Funding, Policy, and Proof: What Every EdTech Provider Needs to Know

our topic this afternoon is on funding policy and proof. Really looking at sort of education policy evidence and how all of that plays into the current state of the federal budget and policy. So just to give you a sense of who I am, I'm Tracy Weeks. I lead our education policy and strategy work here at Instructure. I am part of what's called the academic strategy team. We are now five members strong.

We are led by Instructure's chief academic officer, Michelle Lobel. And I have some other friends that you may have met in your journey. Ryan Lufkin is a popular one, but Jody and Simone as well. We really get to do what I think are the fun things here at Instructure where we really get to pay attention to what does the education market look like, what are people and educators thinking about, and what's gonna sort of push the direction of education in the in the upcoming years. In fact, one of the things that we have put together is something called the impactful eight and it's just as it says here on this slide that we are taking a look at the the big trends that we believe are going influence education on a global level, whether we're talking k twelve, higher ed, workforce, all of that, over the next two to five years.

So we're not trying to boil the ocean. We're just trying to look for those those big patterns and hopefully many of these look very familiar to you, and are things that you're seeing out there as well. So here they are. These are the impactful eight. So we definitely take a look at, you know, organizations trying to get more operationally efficient and effective and really how they can leverage technology to to just kind of, take some of that administrative weight and burden off of their plates.

We also look at the science of learning and how do we actually, you know, go about learning. How does it connect to the brain? All of those things. Education and industry partnerships. So how can, the industry partner up especially in higher ed but definitely, in high school as well, you know, to really help, support and promote new forms of learning. We look at the entire assessment life cycle and that includes things from formative and summative assessments.

It looks at all of the ways that we can recognize learning, throughout a learner's journey. We do look at that lifelong learning. We know that people are not, doing that typical go to elementary, middle, high school, graduate, go to college, and then you get in a career and you stay in it for twenty five, thirty years. We do know that people are relearning along the way, adding new certificates and credentials, and how do we support, our learners as they're doing that? And that feeds directly into that recognition of learning, looking at the ways that badging and credentialing, really can, sort of push the envelope both when it comes to recognizing learning. It becomes its own form of assessment in some ways.

We couldn't get through this without talking about Gen AI, so certainly I can't imagine any of you have not recognized that that is something that's definitely changing the conversation when it comes to education these days. But what we're really gonna take a closer look at today is this last one, the evidence based design and how evidence actually is taking a little bit of a center stage when it comes to education policy and what Instructure and its partners can do to really, leverage this piece. So when we look at, education, based design, you know, we we really are increasingly hearing out there that, our policymakers, our funders are wanting to make sure that our educational institutions are truly using tools and methodologies that have been proven to improve the the teaching and learning process. So they want to really be able to see some evidence that a solution is actually going to make a difference rather than just throwing it out there and keeping your fingers crossed. And this has certainly been something that has been, I'll say a challenge in ed tech in the past.

You know, folks often tried to to evaluate learning and say, oh, well we're using technology in the classroom so if learning's not improving, technology must not be making a difference. We all know it's more nuanced than that. That we really want to be able to hone in on the solution itself. How is it being implemented? Is it being implemented with fidelity? And how are we able to actually measure its impact on the teaching and learning process? And so you know that always gets into the you know the idea here being if we can figure out how to measure it then it gives us ways that we can actually improve upon the process and show that we're learning and growing, throughout, this process. So we can look at, you know, the structures, we can look at the processes, the relationships, and really looking, you know, no matter what level of education you're at, really being able to ground that in research and proven outcomes and being able to actually show that it's moving the needle.

Now there are plenty of challenges when it comes to being able to provide evidence and do this measuring because a, you have to be able to align your research with the evolving educational needs and and what are the things that are coming up and and are new and are popular and are the things that folks are looking at. So how do you align there? And we always know that, you know, technology especially ed tech is often innovative and out in front of and is actually trying to push and create new methodologies of learning. And so, sometimes being able to align that with existing research can be a challenge but not impossible. Finding the ways to balance both that standardization and flexibility so that we're able to meet the students where they are. Oftentimes there's limitations on resources both at our partners end, at the schools end, and so on.

