Common Core

Report: Testing and Assessment Products Are Now the Biggest Category of Ed Tech Sales

• By Christopher Piehler
• 12/01/14

The education division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has released the first report in a new series of Behind the Data publications. According to Testing and Assessment: A PreK-12 U.S. Education Technology Market Report, testing and assessment products — which include software, digital content and related digital services — now make up the largest single category of educational technology sales. 

Vendor responses to SIIA’s annual U.S. Education Technology Market: PreK-12 surveyshowed thatsales in this category have increased 57 percent over the last three years of the survey. For the 2012-2013 school year, sales in the testing and assessment category reached almost $2.5 billion.

Participants almost universally identified four key factors affecting the recent growth of the digital testing and assessment market segment:

1. The Common Core State Standards are changing curricula.
2. The rollout of Common Core assessments is galvanizing activity.
3. There is widespread demand for more and better formative assessments.
4. Testing and assessment is leading the transition from print to digital.

Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA Education Division (pictured), commented, “We view the growth of the preK-12 testing and assessment market segment over the last several years as even more remarkable, given that it has occurred in difficult economic times during an overall preK-12 budget and spending decline.”