More than 100 teachers, 125 parents and 50 K-12 administrators responded to a survey about school app use between December 2024 and January 2025, according to marketing firm Cornerstone Communications and ed-tech vendor Edsby.
Fifty-four percent of administrators said their school uses between 10 and 15 “officially sanctioned” educational apps, and 25 percent said their school uses between five and nine. Sixteen percent of respondents said their school uses fewer than a handful of apps, and 5 percent said their school uses more than 16. Most administrators held a positive view of the status quo: 80 percent of them believed teachers were satisfied with this system of using so many apps.
“District leaders and curriculum decision-makers maintain a largely positive outlook on the educational app ecosystem,” the 22-page study says. “They report using a robust suite of tools and generally assume that the structure in place is efficient, effective and well-received by teachers.”
Teachers themselves weren't so positive. On a scale of one to 10, about a third of teachers rated their satisfaction with having to use multiple school apps at two. The time it takes to manage data on and between different platforms was the main reason for their discontent, according to the report.
“Educators, while acknowledging the potential benefits of digital tools, express moderate dissatisfaction due primarily to the administrative overhead and fragmented user experience,” the document says.
Parent satisfaction with the use of multiple school apps came in at five or below among 85 percent of those surveyed. In open-ended responses, parents said tracking their children’s academic progress across a series of apps was confusing and time consuming.
To address potential parent and teacher dissatisfaction with multiple educational apps, the report recommends a unified portal, getting rid of redundant apps, an app onboarding process for parents and teachers, and a process for collecting user feedback and making changes.
“In many K-12 organizations, a patchwork of apps have become an integral part of our educational system,” Cornerstone Communications President Brooke Greenwald said in a public statement. “The challenges with this approach depend on which type of user you are. We've learned from our lengthy discussions and research that for schools to truly partner with parents, something has to change in many organizations' approaches to K-12 apps.”