And then finally, that translation and capacity, how do we actually translate that research into something that makes sense for teachers, educators, learners, parents? How do we actually make sure that it makes sense and how do we make sure that we have the capacity to continue to grow with it? We know that typically some of these newer more innovative approaches end up underfunded and that we spend our money often in our education institutions on less effective practices and interventions and so what we're really trying to do is align funding with the research so that we can actually find those best practices, make sure folks know about it, and then, you know, can spend their dollars accordingly. Alright. So as you are working with, your institutions of learning whether that's at the k twelve level, the higher ed level. One of the things that we always work with our school leaders on is being able to create that culture of evidence. And that begins in your own company too is having in mind you know, when we create a solution, we want to make sure that, we can do the research on it.

We can build a framework around it and that we actually are able to show, you know, the evidence of learning. And that's gonna require a few things. First of all, long term collaborations like you're gonna want to find those educational institutions that care about this as much as you do and are willing to be in it with you for not just a few weeks or a quarter or a semester, but potentially even years depending on the level of evidence you may be wanting to demonstrate. So you could always focus on whether or not you're actually improving education or making things more equitable, equitably distributed. So the you know, there are a few different ways to look at what you're trying to measure there.

Pardon me. We're also looking for, engagement with research as a primary activity between the partner and the education institution. So that's gonna be an important sort of upfront converse conversation that you wanna have. And educators often like to be a part of that, if if if they can contribute and be able to come out of it at the end saying, this this solution that we chose really moved the needle for us, and we have the evidence to to back that up. You know, looking at intentionality and making sure that we've got a real diversity of expertise coming together on on this, on the on the research, on the studies, on showing the evidence, How are you able to really kind of pull and triangulate from lots of different areas here? And then looking at ways that we can employ strategies to, shift power relations and making sure that everyone that's participating has a say in what this looks like and feels like.

So you know these are just a couple of the best practices when it comes to actually creating that culture. Hopefully many of you are familiar with the EdTech Evidence Report that Instructure publishes each year and we did recently over the summer release the twenty twenty five EdTech Evidence Report where we note the EdTech top forty looking at those solutions that are that are really making an effort to to show evidence and implement those in schools and grow with the evidence. If you're not already familiar with it, are so USED as part of ESSA did develop these four levels of ESSA, sort of credentialing, these four levels of evidence. And one is the highest level. It's the gold standard there.

But, you know, level four is a great place to kind of dip your toes in the pool. It literally only involves, you know, working with a researcher to create a framework. So what would you even study? What would the the rationale behind, evidence for your solution even look like? So really showing that you have a thought out, sort of research framework, building a logic model, those kinds of things. So you don't actually have to conduct the research yet, even just to attain a level four. So that's a great way to get in the door.

And then as you go from level three to one, you get into you you go from, like, a small localized study, that that really may be looking more, you know, qualitative in nature. It doesn't have to be, but we're really kind of looking for patterns of evidence as we go up to levels two and one where we have moderate and strong. That's where we start extending the study potentially across an entire school, multiple schools, across a district, across states, where you're able to show this evidence repeats itself in lots of different kinds of learning environments. So, you go all the way from designing the framework to showing, you know, how widely replicable, your research actually is and so that gets you all the way up to level one. You'll see that, of the solutions that we looked at in the EdTech, top forty, you know, about a quarter of them had, attained that level four ESSA evidence, and then you get to about seventeen percent for level three.

Getting to that level one and level two is a little tougher and it takes time. That goes back to the previous conversation we were having on longevity because this is something that's going to take like a year or two, to actually be able to and maybe even multiple, it could take three to five years, to actually show, all the way up to level one that that this is sustainable over time, it's replicable in multiple learning environments, those kinds of things. But the more you can demonstrate, the more it will have that meaning out in the field and there are certain funding opportunities that can go along and will you will have the benefit the more evidence you're able to actually demonstrate with your solution. So we're gonna dig into that a little bit and we're gonna talk about the federal appropriations process, where we are. Spoiler alert, it's a little bit of a hot mess right now.

