling to that district fits into that day-to-day, whether it's operational or curriculum. And so when you start looking at that and looking at reinitias, they have to clearly connect how their product addresses that specific need. And if they can do that, then all of a sudden, you've got attention. We've talked about the other things that are involved in there. But that's a big issue when you start looking at that. And I actually think that's the checklist you do to say, "Hey, I know this is an initiative. This is here. We know that you bought this. My product will take the place of these two products." All of a sudden, you've shown the savings. So, when you can do that, and you show that you've got a product that's better, people are going to listen. 

Rich Portelance

Well, that's terrific. And you can start to see the scaffold building of, you know, how to go about, you know, to get adopted, you know, understanding what the legislative component is, what the districts are asking for, what's in the strategic plan. 

Mindy, how does decentralized procurement affect this? 

Mindy Fiscus

So, two ways. Number one, I really appreciate everything that Jill was saying earlier about student data privacy. Like, that's a gatekeeper for a lot of school districts. If you have a signed privacy agreement, then we'll talk to you. If you don't, we're not even going to answer the phone, kind of attitude. Like that's a first step. 

But once you get yourself in the door, it is that “knowing” how your product can benefit them. Most of these school districts have, you know, their student management system right on their website of who's using what and how. And if your product can be interoperable, be interoperable with any of the products that they have showcased for their parent use and their community use on their website, that's a leg up for you. 

This, just decentralized purchasing, is really kind of difficult in our state because number one, state law says anything over a certain amount has to be bid out, except for technology in Illinois. So, we've got people who sometimes the decision maker in the school district is the superintendent, and sometimes the decision maker in the school district is the curriculum coordinator, and sometimes it's that IT professional or a lead teacher, even. And so, it's finding out and doing that cyberstalking of that school district, knowing where they are, what their needs are, and what they're already using. And like Jill said, those minutes are there on their websites. That's a requirement that they post those things there. It's really finding out how that would work for them. 

And to the point that was made in the chat, and then Gina brought it up as well, being able to crosswalk that with a neighboring, like-sized school district, either in that state or even outside of that state. If you can give me the demographics of a school district where your product was successful and made a difference, and those demographics match my demographics, I'm now really listening to what you have to say. 

So, it's knowing and understanding who you're talking to and how that aligns with their needs. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. 

And Ji Soo, do states expect vendors to understand the long-term plan? So, if we're talking about strategic initiatives, what are you seeing from a broader level of requirement? 

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, what I'll say about that is, like, no state agency is going to have edtech as its driving vision in their strategic plans, right? I’m seeing Mindy and Jill nodding which is a good sign. They care about math and literacy scores, they care about teacher retention, they care about mental health, right? Actually, our state edtech trend survey that we published this morning, this year, academic improvement is the top priority for SEAS (Social, Emotional, and Academic Success) outside of edtech, right? So, vendors are going to need to show how their products have been shown to be impactful in meeting those hyperlocal needs. And I was nodding to when Mindy said contexts, right, in the context similar to the districts that you're talking to. 

So, there was actually some research released earlier this year that said high-dosage tutoring, if you remember, during the pandemic, was the hype when students had to be remote. But a lot of high-dosage tutoring efforts didn't see the impact that was promised by previous evidence because implementation conditions didn't reflect the context in which research was conducted. 

So, you have to be able to show, hey, is my product, you know, applicable in that same context as when I showed that impact, right? So, that's something I'll say about the role of states. Yeah. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And we can see it all tying together nicely. 

Jill, we're going to go back to you. Districts are cautious about adopting too many tools too quickly. What's the best way for vendors to introduce innovative solutions while respecting the existing infrastructure and teacher workloads?

Jill, you're muted. 

Jill Pierce

I keep hitting that, and I don't hit it back. 

One of the things that I think is very important when a vendor has… Let's talk about specifically a new product. It's a new product. It does something completely new and all that stuff. The best way for a lot of vendors is to partner and be at some of these national organizations, or, like a state, we put on our own state conference. Getting in front of those people to show them at those kinds of things. And I'm being very self-serving to SETDA and CoSN and our organization because when you start looking at that, that's the way to get in front of people. 

A lot of times, bringing a new product to the district directly is going to be a “slow-go” because you have to prove why it's important. Sometimes when they see something at a conference, and they've got other of their peers around them, and they say, "Hey, this is going to fit something we didn't even think about, or this is going to improve what we do." Then you start answering those questions, and they may say, "Hey, I need you to talk to me." And then all the things we've been talking about become part of it. 

