Early Learning Technology ROI: It’s Not Just About Numbers

Earlier this year The Center For American Progress, a nonpartisan research and educational institute in Washington, DC, released a report entitled “Return on Educational Investment: A district-by-district evaluation of U.S. educational productivity.” The authors of the report stated their objective this way: “Our project measures the academic achievement a school district produces relative to its educational spending, while controlling for factors outside a district’s control, such as cost of living and students in poverty.”

They are not alone in their concerns about educational ROI. In this era of slashed educational budgets and massive government deficits, a question that our customers ask again and again is, “What’s the ROI on all this educational technology? What kind of return will I get for my investment?” At Hatch we understand that the need to justify the cost of adding our technology to classrooms is paramount, and that’s why everything we do is backed by a solid foundation of research.

Most of the early childhood technology available is simply too new to determine long term effects. What we can measure is how effective we are with increasing outcomes for early learners in the short term and in building a stronger foundation for education success.  Hatch’s TeachSmart system has been in use long enough for us to conduct research into impact on preschool outcomes, which led to our efficacy study, Lighting The Fire: The Effectiveness of the TeachSmart Learning System In Improving Literacy and Math Outcomes in Preschoolers.

But measurement of ROI can’t just be determined by measuring standardized test scores versus educational budgets. There are also the benefits this type of technology offers teachers and administrators in terms of productivity, progress monitoring and assessments. Our technology not only helps the students learn, it can help teachers see what students have learned or not learned and guide them in what needs to be taught. It can also free up administrative time, allowing teachers to spend more time actually teaching and working with their students. That may not be a part of the measured ROI, but it should be.

And finally, it’s a simple fact that the technology is here, much of it is in the children’s homes where they see it and work with it every day, and it also needs to be in their classrooms if teachers are to work with them successfully. That said, the technology brought into the classroom needs to be the best and most effective possible, especially in terms of content. For example, here is Cheryl Roitsch, Special Education Coordinator of the El Campo Independent School District in El Campo, TX, who recently added TeachSmart and iStartSmart systems to her classrooms: “The teachers were all asking to use a SMART Board and to have a SMART Board in the class, but then didn’t know what to do with it when they had it. When I saw the Hatch programs and the way the kids can interact with it, I saw a good teaching tool plus a good way to incorporate technology into the classroom.” She recognized that simply adding the technology without the right content accomplishes nothing, while adding the right technology with the right content can be invaluable.

We’d love to hear what you have to say about educational technology ROI. How do you measure it? Is it just about results, or do other intangibles matter?