But we'll we'll take a look at that and see where we are and where we could be going. So I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence. I am just gonna make sure that everyone is sort of starting off on the same page when it comes to, the federal budget process and sort of where, states play into that. So when we talk about the federal budget process, which, has been in the news quite a bit lately. So, you know, back in February, you know, they're starting to set these, you know, the the president starts to put out his budget.

It's similar at the state level. It'll be the governor instead. And typically, congress will take a look at that and say, thank you for your consideration. I appreciate your input. Now we'll get to work.

By April, mid April, they start setting those funding targets. And then in theory, by September thirtieth, of each year, they will pass a a budget. And when I say pass a budget, that's really kind of, a false sense of one thing. Right? It's there are really twelve appropriation appropriation budgets bills that have to be passed. Sometimes they get put together in one big omnibus bill.

Sometimes you'll see what's called a minibus. And in fact, as part of this government shutdown and reopening, there is a minibus that contains three of those twelve appropriation bills, that are were included in this continuing resolution. And I think it was agriculture, transportation, and military, I wanna say. I'd have to go back and double check, I believe those were the three. But if they don't pass it by September thirtieth as we just learned, then one of two things has to happen.

Either they pass a continuing resolution which typically says we're just gonna give ourselves a little bit more time to come to agreement on this, but we're gonna continue to fund things maybe at last year's levels until we can come to an agreement about the New Year. If they don't pass a continuing resolution, then a shutdown happens for the government. We just had the longest one in US history. We went six weeks with, with no budget, no continuing resolution. As of last night, we now have one signed in, and it is a continuing resolution until January thirtieth of twenty twenty six.

And so at that point, either they have to pass a budget by then, meaning those remaining nine. So three three of those appropriation bills were included in this continuing resolution. So there's nine more to go. Education is certainly one of those. It, those have to be passed by January thirtieth or they need a new continuing resolution.

So we will see what happens by January thirtieth. Also important to know, so if the fiscal year goes from October first to September thirtieth, you have to match that up against most state budgets go from July first to June thirtieth. So they're they're a little off kilter, with one another there. And not even all state budgets, most of them do. I think there's one or two that align with the federal budget, some align with calendar year, and of course you get to balance that against your own organization's fiscal year whether that's a calendar year or a July to June calendar instead.

So a lot of things to kind of try to keep straight. When we come to k twelve funding, federal revenue is typically only about eight percent. You know, we get about almost half of it coming from the state. That local revenue, you know, varies as you well know from district to district. Some some are able to provide much more funding, some are not.

So that number is quite variable there. And so a lot of folks say, well then why does the federal budget even matter if it's less than ten percent for most of the k twelve districts and schools? Well, it turns out that those are typically the ones for our most vulnerable learners. Right? So when we talk about title one funds, we're talking about those low wealth areas. IDEA gets into our students with disabilities. Title IIa is professional development for educators.

IVa is where we get into the whole child which includes education technology. So it's those block grants. It's CTE. It's our research budget. It's our English language learners.

So all of those things. So I have this little table here that shows you what the so we are trying to pass the fiscal year twenty six budget right now. That's the one we're working on. So in fiscal year twenty four, you can see what the funding levels were for many of these things. For fiscal year twenty five, they could never come to an agreement on the budget.

So they just passed a continuing resolution that went to September thirtieth of this year that just said funded at the fiscal year twenty four levels. So we never did pass a budget in f y twenty five. They just passed a continuing resolution that timed out on September thirtieth. So here we are in the fiscal year twenty six preparation, where you can see, what the president's budget proposed, what the senate's budget has proposed, and what the house budget. So you can see that the house budget aligns a little bit more closely to the president's budget.