Now, Mindy was talking about Illinois and said Tennessee. In most cases, an RFP has to be done in a certain amount. Below that, it's three quotes, and then there's an amount that does that. It doesn't matter whether it's technology or not. That's all because procurement was in my preview in my district. So, the cost and where it fits for that district to buy it make a big difference. So, as a vendor, you also want to know what those procurement needs are because if I like that product and your product’s over that certain amount that I have to do an RFP, I need to have a mechanism for doing that. So, that's the other part of this when you talk about aligning new products, that they have a way for them to purchase it where they don't have to do a full-blown RFP. It's painful to do full-blown RFPs, whether you're at the state level or school level. Mindy is shaking her head because she knows. I do too. It's not a good thing. If the state buys the product, then it's about the school districts implementing it, and it's going to be very important that you can show, say, "Hey, I've got this new product, but I see you buy these two products. This actually will do that too, plus do this new thing”. So then, again, I'm referring back to savings. There's usually no new money. It's about where you find the money that's there. So, the days of us having a lot of new money to throw at different solutions are not there. So they're going to have to use what they have. Either you've got to replace something, or you've got to fit better into that slot for them. And that's not necessarily a place; it means that you're making it better for your teachers. 

I do think you've got to be very careful, though. If that product takes a long time to implement, it has a lot of hard training, and it's very hard for teachers to easily use that if it's a curriculum product or operations, that's going to shut you down too, whether the price is good and all that, because, again, it's about time. How can I get this smoothly in my district, use it effectively, and get the kids using it, depending on what it is? 

And I didn't mean to ramble, but that's something that employees would do because you've got to answer those questions also. 

Rich Portelance

Well, earlier you mentioned how it's important to be a partner to districts as a company. And Mindy, you mentioned in our chat that if you can, as a vendor, present at conferences and interact with districts outside of the classroom environment, it really helps to what we call “grease the skids” and build some familiarity and recognition in what you're trying to do. So use cases and success comes from exposure, really listening, and being a partner to the different districts and the different states. 

I do want to keep moving because we're getting short on time. I’d like to talk a little bit about big themes that are shaping adoption. Mindy, Illinois, is a free choice state as we talked about earlier. How should vendors adopt their sales strategies when procurement is decentralized? 

Mindy Fiscus

So, one of the things that we really try to do in our state is to break down those barriers for procurement. So, you're going to have an entirely different procurement situation with Chicago public schools than you are going to have with our smallest school districts in the state. Also, because of the mass numbers at those larger suburban school districts, they tend to get better pricing than the smaller districts in our state when you break it down per pupil cost. 

And so, one of the things that we have implemented, and we've had it for years, we just became a part of a national organization, is a purchasing cooperative. And with that purchasing cooperative, even the school districts whose local rules might have those three bids, like Jill was talking about, in order to consider and purchase, they can leverage our procurement system. We call ourselves ILTPP (Illinois Technology Purchase Program). Again, through our office, to then talk about and sign agreements on behalf of all the school districts in our state. And those are sometimes the organizations instead of the state or instead of the state agency that can negotiate pricing and make deals on behalf of multiple school districts in a certain county or a certain area. We're a member of the AEPA (Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies), I know that there are other purchasing cooperatives, Sourcewell comes to mind as well, but a lot of those procurement mechanisms that are done state-by-state through those initiatives really then break down the barriers for school districts, so that they can take advantage of things without having to go through months and months of procurement paperwork like Jill was talking about. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. All right. 

And where does Tennessee fall on that spectrum?

Jill Pierce

Pretty much the same. We do have a unique thing in Tennessee, and I found that some other states do. We didn't have a lot of state bids that we could buy off of. 

And so, almost 20 something years ago, one of the state laws was changed that if a school district puts on there that other districts can buy once they award the bid, then other districts can buy off it just like a state bid. The big thing is if they're using any federal money specifically for Tennessee, whatever they're buying, it can't be like a catalog bid. We had a lot of those where that company would put their catalog on there, and anybody could buy off of it, and it's basically a state bid. If federal money is used, that product has to be listed on the bid when the RFP is done. So that's kind of unique. Most everything national cooperative grievance, and I'm sure Mindy deals with the same thing. 

In some cases, the majority of school districts in Tennessee can buy off of it, but in some, depending on how that school district is governed, because we have county systems, we have city, we have some things in Tennessee called Special School Districts (SSDs). So, if you're looking at Tennessee, you might want to join our TETA group because you have to know how those school districts work. It's really funny. I thought a lot of states had that, but the more I see other people from other states, it seems to be the wild, wild west in a lot of ways. 

