Research for EdTech Companies

It varies by district and by funding source, and many now ask where a product falls in the ESSA evidence tiers. Tier four requires a demonstrated rationale like a logic model, and the higher tiers require correlational, quasi-experimental, or randomized studies showing an effect. The tier you can claim depends on what's actually been studied.

Yes. We design and conduct efficacy research including quasi-experimental designs and randomized controlled trials, and our team served as Project Lead on a $3.75 million Department of Education EIR randomized controlled trial conducted in partnership with the American Institutes for Research.

Longer than most companies want. A study needing a full school year of implementation plus analysis and reporting runs at least eighteen months, and often longer once you account for district approval and recruiting schools. Smaller correlational or quasi-experimental studies can be done faster.

It depends heavily on the design. A logic model and rationale supporting a tier four claim costs a fraction of a multi-site randomized trial. We'll tell you what each tier would realistically require before you commit to anything.

Yes. Our team has worked with schools and districts across all 50 states and internationally, and school recruitment is a specific skill. It takes lead time and it takes understanding what a district gets out of participating, because they're not doing it as a favor.

Usually because a demo is run by somebody who knows the product, under ideal conditions, with nothing else going on. A classroom has thirty students, a schedule, and a teacher managing six other things. Implementation research is how you find out what actually happens and design around it.

Yes. Teacher interviews, surveys, and focus groups are standard work for us, and reaching teachers takes understanding when they're actually available. Recruiting for sessions during the school day rarely works, and compensating them properly matters.

Yes. District purchasing involves more people than most vendors realize, including curriculum staff, technology directors, principals, and sometimes the board. Buyer research tells you who actually decides, what they weigh, and where deals die.

The What Works Clearinghouse reviews education research against a published set of standards and rates whether a study meets them, meets them with reservations, or doesn't meet them. It matters because districts and states increasingly use it as a shortcut for deciding whether evidence is credible. A study can be perfectly reasonable and still fail review on attrition or baseline equivalence, so it's worth knowing where yours would land before somebody else checks.

Send it to us. We'll assess what the design actually supports and what a district or a funding source would accept, and tell you plainly whether the claim you've been making holds up. Sometimes the study is fine and the claim was overstated, and sometimes a modest additional study closes the gap.

Yes. Education market sizing has good public data behind it, including school and district counts, enrollment figures, and staffing data, so a bottom-up estimate can be genuinely defensible if it's built properly.