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PowerSchool Looks To Redefine LMS Market Following Schoology Acquisition

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While companies providing Learning Management Systems (LMS) for school districts typically find much need and demand for their product, they’re also faced with many complexities. There are software integrations and a variety of professional learning needs that dictate the relative success of implementation and sustained usage. Without the proper IT support, customization options, or future vision, an LMS will fail to deliver the required results, leaving districts with outdated legacy systems and hesitation about reinvesting in new technology.

An LMS can break down the barriers to effective teaching and learning by putting more time back in teachers’ hands. With proper implementation, these systems can enhance educators’ ability to deliver personalized and differentiated instruction. Student Information Systems (SIS) that integrate with a school’s LMS can create significant value for both administrators and teachers, as well, helping to remove the burdens associated with difficult data management.

The recent news of PowerSchool’s acquisition of Schoology could represent a new chapter in LMS functionality. Instead of an LMS existing as a standalone, Schoology is now interconnected to the PowerSchool grid, bringing more services and increasing access. PowerSchool currently supports 45 million students with its suite of technology solutions and Schoology reaches nearly 20 million users, numbers that illustrate the significant combined K-12 market share.

I had the opportunity to gain insights into how PowerSchool’s CEO, Hardeep Gulati, and Schoology cofounder Jeremy Friedman combine efforts under the PowerSchool umbrella. Together they’ve already committed $100 million into research and development focused on creating technologies that enhance personalized learning by providing the right activities and instruction for every child.

Rod Berger: Why was now the time to combine your efforts?

Hardeep Gulati: It's a great question. Over the last four years, PowerSchool has been investing in creating a seamless system that provides data, connectivity, and analytics across the platform, so school districts, teachers and parents can all benefit. 

We've been working with Jeremy Friedman (cofounder and former CEO of Schoology; currently a senior vice-president with PowerSchool) and the Schoology team as one of our top partners in the learning management system. We have numerous joint customers who take advantage of those integrations. We ask our customers to share the challenges facing teachers' productivity and how we can support them better. Typically, the number one concern is the learning management environment. Districts worry about multiple tools. It's not just SIS integration; it's also assessment and analytics integrations they can leverage, integration with a special ed platform, or professional learning.

We felt this is the right time for us to bring Schoology into PowerSchool’s Unified Classroom not only to provide best-in-class capabilities to our customer base but also to more deeply integrate. It can benefit all our customers. If, for instance, a Schoology customer wants to have an analytics solution, they have the benefit of best-in-class performance management analytics. They can take advantage of that. It's something that is going to benefit all Schoology users.

Jeremy Friedman: Hardeep hit on a lot of the key points. From the Schoology perspective and working day in and day out with teachers in the classroom and students and parents, we continually heard requests around driving more personalized learning environments. It's a term that has taken many shapes and forms, but the reality coming from recent reports is that states across the country are mentioning personalized learning as part of their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan.

With that in mind, there's an inflection point where people are looking for more ways to differentiate instruction and provide personalized learning. Doing that on a standalone basis has been great, and we were making progress. But doing that now as a part of PowerSchool with more resources behind it at greater scale is something that will not only help PowerSchool and Schoology customers but the industry as a whole.

One of the critical components is access. To help drive the personalized learning environment, the more access to different components surrounding a classroom, the greater the capabilities.

There are so many things that are being discussed around student information systems, systems of record, assessments, day-to-day instructions, professional development, and professional learning through LMS. When you combine all the elements, there are so many ways you can take them into a unified experience and create a more personalized learning environment.

So, in answering the "Why now?" we're able to all collectively impact more students faster than ever before and help improve outcomes along the way.

Berger: Regarding the LMS market itself, it's fair to say that it has evolved with different groups approaching development in various ways. How do you see this acquisition and joint capability redefining how we understand and experience an LMS?

Gulati: I've spent a lot of time in learning management. Before PowerSchool, I was running a company that was the number one corporate higher education LMS platform. The LMS market has gone through a lot of different aspects. In K-12, it's been even more critical because the entire focus is around, "How do you improve learning that provides the right learning opportunity for every child?"

As we know, teachers have a tremendous job to do, and they are tight on time and resources. LMS companies have been focused on helping improve and provide productivity tools, easy content access, and collaboration tools to help make the job easier for teachers. It's a very mission-critical system.

But many LMS faced the challenge of not doing all the things K-12 teachers needed. If teachers had to take attendance or generate a report card, they would have to go into their SIS. Or if it was time to analyze how kids were doing, they had to go to an assessment platform. 

