The following transcript has been edited for readability. Timestamps have been removed and minor transcription errors corrected. Speaker comments and context have been preserved. At the time of this podcast recording, Ji Soo Song was a member of SETDA. He is no longer affiliated with SETDA. References to his role and affiliation have been preserved as they were at the time of recording.

Opening Remarks

Rich Portelance

Hey, good afternoon, everybody. This is Rich Portelance from EdGate, and we're here with Ji Soo Song today for the EdGate Powers podcast. Ji Soo will be with me on the upcoming webinar, which is scheduled for September 10th. There is a link below in the description, so please join us for the webinar. It's going to be a great discussion. We have three different perspectives around adoptions coming forward. 

We have someone from Tennessee who has some wonderful perspective on edtech and adoptions of the technology, someone from the state of Illinois who's going to give us more of a legislative perspective, and then Ji Soo, who I'm going to let him introduce himself, but has a wonderful perspective at the federal level and the state level. 

So, Ji Soo, without further ado, why don't you give the audience a quick intro?

Ji Soo Song

Thanks, Rich. 

Hello, everyone. My name is Ji Soo Song. I serve as the director of products and initiatives for SETDA, which stands for the State Educational Technologies Directors Association. Although, legally, we're just “SETDA” now. You know how the acronym “SATs” doesn't really stand for anything anymore? We just call ourselves SETDA now because not every state technically has an edtech director, so it was a bit of a misnomer, as they go by different titles. We convene essentially the digital learning leaders and the edtech leaders that reside within state education agencies from… I think over 40 states now. So, that's our job as a primary convenor and a professional association in the space. 

I’ve been with this organization for a little over a year now, after three years in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET) during the previous administration, when I got to work on some digital access initiatives alongside the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the Department of Commerce. I also had a chance to work on the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP 2024), as well. My primary background is in edtech policy. Before joining the U.S. Department of Education, I was part of Richard Culatta's team at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), serving as your senior policy advisor, helping states adopt what was then the latest version of the ISTE standards for students. 

So, I’m happy to be here, and I'm excited for the webinar coming up as well.

Rich Portelance

Well, thank you, Ji Soo. Your background is super impressive, and the work with ISTE, as well as the Department of Education, and now with SETDA, certainly lays the foundation for what we want to talk about today, and that's the migration of responsibility for adoptions and for standards from a federal level to a state level. And as we're kind of starting to look at that and it becoming more and more… I guess the states are becoming more, not only responsible, but independent in the way they act from a legislative perspective, as well as from a standards perspective. 

Discussion

Rich Portelance

So, I guess why don't you start us off by talking a little bit about how that transition has happened from the lens of someone who worked at the Department of Education, and now is working at the state level?

Ji Soo Song

Yeah. So, I think a little bit of a historical background, right? Back when ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) used to be No Child Left Behind under Title II, Part D of that federal legislation, there was a program called the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program, which allowed states and districts to set up an edtech office, create an edtech plan, and implement said edtech plan, right? And that was managed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, right? And then, ESSA got passed, and the priorities of that Title II, Part D program got dispersed into different programs, like Title II, Part A and Title IV, Part A, that called out edtech priorities. And then, OET still remained, but really became a sort of coordinating, vision-setting, and policymaking body through instruments like the National Education Technology Plan that got refreshed every couple of years, right? And it helped states and districts sort of get on the same page on what's needed in order to solve the various digital divides that exist in the K-12 space, right? 

But now that we're in a new administration, we see that the new administration really prefers that K-12 education be governed at the state and local levels, right? And we've seen priorities change, we've seen them diminish the size of the Department of Education–all the staffers that I knew at the Office of EdTech have exited that office. 

So, we see the administration really fulfilling their campaign promises of returning the power of K-12 back to the states and local levels, which, you know, is an opportunity and a challenge at the same time. We have states like Utah, for example, that since the removal of that Title II, Part D program in the last decade, through their digital teaching and learning grant, have been investing continuously in digital teaching and learning, recognizing its importance. But we have other states that have sort of deprioritized a bit, and made it sort of more scattered. So we see fracturing, almost, of the leaders in this space, and folks that are lagging behind. 

So, it's up to associations like SETDA and our counterparts at CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) to make sure that we're exchanging knowledge, we're exchanging best practices, and we're highlighting and uplifting the leaders in this space so that no one's really falling behind, right? My executive director, Julia Fallon, and I published an op-ed back in March saying, “Hey, with this new administration in place, it's really an opportunity for state education agencies to step up as vision-setting and policy-making bodies both advising their legislators, but also talk to your state chiefs about the investments that continue to need to be made in this space to make sure that K-12 continues the progress that it has been making in closing the various digital divides.” So, yeah, it's an interesting spot. 

