Focusing on Every Student in the 2023-24 School Year and Beyond

PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati on how to support every step of a student’s journey 

As we head into the 2023-24 school year, PowerSchool has reached a new milestone: serving 50 million students. That means we’re a part of helping 50 million individual students with their needs, challenges, fears, hopes, and dreams.  

For the new school year—though we serve 50 million students—our focus is on one student. We are making progress to offer differentiated instruction for every student, to help each student grow and learn in a way that’s right for them.  

We’re guided by an inspiring purpose to empower educators to help every student learn in a way that’s right for them. We’re bringing schools and districts powerful edtech tools that help identify where students are at and make critical changes to address challenges and improve outcomes. These integrated tools include innovative products that are enhancing education, including our learning management system, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, and data solutions like PowerSchool MTSS, PowerSchool Student Analytics, and PowerSchool Connected Intelligence K-12—the first fully managed Data as a Service (DaaS) platform for K-12.  

With industry-leading data tools as a foundation, we are supporting every step of each student’s journey. We’re working to bring the best of K-12 technology together to make it easier to achieve our shared goal of delivering an experience designed specifically for each student. 

As we look back at 2023 so far, we’ve been working hard to build and enhance solutions and strategic partnerships to help personalize education for every student’s journey. 

Connecting with Customers and Building Relationships: A Half Year in Review

In 2023, we’ve already seen steady company growth, product expansions, industry recognition, and strategic partnerships. Here are just some of the highlights.  

• Announced earlier this summer, we’re supporting the over 250,000 students enrolled in Puerto Rico with our PowerSchool SIS platform, bringing modern technology to continue learning in any circumstance.   
• Both the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the state of Montana are implementing Connected Intelligence K-12, the first fully managed data as a service (DaaS) platform for K-12 that brings actionable data to key stakeholders to optimize student success.  
• Speaking of Connected Intelligence, Snowflake just named us the “Powered by Snowflake Growth Partner of the Year.” PowerSchool was recognized for our ingenuity in building a turnkey, fully-managed data as a service (DaaS) platform for education and government agencies on the Snowflake Data Cloud. 
• Internationally, we continue to expand with plans to open our first Middle East and Africa Office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). We are also pleased to announce the expansion of our International Channel Partner Program with partnerships with OneConnect in Africa and Samart Telcoms PCL in Thailand. 
• In June, we were recognized in the 2023 Learning Impact Awards and the 2023 Power Learner Potential Awards from the 1EdTech Consortium. Our flagship product, PowerSchool SIS, was also recognized with the 2023 EdTech Breakthrough Award.  
• Our most recent, and perhaps most exciting, announcement has been signing a definitive agreement to acquire SchoolMessenger, a leading provider of K-12 communication tools in North America. By adding SchoolMessenger’s trusted communication platform to PowerSchool, educators will be better equipped to increase overall family engagement and support of student success.

Unleashing the Power of Education: Best Practices and Ideas Shared at EDGE and ISTE

We recently hosted our highly anticipated PowerSchool EDGE 2023 customer conference in Orlando where we discussed personalized education and how to leverage AI with education leaders across the globe. This was the first in-person EDGE we’ve held since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was filled with hands-on sessions, expert talks, and inspiring insights from current customers and industry leaders. ​I had the pleasure of reconnecting with countless educational leaders, as well as meet many new faces and hear encouraging stories of the successes they’re achieving in their schools and districts.

At EDGE, we announced “My PowerSchool,” a cohesive user experience that consolidates all relevant information and applications into a single, streamlined platform. My PowerSchool provides a connected, centralized experience for families, educators, and students to share one source of information for enhanced communication and collaboration. 

Also, this summer we attended ISTE 2023, held in Philadelphia, where we connected with educators from around the world. We met with leaders from all education roles to discuss how PowerSchool Clouds can meet their specific needs. Our Clouds offer functionality bringing together all the digital tools needed to be successful in your specific role, and to help students succeed. Our six distinct Clouds combine strategic sets of edtech tools to address the needs of leaders in technology, academics, professional development, human resources, student services and support, and workforce development.

As an example, our Personalized Learning Cloud offers teachers everything they need, all in one place, to connect curriculum, instruction, and assessment. With those easy-to-use tools at their fingertips, teachers can gain time back in their day and elevate student outcomes. 

At ISTE, we also announced our collaboration with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, which will enable us to provide personalized learning at scale in K-12 education. This collaboration integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to use its large language models within PowerSchool Performance Matters and PowerSchool LearningNav, part of the PowerSchool Personalized Learning Cloud.

The implementation of generative AI within these products will dramatically improve educators’ abilities to deliver personalized learning to students at scale by enabling the application of personalized assessments and learning pathways based on individual student needs and learning goals, all within a secure, safe environment. 

See Results of the New 2023 Education Focus Report  

We recently released the 2023 Education Focus Report, based on our national survey of more than 1,750 educators and in-depth conversations with more than 70 education practitioners and leaders. 

Student learning and wellness recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic is both urgent and important, and we understand that school and district leaders are under public pressure and scrutiny to maximize the influx of federal and state resources to get students back on their pre-pandemic paths. We also know that existing practices leave opportunities to enhance the educational experience. Recognizing these current dynamics in education, our 2023 Education Focus Report focuses on four key areas: 

• Transforming the student learning experience 
• Supporting educators and instruction 
• Solving for the future with usable data 
• Partnering with parents and caretakers in student learning

Through our national survey, we heard a collective sense that actionable data, supporting every student, and artificial intelligence (AI) hold promise to shape the future trajectory of education. Here are some of the key insights:  

• 86% of educators agree: Technology helps personalize student learning to focus on supporting individual needs and meet learning goals 
• Over 90% of education leaders agree that finding and keeping good teachers is harder now than ever 
• 4 in 10 educators can partially say which tiered interventions are working, based on some data collected. Only 2 in 10 say they “absolutely” know what works and have the data to back it up 
• Most educators say technology is streamlined to communicate with parents, while 7 in 10 parents say they must navigate 2-6 systems to access information on their students

Download the full report to learn more about what’s most important to school districts, including top challenges, priorities, and how school system leaders are navigating change.

Leading in Personalized Education: Our Focus for the 2023-24 School Year and Beyond

In everything we do—whether it’s events, partnerships, product development, or expansion—our number one focus is on educators and their work to give students the best education possible. And it’s our belief that every student deserves the opportunity to learn in a way that matches who they are, where they are in life, and what motivates them.  

With tools that consolidate critical data from disparate sources and provide deeper insights, we support every step of the learning journey so students can succeed in their own way. We connect the information educators need to see the full picture of every student’s unique needs. And, we bring the best of K-12 educational and operational technology together to make it easier to create and deliver an experience designed for each student. ​ 

Our motivation is seeing the schools and districts we partner with succeed. It’s in seeing students excel through an education experience that works for their needs, helping them thrive in their unique pathway—from preschool into high school and secondary education and throughout life.

And, we’re excited to go on this journey with you.

As you head into the upcoming school year and beyond, PowerSchool is your trusted partner, leading the way with elevating personalized education for every journey.