Teacher Appreciation Week is the loudest reminder of the year that educators are listening, and so should we
May 5, 2026 • 0 comments

What Educators Wish EdTech Brands Knew This Week

Insights on Everything EdTech

Welcome to The EdTech Pulse, your ultimate guide to staying ahead of the curve with the latest trends and innovations in education technology, K-12, higher education, and workforce development. With each edition, we provide fresh industry news, insightful analysis, and valuable resources to empower you to make proactive, informed decisions. 

This month, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week and the home stretch of the school year, we’re flipping the conversation. Instead of telling educators what’s new, we’re sharing what educators have been telling us all year. From procurement timing to onboarding gaps to where teachers actually go to discover new tools, this issue is a window into the conversations shaping next year’s purchase decisions.

Never miss a beat—subscribe now and be at the forefront of the dynamic world of EdTech and beyond!

Industry News

Funding
  • Federal AI funding starts flowing to K-12 schools and libraries. A new federal push is directing dollars toward AI tools and infrastructure in schools, with school librarians named as early gatekeepers for evaluation. Read more.
  • Tennessee falls to 51st in education spending as voucher expansion advances. Tennessee lawmakers approved 15,000 additional scholarships, bringing the total to 35,000, even as the state now ranks last in per-pupil spending. Read more.
  • The hidden cost of fragmented student data. A new eSchool News piece breaks down how disconnected SIS, gradebook, attendance, and communication systems drain teacher time and weaken school-home engagement. Read more.
Innovation, Trends, & Tools
  • OpenAI opens Codex-powered workspace agents to ChatGPT Edu and Teachers plans. The new research preview lets educators build shared agents that draft family updates, summarize advising questions, or run inside Slack. Read more.
  • College Board’s Education Pays 2026 reframes Decision Day. New data show that major, completion, and college choice can move early-career earnings by tens of thousands of dollars, with engineering and computer science majors out-earning performing arts grads by close to $40K at the start of their careers. Read more.
  • 67% of high school graduates skipping college now blame cost of living. Up sharply from 51% last year per a new EAB survey, this finding reframes the enrollment cliff as a household budgeting story rather than a college affordability one. Read more.

The Inside Scoop


Mike’s perspective as an SDR is the proof. When people on your team already know what teachers were juggling in October, that knowledge shows up in every client call.

In this month’s Inside Scoop, Mike Armand walks through what changes when the people building EdTech relationships sit next to former educators every day. The collaboration sharpens his customer conversations, helps him pick up on what clients are really asking for, and lets him put himself in their shoes over time.

For an issue about what educators wish EdTech brands knew, Mike’s perspective is the proof. When the people on your team already know what teachers were juggling on a Tuesday in October, that knowledge shows up in every client call.

Featuring Mike Armand, SDR at Partner in Publishing.

Office Hours

A recurring look at what we’re hearing from educators, EdTech leaders, and decision-makers, and how those conversations are shaping what comes next.

What Educators Wish EdTech Brands Knew This Week

Teacher Appreciation Week is a good reason to listen back. Through our Innovation Marketplace, educators across K-12 and higher ed have spent the year telling us what they wish EdTech brands understood.

Three themes kept surfacing this year:

  1. Stay engaged through summer. A new tool lands in January, support is strong through March, and by June the inbox goes quiet. The brands that stay in touch through summer become the ones teachers vouch for in fall planning.
  2. Onboarding is the product. The window that matters is the two weeks before school starts. Short videos, async walkthroughs, and a printable getting-started page do the heavy lifting that teachers actually have time for.
  3. Show up where teachers actually are. Educators trust grade-level Facebook groups and district Slack channels. Earning a single endorsement there can move a pilot in days.

The buyers writing fall purchase orders are mapping their FY27 stack right now. The brands they remember in August are the ones who showed up in May.

Until next time, thanks for reading The EdTech Pulse.

For the Educators

Market Research: PIP offers paid opportunities for educators to participate in market research that will help transform educational tools. Opt-in here to learn more.

Upcoming Conferences

PIP Announcements

Try Our Free EdTech Market Research Checklist

A 10-minute diagnostic for the GTM gaps you might not see yet.
 

The fastest-growing EdTech teams know exactly where their go-to-market motion is breaking down, and they fix it before it compounds. We built a free tool to help you find those gaps in ten minutes. 

The EdTech Market Research Checklist

50 yes-or-no questions. 10 categories. A score out of 100.

The checklist points you to where to look across customer clarity, campaign speed, and whether your systems are actually talking to each other. Anywhere you can’t get to “yes” is a signal worth paying attention to.

Built by Nicole Lang, our Director of Market Insights and Growth, and the PIP research team, the questions reflect patterns we see again and again across hundreds of EdTech engagements.

DM us on LinkedIn to get the checklist.

Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to subscribe to stay informed on the latest education insights and updates, helping you stay ahead in the increasingly competitive field of education technology.
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