You know, every day the news cycle seems to change, and we're having to update our members on things that they need to be aware of. But we're also seeing highlights of states, you know, continuing to invest in what needs to be invested in, and we'll be highlighting some of that in our upcoming State Edtech Trends Report, which is coming out actually mid-September around the time that the webinar will be going on. So, be on the lookout for that. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

So, you talked a little bit about– you mentioned fracturing as, you know, as this starts to blossom, the states are taking over, and there are differences, and you gave the example of Utah. What are some of the pinpoints for the fracturing? What do you see as some of the major differences? And then we can start to hone in on how companies can best manage these fractures as they're trying to adopt in different states, right?

Ji Soo Song

So, I'll give you a couple– at the baseline, one example of that kind of fracturing is which states have continued to invest in an edtech office, right? And is that edtech office at the state education agency (SEA) fully staffed? Right? For example, I'll continue to, you know, reference back to Utah, because we continue to highlight them as a model state, right? Again, when that sort of federal funding that funded the development of state edtech offices went away, they continued to invest in their state education agency's capacity to have a fully staffed, running office of edtech that managed their digital teaching and learning grant program, which went out to local districts, right? Now, with the onset of AI, they recognize, “Oh, we need someone who can help coordinate professional learning across the state, listen to vendors, and talk about our state's vision in front of a national audience.” So, they invested in the new AI specialist role that came on board to lead all of that kind of work, right? 

So, that's one example of that fracturing that we're talking about, right? Who has recognized that this continues to– has a continued need as a priority, and built up that SEA capacity to lead that work and that coordination work, and who has sort of dispersed that responsibility more across different departments that may not have an edtech focus, right? So, for vendors, it's kind of confusing, right? “Do I talk to the SPED (special education) department?”, “Do I talk with the professional learning team?”, “Do I talk with curriculum and instruction?” It's a little bit of a mystery, and I definitely empathize with that. But that's one example that we've been seeing. 

But we're also at a tough spot right now because of shrinking state education budgets. We're also seeing some states having to reduce the size of their edtech offices, which unfortunately gives additional layers of challenges for the vendor community around who do I need to talk to, right? We've been seeing states, like, you know, Oregon and Washington, having to sort of cut back and scale back their edtech offices, as well. So that's another example of the fracturing that's occurring in this new sort of landscape right now. 

Rich Portelance

Going it alone sounds like it's going to be tougher and tougher as the years go on, unless you're a huge education publishing company who already has established contracts. 

If you're a smaller edtech company coming into the market or trying to extend your market a little bit, maybe you have five states adopted, and you're trying to get bigger, what are some recommendations you would have for those companies so that they can understand the bigger picture, learn who to contact, and how to go about the process? How do they do that? 

Ji Soo Song

Yeah. 

I'll mention two pathways. I'll start with one that's a little more selfish because SETDA actually has a corporate membership program designed exactly to do that, right? Members who join our corporate membership program get access to the other state education agency leaders that are a part of our membership, right? You get to talk with them at our annual leadership summit, our virtual midyear ed for– sorry, emerging edtech forum, and other opportunities throughout the year to work alongside them, build that trusted relationship so that it's a lot easier to talk to whoever needs to be contacted at the state level. And those state education leaders often serve as a bridge to the district leaders that have specific needs that might be targeted by what the vendor is offering, right? So, that's a bit of a shameless self-plug for our organization, but that's definitely one way that our corporate members have seen value, right? Especially for emerging companies, as well? 

The other piece is, and I know we exchanged some emails about this, SETDA joined a group of organizations that have been calling ourselves the EdTech Quality Collaborative (EQC) to really set some standards around, “Hey, there's like, 3,000 tools that districts access on any given school year. Let's set some standards around, you know, what it means to be a high-quality instructional tool in K-12, right? So, during last year's ISTE conference in Denver, we announced our initiative to promote the five edtech quality indicators, right? So, that's safe, interoperable, evidence-based, inclusive, and usable. It’s really giving folks accessible language around, you know, what they should be asking vendors for when, you know, they say they're “high quality” and “produce impact”, right? 

And then, each organization within that collaborative committed to doing some things in that set of indicators, right? So, for example, ISTE developed their edtech index where, you know, folks can show off which badges that they've earned that are aligned to those indicators. Right? For us, we committed ourselves to developing a procurement guide to help our state leaders and the districts that they serve ask some good questions of vendors that are aligned to the five edtech quality indicators. So, if I were a vendor that's trying to go to market, I would definitely take a look at those indicators, because these are the types of things that states and districts are looking for at this moment. So, yeah.