The senate budget is a little closer to what we currently have. There are actually there are a few of them you see there in bold that are very slight increases. In the senate budget, there's only one small decrease. And then both in the presidential and the house budgets, you see a few things zeroed out. So of the remaining nine budgets, this one is gonna be one of the tougher ones to get agreement on and I fully expect that's gonna take at least to January thirtieth, if not longer.

And of course, one of the things that we're dealing with in here is sort of this administration's desire to basically defund the Department of Ed and eliminate it ultimately. And so this is one way they're going about doing this. They've talked about moving some of these title programs programs into other departments. And, of course, they they keep trying to lay off all the USF folks. As of today, they got to come back to work.

We'll see what happens. I do know that our education institutions are frustrated because for the last six weeks, whether it's come to funding or complaints or what have you, federal employees have not been allowed to answer email or phone calls, voicemails, so they're gonna be digging back through six weeks of that. But let's talk about the things that have passed and where there are some opportunities. Alright. So in the one big beautiful bill, I will tell you this particular one is dealt more with higher ed.

So any of you who are working with higher ed, you might see more connections here. We'll also get to k twelve in just a moment. So the good news was there were no cuts to the Pell grants and in fact, they added a a stipulation that allows now for workforce credentialing as long as it's provided by an already accredited institution. So as long as pretty much an existing college or university, community college, any of those that go through an accreditation process as long as it's going through one of their systems, students can use their dollars towards those workforce credentials. It did put some caps on student loans.

This gainful for all is asking for the Department of Education to come up with a way, particularly for certain fields for higher ed institutions to show that students are going to have a better income, a better life basically by having gone through their program than just going directly into the field from high school. So, they haven't figured out what that framework is yet. So but it is a stated intention, certainly. So you'll see a lot of things around, you know, they they looked at streamlining some some of the loan repayment programs and and looked at, you know, just kind of tidying up through tax loopholes and such some of the borrowing and the granting pieces there. There was, a statement of school choice wanting to promote greater access to school choice in the k-twelve arena in particular and then there were Medicaid cuts and a lot of people go, why are we talking about Medicaid cuts when we talk about education? Well, our nutrition system and especially for our students with disabilities, a lot of that actually gets funded through Medicaid for our low income students with disabilities.

So we're actually dealing with a nutrition issue when we have cuts to Medicaid for our students with disabilities. So that's where that gets a little tricky and can affect education. As we look at some of the federal priorities that have been stated, so US Department of Ed, they published originally they had put out four and then eventually a fifth one in AI. They have confirmed these three. We're still waiting on the AI rule to be finalized that was in process when the shutdown happened, they'll have to get back to it.

But so far, these three priorities have been named. So you see that first one that's highlighted is around evidence based literacy. Really looking at, research backed instruction. And so here we are. One of the things that you should know about what does it even mean when it says the Department of Ed has priorities? What that means is that when they publish granting opportunities, grant making and funding opportunities, these are the things that they're going to typically align them against or include as a part.

Not all of them and everyone, but these are the areas that they're going to be digging into. So you can expect as you see federal grants coming out, evidence especially around literacy is going to continue to be an area of interest. You'll also see a priority around education choice and shifting more of the decision making process back to the states and and reducing federal control. So those are all the published education priorities coming out. We do expect one around AI to be published.

They did have a comment period and then the structure certainly provided feedback on that. But in addition to that, there have has been a White House AI task force that really is looking at a number of things where the the administration is really trying to shoot for an AI ready workforce and looking at the areas of infrastructure, security, and talent. We can expect to see, you know, coming out of education is again, and they've already kind of named this, is allowing federal funds. So those those, title dollars can be used within that category to pay for AI tools in classrooms. So there actually is already some funding alignment going on with that.