So, as a vendor, you've got to, again, we go back, we keep saying do your homework, you need to know what their purchase agreement is. The great thing is that in most cases, it's very good if you go into that district, whether you're at a conference or if you know what that state and what most of those purchasing things are. If I'm on a national agreement like what Mindy said, then that makes it easy if that district can buy off of that, and then all of a sudden I've got a way to buy a product I saw at a conference that I really like, and then I want to start having those more deeper conversations with that company. 

Rich Portelance

And Ji Soo, do you is there any kind of trend nationally with states that you're seeing? You know, do they fall in one camp or the other? 

Ji Soo Song

Mindy kind of already mentioned this at the top of the webinar, but I kind of raise an eyebrow when someone tells me that their state is unique because they're local control. All states are under local control, right? Although some may be more so than others. Some might do some centralized purchasing, like Jill mentioned, if they have the budget and the charge from their legislature or governor. We saw that a bit during the pandemic, right? For example, Mississippi led some bulk purchasing of laptops for districts and configured them in a centralized manner. So they were ready to deploy with the right software and the security features and all that. 

And then I think we responded together, Mindy and I, in the Q&A feature, but many of the larger states seem to be more local control because of the diversity of the districts that they serve. So those are some of the things that I want to highlight. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you very much. 

Let's touch on AI. Mindy, you said it's like the calculators were back in the 90s. You can't really ban it. What are the most effective ways districts are embracing AI while keeping students safe and responsible? 

Mindy Fiscus

So, I think that school districts are really looking at AI as another tool in the toolbox. I know that Gina mentioned earlier that there are new standards that come out for AI, but I personally don't see anything moving in that direction, as a certain level of coming out with, like, you must do these things for your AI tools, but more so, how can AI be used towards the achievement of those standards that do exist for curriculum areas and stuff? 

Plus, creating standards in a state is a very long and tedious process, and we don't like to do it if we don't have to, if we're not instructed to by legislators. So, I think that AI is one of those things that's going to be adopted whether we like it or not. And just like people were scared of calculators in the math classrooms, people are now scared of the use of AI in classrooms. And it's really getting a comfort level with teachers. Many, many of the states are pushing out professional learning, whether that be at conferences, whether that be, you know, local in the school district level, we have ramped up. I feel like our staff went from presenting everything there was to do with Google, to everything that you could do with AI in the flip of a switch. And so it's getting that comfort level, and it's helping teachers understand that they should not be scared of it first and foremost, and that it is going to be used one way or another. Even my daughter, who's in university, is told she can't use AI for this, that, and the other. She finds a way to do it and then word it in her own words. So, this younger generation is going to be as innovative as possible, and they're not going to say and dismiss a tool that can help do their work in a more cost-effective and time-effective way. It's there to stay. 

And so it's finding ways that your products can work with the AI to advantages, but be mindful of the thought that it needs to be a tool in the toolbox, and not do the work for you in your messaging. 

Rich Portelance

Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. 

Ji Soo, you highlighted when we spoke that AI literacy is a growing conversation in K12. How should vendors position their tools to support states and districts as they define what it means for graduates to be AI literate? 

Ji Soo Song

Sure. It's a little early right now because I'm not aware of any state that has formally adopted any set of AI literacy competencies. I may be wrong, but as Mindy pointed out, it's a very slow process for any state to adopt a new set of standards, right? But I'll point back to the 2024 National Edtech Plan. 

One of the first recommendations that we made at the federal level was for states and districts to begin with that portrait of a graduate, right? You know, what are the skills, knowledge, and competencies you want all students to exit your K12 system with? So, if a state or a district has defined a “Portrait of a Graduate”, you'll want to show how your tool, AI or not, you know, it helps students build towards it. 

I'll add just one more thing. I saw an interesting meme a couple of months ago where someone stuck, like, a pump onto a bar of soap, and the caption said something like, "This is how it looks when a random company slaps on an AI feature to their product out of nowhere." It's fancy, it's eye-catching, it solves zero problems, right? So, when we're talking about tools really think about, like, what problem it's solving. Not just in terms of time saved, a lot of tools can save time, AI or not. How are teachers involved in developing the solutions? I mentioned that safety is one of the number one priorities for states, according to SETDA's Edtech Trends survey. How are you meeting this need? So, those are some of the things that I'm thinking about in regards to your question. 