Rich Portelance

No, I think those are good recommendations, and I don't mind the plug at all because I think it makes a lot of sense today. You need to have an organization, or you need to have some support in order to figure out all these, you know, these 50 different fiefdoms of education and what's going to happen. 

I do see on the screen behind you that you have 23 years, and I had this conversation the other day with Peter Sibley, who is the CEO of EdGate, and EdGate is now 27 years old. During that time, when we go back, you know, 20-plus years, everything was independent, and EdGate actually started out of an initiative in the state of Washington of teachers and parents trying to understand the standards that were coming down, being managed, and developing those standards. So, you had this quasi-parent-teacher nonprofit organization that then became, you know, a for-profit company helping to disseminate standards throughout the country. And SETDA started around the same time.

Ji Soo Song

Right. 

Rich Portelance

And then we went federal, and now we're going back to state. You know, what's your perspective on that timeline, because I think it's really quite interesting to see how that's kind of progressed, and then where it might go in the future? Well, maybe we go back to federal, you know, aggregation, but you know, you probably have some perspective there.

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like, with every sort of new K-12 edtech innovation that comes up, K-12 has this interesting sort of cycle of responses that tends to not repeat, but rhyme, right? When the internet came into being in the late 90s, early 2000s, folks were like, “How do we use this new tool for teaching and learning?” Right? That's actually how the, you know, the first National Education Technology Plan came to be, right? So, we created some solutions, some guidance for teachers, right? And it seemed like things were going well, and then MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and all these other things that could be done in a one-to-one environment kept popping up in, like, the early 2010s, and now we had to create new guidance around those larger-scale initiatives. 

And then things sort of died down within a more built, stable thing. And then distance learning became a thing with the pandemic, and every student, you know, having to learn from home. So we were trying to figure out what are some guidance and policies that we need to create around that. And then we create– landed on a sort of an era of stability, and then now, with AI, right, we're just seeing that innovations that are sort of entering our classrooms, and states are sort of rushing to figure out, “Okay, what kind of guidance do we need to give towards districts and schools to be able to use this in an effective way?” And also with, you know, the rise of cell phone bans, and things like that, right? 

So, it's really hard to sort of… just sort of give an accurate outlook of where things will go. I feel like it'll also have this sort of era of stability in the next couple of years where folks figure out, “Hey, we can use these AI tools for X, Y, and Z in effective ways”. But then, a new innovation is going to pop up that builds on top of what AI has accomplished, and we're going to have to do this all over again, right? But there are lessons in each cycle that can be sort of… built upon in the continuing cycle. 

So, for example, right, with the development of these indicators, our goal was, you know, oftentimes edtech becomes a solution in search of a problem to solve, right? So even before we get to that conversation, let's make sure that it's built with these design principles in mind, so that, you know, it's not in search of a problem to solve; it's actually a solution to what teachers are facing each and every day. 

So yeah, I mean, I… if you don't… I don’t consider myself a great crystal baller, but I feel like, you know, states and districts have been doing a great job of trying to, like, work with this new tool, and not outright ban it. So we'll see an era of, like, you know, growing use cases and a bit of more stability, but we'll have to do this homework again as new innovations, you know, take on the market. So yeah, that's how I feel about it right now. And, but, you know, shoutout to the states and districts that have really been engaging with it, engaging their communities, you know, involving parents in the conversation so that, you know, they know how to leverage this AI thing for good.

Rich Portelance

I like how you wove the technology into that timeline, because that's significant, and like you said, some of these technologies are in search of a problem, and some solve a problem directly. You know, and we have to kind of discern where those things are going to fall, and I appreciate that. 

Is there… are there… and you mentioned Utah earlier, are there specific states, like if I'm coming into the market with my new wizbang technology, are there certain states that I should focus on first because they have their stuff together legislatively, and it's simple enough or it's straightforward enough that I can become adopted, versus some that are less organized? 

Ji Soo Song

Each state sort of excels in certain things. So, it's not like, you know, this state's great at everything and this state sucks at everything, so avoid this group of states and only sell to these states, right? You really have to look for what each state is prioritizing, what they are hearing from their own stakeholders, and how they are responding to it, right? 

