PreK-12 Instructional Materials Industry Competitive Analysis, 2023

Report Overview

Publishers are making a variety of adjustments to what they need to do to be competitive and successful to deal with the major forces and changes confronting this section. These include responding to the lingering effects of pandemic induced lockdowns in the US, causing an ongoing need to address matters like learning loss, social emotional learning, more flexible learning and the rapid and growth in the use of digital tools and platforms.

What this Report Covers

In addition to describing how companies are responding to trends and changes in the market, Simba’s PreK-12 Competitive Analysis 2023 report also looks at market and financial trends impacting the entire industry.

The Association of American Publishers’ (AAP’s) StatShot report for calendar year 2022 found that publishing industry sales overall were down 2.6%, totaling $28.1 billion. That was still 8.6% higher than the $25.87 billion recorded in 2019, and 8.7% higher than 2020 revenues of $25.86 billion. The K-12 Education portion of the business, which came in at $5.61 billion (or almost 20% of the total, making it the second biggest sector) was the only vertical that grew during the year. In fact, it showed a robust increase of 16.6%

Issues facing publishers include preparing for the loss of federal government ESSER funding; fewer mergers and acquisitions and a drop in private equity. The report also looks at how and where publishers are putting increased efforts and activity, such as producing more teaching material for ELA, STEM/STEAM and formative assessment products and tools.

Simba has also discovered past M&As in this sector and concludes that businesses that offered subject matter expertise, tech capabilities, assessment capabilities or family engagement and communication were those most sought after for acquisitions in 2023

The report includes company profiles, and for publicly held companies, financial data for the following major players: Boxlight, Cambium Learning, Cengage, Discovery Education, Goodheart-Willcox, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Kahhot!, Mcgraw Hill, Pearson, PowerSchool, Renaissance, Savvas Learning, Scholastic and Stride.

Methodology

The competitive analysis of the PreK-12 instructional materials publishing industry in this report is built on the nationwide research that Simba Information conducts on an ongoing basis throughout the year, combined with company presentations and public documents. Together, these form the basis for strategic profiles of individual companies and the discussion of macro-level trends about the state of the PreK-12 industry.

Simba’s ongoing research includes interviews with publishing industry executives, consultants, industry analysts, state education officials, local school educators, and education policy experts. Select third-party data – including from the American Association of Publishers, Berkery Noyes, FutureEd, and the US Department of Education – is also used to give context. Information from these sources is identified in the discussion.

Revenue or company market share figures come either from the companies themselves (via official company documents or interviews with conducted company executives for Simba’s ongoing coverage) or from Simba Information.

Technology: Adapting to the Post-Pandemic Marketplace

The development and enhancement of digital solutions is of particular interest, although the return to in-person learning has curbed usage somewhat.

Utilized correctly, digital tools can enhance personalized learning and academic progress. They can also help free up teachers’ time by automating some tasks and speeding up others, allowing educators to spend more time helping students learn. For vendors, digital solutions can help improve margins because there are no shipping, paper, or printing costs.

Comfort with remote learning (and technology in general) and the infrastructure to support it have improved immensely since the lockdowns began in 2020. But there are still barriers to using digital solutions as efficiently and effectively as possible in classrooms. In addition, the rapidly changing nature of technology requires almost-continual training, something that takes time away from direct student interactions.

Solutions in various stages of development and use that educators, administrators, and vendors are hoping will move the needle include:

• augmented and virtual reality
• the metaverse
• artificial intelligence, with generative AI the most recent hot topic
• e-sports and other game-based learning platforms
• platforms for student-led, personalized learning
• micro-learning