So and a number of companies have committed certain things to this, process, but this is one we continue to expect to see to grow. In the house appropriations budget, which wasn't great for education, what we expect to see if if if the version that finally gets passed is closer to the house version than the senate version. We may see well, again, we don't necessarily, you know, typically have our kinds of solutions funded through federal dollars. But if those dollars go away and those are funding programs for their most vulnerable students, many schools and districts, may start pulling from their operational budgets to fill that hole. And if they're pulling from their operational budgets, that means their budgets are getting tighter.

They may have to look more critically at the solutions that they are purchasing and paying for and training folks are for. And so this is when we start to really see that that evidence and efficacy become really really critical. Because if you can say, alright as you look across all the solutions you're providing, we're able to actually show that we're gonna help your your teaching and learning process improve or create a more equitable environment. One of those things. So this is when, you know, having that evidence and having that research backing is really gonna make a big difference.

Along with this as we continue with this sort of uncertainty, we do expect there to continue to be hesitancy in the market just as schools figure out what the funding is actually gonna look like. However, at the higher ed end and really even at well, higher ed end is for Pell, you know, you may see more of your institutions who might be more willing to lean in into workforce credentials. So if that is something that you do and work with, this may be a place to lean in. And again, continued emphasis on evidence, emphasis on AI. So if those are ringing any of your bells, you're in a good spot right now.

So let me pause now. I've been talking for for about half an hour here, and I'd love to know if there are any questions. You can post them in the chat. There should be a q and a place you can get to as well and I'm trying to just get there without it. Okay.

We do have a q and a. Oh, okay. That's why there's crickets. So, Danny, it looks like chat is disabled, which is why we don't see anybody participating in the chat area. So I don't know if we can open that up, but certainly as this anonymous attendee did, you can go to the q and a area and submit any questions you have.

I'm a policy geek. I love to talk about this stuff so really it's wide open. Anything you'd like to ask. While we're waiting and seeing if anybody has any questions, I do want to put a plug in for the next webinar we'll be having. And I know that the team will be sending out all of the information on this, but our next webinar is going to be around oh, and actually Danny has posted the link to it right there.

It's gonna have a customer panel discussing, you know, value gain, navigating challenges, all of those fun things. And, Danny, I believe we're gonna have folks from Lincoln Learning and AdMentum and Age of Learning on that panel. Yeah. I'm really excited about that one. So this is essentially going to be the continuation of this session.

Right? So we have few we have a few partners, Lincoln Learning, as you just mentioned, Edmentum, and then Age of Learning who's doing amazing things. They actually just earned their thirtieth badge. Wow. So that was a big accomplishment. They've worked extremely close with our research team not only to prove the efficacy of their tools, but to inform their product road map.

So they take the learnings back to the development team, and they actually iterate on their actual product based off, based off the research. So we're really excited about that one. That is gonna be next Friday, the twenty first at one PM eastern. I put the link in the chat, so we'd love to have you join. And even if you can't make it or you're not sure if you're gonna make it, just register.

We'll send you the recording, and we'd love to we'd love to stay in touch and continue this conversation. And if anybody on the call is already doing research us or is already partnered with us and has, you know, a a a good use case, we'd love to chat with you and learn more about it and potentially share it like we're doing with our partners next Friday. Very good. I am not seeing any other questions come in. So either I did such an amazing job answering them ahead of time.

I hope they're able to ask questions. I I don't know why the chat's disabled. I will figure that out. Well, no. Because we did have somebody put in the the q and a.

In the chat. Right? I mean, in the in the q and a box. Yeah. So they can they can do q and a. But if you have any answers, you're welcome to contribute that to the q and a as well.

I could always learn from you. But if there's nothing else, Danny, anything else you wanna share with the group? No. I just wanna thank everybody for joining. Stay tuned as we continue this conversation, and we're gonna have some exciting sessions coming up in twenty six as well. But the most the most recent one is is gonna be the one next Friday, so we'd love to have you join that as well and hear from some of our partners.

Thank you, Tracy. Well, thanks everyone for coming, and, just let us know if you have any questions. Always, happy to answer them one on one as well. So take care.