A sharp rise in investment flowing into K-12 educational technology and a flood of new startups entering the market have longtime players cheering the attention to what they call a previously undervalued sector, but have also spurred concerns that this surge could foreshadow a boom-to-bust phenomenon.
Over the past several years, K-12 educational technology—once an unlikely area for significant venture-capitalist attention—has become a hot new investment opportunity. That continuing trend has prompted a whole industry around creating and promoting ed-tech startup companies and an intense focus on figuring out why some succeed while most fail. It’s also meant that schools and districts have opened their doors wider to for-profit companies, new technologies, and sometimes-untested products, creating a risk for educators.