Rich Portelance

Alright, thank you. 

Jill, kind of at a local level, are you seeing districts start to develop checklists of what they're expecting? 

Jill Pierce

No, I mean in Tennessee we have a law, and we treat it like a tool, like any other tool. I laugh because, and this is probably because I've been in education so long, but we're having the same arguments. And don't get me wrong, AI is very powerful, and there's a lot that we're going to be able to do with it, but we're having the same arguments now that we had when the internet browser became available to us years ago. And I get we probably have some young people on that are on this call who are asking why we are doing it, because you need to keep in mind that AI is a tool. 

I think the biggest issue with AI, and I love Ji Soo's talking about that meme because I saw that too. The biggest problem with AI is that if companies are putting it into existing products that schools have already bought, and they have a data privacy agreement in a lot of cases, depending on how that AI they're going to have to get another one. And if the companies don't use good judgment about what data that's going through that AI and how safe that is, there's a good chance that the schools may have to stop buying that product. I've already seen that happen in a couple of places because it wasn't used in a good way, as they say. So, I think it's going to be very important as we go further, and we see companies put AI in there, that they're smart about. 

I won’t say the company, but there was a company that recently just put facial recognition in their product. Well, here's the problem. In certain states, they're not allowed to use facial recognition. So, any place where that company had DPAs with a lot of states, they're looking to do a new DPA now. And this was, there was no reason necessarily that they put that in there. And again, not getting in, but I think there's going to be vendors that are going to have to really think about their people that create their new add-ons if they're adding AI, about how that's being used and how that's going to affect them with existing companies and new companies. So, I do think that that's going to be very important as we go through. 

The other thing I think is that I don't think we'll see standards for AI. I think we'll just be seeing… down the road, now, I know some who do it, but I think it's going to be the same thing. We'll just see it as how we how we use it effectively and efficiently in the classroom for educating children. Period. Just like any other tool. Now, that's me. I may be proven wrong. All right. 

Rich Portelance

Well, we're at the top of the hour. So, I'm going to ask a couple of things. One, to anybody that's attending still, and because we still have a number of people here, if you can put in the Q&A if you would like to see a 2.0 version of this conversation, just put a yes in the Q&A, because I have like eight more questions that I could ask these folks. So just let us know, and if all the panelists are willing, I think we could do another hour sometime soon. This has been a terrific conversation. 

Closing Thoughts

Rich Portelance

What I would like to do now is just go around the table and do a closing one sentence. What's the single most important thing vendors should do differently in 2025/2026 to win contracts and support districts more effectively? We'll start again with Ji Soo. 

Ji Soo Song

Again, I'm definitely biased being an employee of SETDA, but build relationships with networks like SETDA and our partner organizations, like at the district level at CoSN, and show how you're meeting the Five EdTech Quality Indicators. Refer to our Edtech Procurement Guide. Again, https://SETDA.info/edtechprocurementguide that I mentioned earlier. 

Rich Portelance

Okay, let's go over to Jill. 

Jill Pierce

One thing: do your homework. Period. I mean, Ji Soo said it perfectly. We're affiliated with both those organizations. That's the reason we're here, but at the end of the day, it's about the vendor doing their homework before they talk to anybody about it. So, they've got to do that, or they're not going to get very far and build that partnership, not a salesship. 

Rich Portelance

And Mindy. 

Mindy Fiscus

I was going to say, show your work. So, if your product makes a difference and you know it makes a difference, point that out. Show the people how successful your product can be; nobody's just taking your word for it anymore. So, be able to have receipts, show examples, and show that your product is the greatest and why they should buy it. you we're not just going to trust what people say anymore. We want evidence to prove that. 

Rich Portelance

And Gina.

You're muted, Gina. 

Gina Faulk

Sorry. One thing that Mindy mentioned yesterday, because I was saying a lot of our clients seem to be concerned about, perhaps the lack of funding, but I really liked what you said, Mindy, about, you know, if it's important enough, they're going to buy it. So, I guess don't get too down because there is a way, if there is a need, there will be buyers out there for your product. 

Rich Portelance

Oh, thank you. 

So, just to answer a question that came in. Yes, this is recorded. Yes, it will be sent out to all the attendees, and we got a number of yeses. So, we're going to arrange something so we can continue this conversation. Thank you, everybody, for attending today. Thank you very much to our panelists, who were absolutely fantastic, and we'll see you again at the next edition of the EdGate Powers webinar.