EdTech Has a Massive Perception Problem on What People Want From Schools
Walk into the booth area at any major EdTech conference and you’ll see an unmistakable pattern: company after company pitching tools designed to make learning more efficient, more personalized, more measurable, more “effective.” The story is predictable:
Learn faster
Learn deeper
Learn better
Raise achievement
Close gaps
Increase engagement
Improve test scores
If you’ve spent time in schools, you already know that these claims only address a fraction of what families actually want from K-12 education.
And that’s the main perception problem we’ll be focusing on in this article.
EdTech assumes the value proposition of K-12 schools is solely learning.
But if you study what families care about, how students experience school, and why communities fight to preserve public schools even when alternatives exist, a very different picture emerges:
The number one value proposition of K-12 schooling isn’t academic learning.
It’s safety, belonging, identity, relationships, culture, and community.
Learning matters. Absolutely.
But learning alone is not why families enroll their children in school, nor is it why students are motivated over thirteen years of education.
This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 American parents of children aged 0 – 5 was commissioned by Primrose Schools between September 6 and September 9, 2022.
When you ask parents why they send their children to school, the dominant answers are:
I want my kid to be in a safe environment
I want my kid to build friendships
I want my kid to learn how to work with others
I want my kid to develop socially and emotionally
I want my kid to have good teachers who care
I want my kid to find their interests, passions, and identity
I want my kid to have opportunities outside of academics
I want my kid to feel part of a community with a positive culture
Academics are rarely number one.
And students say the same thing.
When you ask a sixth grader what they love about school, they rarely say: “ELA instruction is amazing” or “I can’t wait to optimize my math achievement.” They talk about recess, lunch, clubs, sports, music, robotics teams, school trips, hanging out with friends, goofy inside jokes, school spirit days, Fridays in the cafeteria, that teacher who makes them feel like they matter.
None of that shows up in EdTech product roadmaps.
And that’s the missed opportunity.
EdTech Sells Faster Learning. Communities Want Better Living.
Most EdTech companies think that their primary customer concerns are efficiency, outcomes, or quality of instruction.
But ask any Superintendent what makes their district successful and you’ll hear:
“A strong school culture where kids feel safe and connected.”
Ask any Principal what keeps families loyal to a school and they’ll say:
“Relationships with teachers, extracurriculars, and a sense of community.”
Ask any Teacher what keeps them in the profession and they'll say:
“Feeling like I’m making a difference and building meaningful relationships with students.”
Not one of those statements is about digital personalization or adaptive learning pathways.
So what happens?
EdTech companies continually try to solve the wrong problem.
They invest in summative dashboards, mastery trackers, AI tutors, and adaptive content all while schools are desperately trying to solve student mental health, isolation, school climate, teen anxiety, disconnection, belonging, safety, chronic absenteeism, school spirit, sports and extra curricular participation, community pride.
The market mismatch is massive.
Schools Are Not Factories. They Are Ecosystems.
Thirteen years of K-12 schooling is not merely a learning journey.
It is a developmental journey.
Kids don’t just learn facts.
They grow up.
They are shaped by their peers, teachers, coaches, and environments.
They learn how to handle conflict, how to form friendships, how to join teams, how to be part of something bigger, how to self-regulate, how to deal with failure, how to advocate for themselves, how to navigate identity.
They build a network of human connections - kids, teachers, principals, counselors, volunteers, coaches - that become part of their story.
Those relationships are the actual value of K-12 schooling.
The memories students cherish 20 years later are rarely about the content they mastered.
School is where students live, not just where they learn.
And technology that only focuses on learning inevitably misses this.
Belonging, Connection, and Community Aren’t Extras
There is strong research showing that a high sense of belonging at school correlates with academic success, social-emotional wellbeing, and long-term engagement:
A 2023 meta-analytic review of 22 studies concluded that students' “sense of school belonging” has a statistically significant positive effect on academic achievement.
Another large meta-analysis covering 82 studies found that belonging at school is associated not only with better academic performance, but also with improved motivation, behavior, social-emotional outcomes, and lower problem behaviors.
A recent summary of empirical evidence argues that belonging at school is linked with higher rates of continued enrollment, better mental health, and long-term positive outcomes.
This isn’t rocket science. When students feel seen, safe, and part of a community (and when they have trusted adults and peers) they are more likely to show up, stick around, engage, behave well, and ultimately learn.
That means climate, relationships, and belonging aren’t “nice extras.” They’re part of what makes education work.
A Crisis of Disconnection: Absenteeism, Motivation & Mental Health Are Clues
We are living through a disruption, not just in how we teach, but in how students experience school.
According to the US federal government, chronic absenteeism (which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year) reached around 31% in 2021–22, and only dipped to 28% in 2022–23.
Independent tracking shows the trend remains historically elevated: as of 2024, rates hovered around 23–24% nationwide, much higher than pre-pandemic levels (~15%).
Researchers attribute this not solely to illness or remote-school hangover, but to motivation, belonging, school climate, and mental-health struggles.
The data suggests we don’t have a merely a content problem, we have a connection problem.
When kids feel disillusioned, unsafe, or disconnected, and especially when school doesn’t feel meaningful, they disengage. And disengagement is a symptom, not a cause.
So Why Doesn’t EdTech Build for Culture, Community, and Belonging?
Two reasons:
It’s harder to measure
It’s harder to productize
It is easier to sell a product that promises improved test scores, adaptive learning paths, automated grading, mastery badges, progress visibility.
Those can be quantified.
School culture cannot be packaged into a neat metric.
Belonging does not export as a CSV.
Relationships don’t appear on a dashboard.
Climate isn’t a percentile ranking.
And yet…those are the real competitive advantages of a school district. It doesn’t mean that learning and academic achievement don’t matter. Of course they do. But, specifically creating products to optimize for only one piece of a school experiences misses the mark in so many ways.
If EdTech Innovated Around Belonging, The Market Would Explode
Chronic absenteeism is at historic highs.
Student anxiety and loneliness are rising.
Motivation is collapsing.
Teachers are overwhelmed.
Families are craving meaningful school experiences.
And instead of building tech that strengthens the ecosystem of school, we keep building better learning engines.
Here’s the challenge to the EdTech world:
Stop trying to optimize the one part of schooling that was never the entire value proposition.
The EdTech sector should reframe its question.
Not:
“How do we make learning faster?”
But:
“How do we help schools become stronger communities for young people?”
That’s the category where schools actually have demand.
That’s where families feel the ROI.
That’s what creates loyalty, retention, satisfaction, and pride.
And that’s what makes thirteen years of education worth it.
EdTech has a massive perception problem.
Fix that, and the future of school technology may finally align with the actual reasons we send human children to school.
Not just to perform well academically…but to grow up together as good humans.
