Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024

Report Overview

Simba Information, in its just released Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 report, found that total sales of instructional materials reached $9.9 billion in 2022, up 6.3% from $9.31 billion in 2021. The report determined that this market growth can be attributed to continued replenishment of classroom materials due to return to classrooms after lengthy lockdown breaks; the increased need for addition materials to address learning loss; more robust local budgets due to increased state and local tax collection; growing state budgets that represent an increased efforts to reverse poor educational results; continued ESSER funding from the federal level to address learning loss and pandemic-related issues; and the return to practices that were put on hold during the pandemic such as state testing). Simba believes that post-pandemic trends will impact sales through 2024 due to federal ESSER funding being completely utilized.

Simba’s Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 report, also found that the share of total sales in digital materials in the PreK-12 instructional materials neared 70% during the lockdown in 2020. The share has since pulled back with digital material sales accounting for 61% of total sales in both 2021 and 2022 despite total dollar sales continuing to grow. Simba attributed the regression in digital sales to a continued comfort level with print materials in the classroom, a rebellion against too much screen time, and an awareness of the pedagogical value of print and physical materials.

Simba Information’s Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 report details the enrollment trends and demographics of the PreK-12 market, K-12 policy and budget needs, market size, and provides a competitive analysis of public providers of instructional materials including selected company profiles. The data and findings are based on Simba’s internal research and analysis of official data drawn from a wide range of expert timely sources, including main data from the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, along with information from state education departments, local school districts, and state legislative bodies. The report also includes information from Simba’s nationwide research that is conducted on an ongoing basis throughout the year, combined with company presentations and public documents.

Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 covers the following major categories outlining and impacting the market:

• PreK-12 enrollment trends
• PreK-12 demographics
• K-12 policy trends
• K-12 budget trends
• Market size
• Competitive market analysis

Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 contains detailed company profiles covering 14 large and/or public providers of PreK-12 instructional materials.

Key companies profiled include:

• Boxlight
• Cambium Learning
• Cengage
• Discovery Education
• Goodheart-Wilcox
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Kahoot!
• McGraw Hill
• Pearson
• PowerSchool
• Renaissance Learning
• Savvas Learning Company
• Scholastic Corporation
• Stride

Publishers and investment professionals can trust Simba Information's Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 to provide the inside intelligence needed to evaluate the changes and needs effecting the products, sales, segment, and marketing of PreK-12 instructional materials.

Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 is an essential tool for publishing executives, M&A advisors, market analysts, and industry consultants who need to understand the current drivers impacting PreK-12 instructional material sales, both recent past, present, and forecast into the next few years.

Simba has the knowledge base and perspective gained from more than 20 years’ covering this market and the rapid changes in technology, the economy, mergers, partnerships, and public policy that affect it.

Introduction

Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2023-2024 provides a comprehensive overview of the instructional materials market in US PreK-12 schools and the trends that impact sales and usage of those materials. The report consists of five chapters that detail:

• Enrollment trends and demographics. Data includes overall enrollment trends and the population trends behind them, enrollment trends for a variety of sub-populations—from data on race and ethnicity to homelessness—and changes in enrollments for traditional public schools as well as for private, charter, virtual schools, and home schooling.

• K-12 policy and budget trends. The report examines the continued strength of PreK-12 budgets, tempered by the approach of the funding cliff that is expected as the ESSER program ends and the uncertainty related to the future performance of the US economy. On the policy side, political divisions are creating a PreK-12 landscape rife with uncertainty and change, with federal changes in power leading to about-faces in policy and state politics essentially creating two different educational systems, creating planning headaches for vendors, especially when it comes to subjects such as history, social studies, and social-emotional learning.

• Market size. This section looks at total sales of instructional materials in 2020 through 2023, by category, as well as offering forecasts for the years 2023 through 2026. It also looks at the share of sales attributable to digital materials over both time periods.

• Competitive analysis. This section focuses on measurable ways of understanding how public providers of instructional materials, tools, and services fared from early spring 2022 into mid-year 2023. The discussion focuses on the financial performance of some of the key publicly traded players in the market, as well as significant activities of other players, such as mergers and acquisitions, operational steps, and private-equity investments in the companies, with an acknowledgment that the PreK-12 instructional materials landscape is highly fragmented. These results are discussed in the context of a variety of environmental factors, including the post-pandemic landscape and the ongoing digital transition.

• Selected company profiles. At the end of this report are profiles of 14 large and/or public providers of PreK-12 instructional materials, tools, and services.

Throughout, the lagging impacts of the pandemic and other broader social issues (e.g., mental health, gun violence) are discussed, as their impact, particularly on traditional public PreK schools, continues to affect student learning and students’ and educators’ needs for instructional materials and other supports.

All of these data points collectively paint a picture that will help marketers of instructional materials tailor their strategies and tactics to meet a changing landscape.