Education leaders tell the Learning Counsel that they wait literally “all year” to hear Learning Counsel CEO LeiLani Cauthen deliver the results of the Learning Leadership Institute’s annual National Digital Transition Survey. Delivered first thing every year at the Virtual National Event, the survey is the most widely participated, most in-depth and most anticipated survey in EdTech, and paints a very realistic picture of where schools and districts are in the digital transition.

According to Cauthen, “We employ two versions of the surveys. For the administrators version, Emerging Pressures was the major theme. In the Teacher version, Emerging Needs was their major theme. We put out over 2,468,000 surveys, and had about 261,000 participants. The surveys were long and somewhat arduous and included essays, so not everyone completed 100 percent of every survey.

“The Learning Counsel evaluated the data over a backdrop of what was going on nationally, and it is surprising data for a lot of people. The Learning Counsel is the only institution that looks at the off-grid kids. You might be homeschooling, but nobody really knows because you're not registered with the state as a homeschooler because they don't require it. The off-grid kids now number 4.449 million. We know the total number from the Census Bureau reports, which aren't reported necessarily by the federal D O E or N C E S numbers. So when they give you their numbers, they disregard the off-grid, and a lot of the homeschool and pod kids. So, their total numbers are still low in comparison to our numbers. If you really look at this, the total that are not in traditional public schools now is 37.6 percent.

“Last year we did this big analysis and we found out that we were going to be a million teachers short going into September of the new school year. As we know, the number of teachers matters in terms of how you can execute and deliver, and we only are supplying about 70,000 in graduation every year. So, a lot of districts are doing desperate things. Some states have even tried to call in the National Guard. The average nationally is 24 percent to 28 percent of classrooms are empty. Maybe your district doesn't have those problems, but a lot of them do. So, spend was way up, much higher than we predicted.

Up by 18.5 percent on EdTech. That doesn't include staffing or paper or print. So, in 2022, most of the schools got past the pandemic worries and disorientation, and they spent more stimulus response on tech than ever before.”

This survey results briefing is an opportunity to get the kind of information the mainstream news won’t tell you – mostly because they don’t have the data. And even the top education media doesn’t have access to this information. You’ll want to watch this video with notepad in hand, and plenty of time to go back and review. The data isn’t always pretty, but it is very accurate, and this is the kind of information that will give your district an edge in planning and implementing your teaching and learning frameworks for the coming year and beyond. Districts run on Data, and only the Learning Counsel can give you their seasoned perspective to place these important data into context.