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What is the market size for lesson planning software in US schools (not including higher ed)? How pervasive is the use of software/paperless lesson planning?
Hello! Thank you for your question about the lesson planning software market for teachers in the United States. The most useful sources I found pertaining to your question were nces.ed.gov and tech.ed.gov. The short version is that there is no readily available data pertaining to lesson planning software in the K-12 educational industry. However, I was able to use existing data to triangulate a TAM (total available market) of 3.5 million, as well as provide summarized information on a potentially serviceable market, based on overall projections about technology in the classroom.
METHODOLOGY
I began my research by looking for existing marketplace data pertaining to lesson planning software and other digitally-based lesson planning tools. I found that there is a diverse array of techniques and options when it comes to lesson planning for K-12 teachers in the United States. I moved on to searching for industry and market data, but came up short on lesson-plan specific data. Because there was no readily available market data pertaining to lesson planning technology, I triangulated the results of my research using total available market compared to serviceable obtainable market in order to develop realistic figures that will meet the clients need.
CURRENT MARKET
There are a number of free-to-download lesson planning options online, like Planboard by Chalk which is reportedly being used by more than 150 thousand teachers for lesson planning and boasts a highly rated mobile app. And then there’s Easy Planner, which is another free lesson planning tool that also offers a mobile platform.
One of the more popular options is TeachersPayTeachers (TpT), which is an online purchasing center for teachers who wish to buy lesson plans that have been written and tested by other teachers. At the time of my research, the site had 4 million users and there were 2.4 million resources available. The site boasts $330 million in earnings for teachers who have contributed.
TOTAL AVAILABLE MARKET
As of fall 2016, the public school system the United States employed approximately 3.1 million full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers. Additionally, 400 thousand teachers will be employed by private schools. Because lesson planning is standard practice for teachers in the United States, we can conclude that the TAM for lesson planning software in the United States hovers somewhere around 3.5 million.
SERVICEABLE MARKET
In order to minimally determine serviceable market, I drew parallels between the use of technology in the classroom and the fact that teachers who are overall approving of technology in the classroom would likely fall into the market segment of teachers who are most likely to use lesson planning software. It stands to reason that teachers who both approve of and regularly use technology-based tools for day-to-day classroom tasks would also be the most likely to purchase and use a technology-based tool for the creation of lesson plans.
A survey from 2013 indicated that approximately 74% of teachers in the United States approve of technology in the classroom. This projection proved telltale as current research indicates that 73% of teachers are at least aware of the use of technology in the modern-day classroom. Current data indicates that only 7% of teachers have never used tech in the classroom, and as many as 14% use tech every day.
If we use these figures and apply them to the total market to determine the potentially serviceable market, we can conclude that the potentially serviceable market is 3.2 million and the likely serviceable market is 490 thousand.
OTHER HELPFUL INFO
If you’re considering marketing the product to schools themselves, you may find it helpful to note that according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, projections for the 2016-2017 school year cited approximately $584 billion in expenditures across all areas of need, including materials.
You may also find it beneficial to know that, in the United States, there are 98,271 public schools and 33,619 private schools servicing K-12.
And finally, data also indicates that the growing number of teachers is interested in creating online lessons and online courses. Specifically, this growth is calculated at 8% year-over-year.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the TAM for lesson planning software for teachers in the K-12 space in the United States is 3.5 million people. The potentially serviceable market is around 3.2 million, while the likely serviceable market (the number of people estimated to be highly interested in the product because of their current use of technology in the workplace) is 490 thousand. Unfortunately, there is no formal and publicly available data pertaining to lesson planning software in the educational environment, but the data I was able to find was very helpful in triangulating figures that will hopefully provide you with better insight into the potential of this market. As always, thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!