If, for instance, 20% of the children had special needs, you would have to go in and look at the special needs accommodations. There was a separate system handling teacher training and improvement.

There wasn't anything that connected all the dots. We are redefining the entire LMS market because it's no longer just a productivity tool; it's no longer just helping provide collaborative capabilities. It will be part of a holistic approach providing all the information about students and everything the teacher needs right at their fingertips, keeping their focus on teaching rather than technology.

Berger: Jeremy, the LMS market has what some might call a checkered past — resembling an incredibly large and vast sandbox with a saturation of offerings. It was like going to a party and not knowing, "Why am I here, and how long should I stay?"

I think there's much more intentionality now in how you're shaping this together with PowerSchool. With Schoology's roots in mind, talk a little bit from the LMS perspective of the new definition and experience you expect from this union.

Friedman: When you were describing the scenario, you were describing the change in the landscape in a truly game-changing way. 

From the onset, there were a lot of questions in the K-12 LMS environment of what it means to be an LMS and the functionality required. The approach has always been on trying to provide the easiest interface for K-12 teachers, students, and parents while providing the functionality that will help them on a day-to-day basis. We evolved alongside the changes, improving, and trying to find ways to allow for personalized learning to happen.

But along the way, there were interesting nuances in the market, such as the dominance of mobile devices. There was access to bandwidth at higher levels than ever before and devices with more capacity. The market was right for a solution that puts all the pieces together.

Over the past few years, one of the top responses on our “State of Digital Learning” survey, delivered annually to more than 10,000 educators, centered on the challenges of juggling all the different tools available for teaching and learning.

We then asked educators, "What top priorities do you have?"

Literally, the first one returned said, "Integrating new tools into my learning and classroom."

It was an interesting dynamic where the challenge met the opportunity. As you think about ways to address that, it's about streamlining the different tools educators are using and bringing them together in a way that is operable, but also connected and helps advance the day-to-day mission. It creates efficiencies, saves time, and improves teaching and learning.

Berger: Hardeep, how do you guard against being everything to everybody? How do you guard against testing too many theories and applications while also pushing the envelope in providing incredible opportunities for the end-user?

On the district side of things, over the past few decades, many edtech purchasers became stuck in legacy systems that left them with a feeling of buyers' remorse. How do you address that trepidation from a leadership perspective?

Gulati: That's a great point. We serve districts best by making sure that we are a valuable partner to them in their most critical initiatives and needs. At the same time, we provide them with choice and openness. The way I always look at it, when we go to the districts, we want to be their backbone. We want to be the system that is helping glue together all their different needs.

You may not use all the different systems, but if we're your platform, we can improve your integration with other systems you might be using because we provide the backbone and foundation. Otherwise, the district has to reinvent the wheel.

As you mentioned, the majority of the market is still using legacy environments across multiple systems. There are issues around security. There are issues around the knowledge and where that knowledge is aligning. There are also more millennial teachers coming in and you have students and parents who are demanding more technology.

We see clearly that the districts want to provide those capabilities, but they're struggling with their IT infrastructure holding them back. We are a key partner to them in helping with that transformation. Typically, that doesn't mean we go in and change everything. It means we become your platform and help you prioritize the key areas that are impacting student outcomes.

We help drive the key areas that are impacting teacher retention or teacher quality of life. We offer a free evaluation. We talk to principals, teachers, parents, and students and look at the challenges they feel are hindering the improvement of better education outcomes. We help create transformation paths with districts. Many districts are having to do more with less and are looking for more partnerships rather than just a vendor relationship. We have a broader portfolio that allows us to serve them better because we can help them with their mission and critical activities while giving them a lower total cost of ownership. 

Berger: Jeremy, any additional thoughts from the Schoology perspective?

Friedman: I think Hardeep articulated it very well. The one thing I would add as a reinforcement to what we've heard is the commitment to standards and interoperability. From the Schoology perspective, we've been a big proponent of the IMS standards to allow integration with other products. We do it, in some cases, through proprietary APIs. But more often than not, we're pushing people toward open, generally available standards.

When we started the conversations with Hardeep and PowerSchool, what was so impressive was their commitment to our same objectives. It was about making sure that if you’re a customer and you don't have the PowerSchool SIS, you are still getting the benefit from everything that we're doing. You're still getting the benefit and the enhancements we're making to the roadmap, and you're still able to use the product.

For those who do have the SIS and the other products, you end up in one plus one equals three scenarios. It's a key component because I think a lot of people without the understanding fear, "What does this mean for them?"

It happens to be the best scenario for everyone, irrespective of who your SIS vendor is or whether you're a Schoology customer today or in the future. It's a win for everyone.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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