For example, in California, they, you know, implemented a new sort of open educational resources tool to make instructional material– high-quality instructional materials and high-quality professional learning materials more accessible to their, you know, hundreds of districts that are out there, right? So they're prioritizing that. In states like Nebraska, they're refreshing their state edtech plan and have been really focusing on how to build educative capacity–we’ll highlight one of those stories in our upcoming trends report, right? 

There are other states that I can't think about from the top of my head, but really think about, you know, what is each state sort of like excelling in? What are they prioritizing? What does their state educational technology plan say if they have one, right? Or, you know, you can also look at their, you know– over 30 states have released AI guidance, right? What are– what's their AI guidance prioritizing, right? Is it professional learning? Is it more classroom-based tools? Is it more local control in terms of procurement, right? Is it online safety and digital citizenship, right? 

So, each state excels at different things, so it requires a little bit of research that I'm also having to sort of do on a daily basis to figure out, “Okay, when I'm talking with Delaware, I know they're really focused on digital citizenship and media literacy when it comes to AI. When I'm talking to Alabama, I know they've been really focusing hard on the edtech coach space, right?” So, these are things that you kind of get in the know as you're talking with more folks that are active in the state education agency world. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

You had mentioned earlier about some states having the digital teaching and learning services kind of starting to build up the capacity to be able to take on some of the responsibilities that you and your team had done at the federal level, right? Tell me about what that looks like on the landscape, and I know that SETDA's interacting with those states. Are there specific… I guess, are there specific roles that are being developed that you see kind of more commonly that people can connect with at that state level that you think are helpful to vendors looking for adoption?

Ji Soo Song

One trend that we've been seeing is the rise of that sort of AI specialist role that's at the state level, right? This is just– there's no formal research behind this, but I'm aware of five state education agencies that have really designated someone to, you know, be the person responsible for coordinating a lot of AI professional development, advising their state chiefs on policies, talking with their legislators about what's needed, right? So that's states, like, you know, Oklahoma, Maine, the Department of Defense Education Activity, Utah, and North Carolina that have been really investing in that person that can really lead this charge, right? 

The other part of your question about what's been happening at the state level due to changes at the federal level is– so, the Office of Educational Technology, yes, it's a policymaking sort of office within the U.S. Department of Education, but a lot of our work was actually done through convenings to get folks on the same page about the goals and contexts in which we operated in, right? Since that role has sort of been severely diminished at the federal level, states are having to figure out, like, “We have to create our own networks to be able to build on top of what each other's working on.” 

So, SETDA is trying to create– be that kind of space for state leaders to, again, ensure folks aren't going at things alone. States love to replicate, you know, models of success, right? We're trying to make sure that what's being done in Alabama is really being heard of in Mississippi, what's being done in Texas is being heard in North Dakota, right? So, we're trying to really fill in that gap in the absence of that coordinating role that the federal government used to serve in, right? So, that's another sort of trend that we've seen. States are also developing networks of their own to talk to each other about what they're doing. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

So, when we have a conversation on the– and I'm going to just remind everybody we have a webinar coming up on September the 10th. Ji Soo will be on that webinar, and we'll be talking about this topic, and we're going to get even more granular as we have guests on the state level from Tennessee and Illinois, as well, to help foster a wonderful conversation, so I'm looking forward to that. And, you know, my conversation with Jill, she's with TETA (Tennessee Educational Technology Association), which is a, you know, a state-formed body that is similar to SETDA on the more federal level or a broader level. How many states now have some kind of organization like that today? 

Ji Soo Song

I don't have a headcount, but we have an affiliate network of those state region organizations that's around a little more than 20 states, but that's not to say that those are the only organizations, right? It's just that those are the ones that are part of our own affiliate network. But when I was at ISTE, we also had an affiliate program, and we had at least one regional organization of varying sizes that led trainings for local superintendents, that did procurements, or you served as an advising body to the state education agency, or the state board of education, right? So, a lot of times, sometimes procurement is done directly through them, a lot of the policymaking is done through advisement through those organizations. 

So, they can be your friends, right? Those executive directors are really, really knowledgeable, because they oftentimes come from either the classroom or the district leadership level, so, yeah, I really love working with those affiliate organizations of ours. Yeah. 

Rich Portelance

So, from a marketing perspective, if I'm out there looking for perspective at a state level, SETDA is part– it goes to different conferences, you guys probably publish material, you probably see things from ISTE, I know I've read things. What would you recommend to somebody, say, you know, “Hey, you have got to go to this conference”, or “You have got to read this particular newsletter.” What are some of the things that people have to absorb so they can be part of the network so that they can be a better provider to these states?

Ji Soo Song

Because procurement, partnerships, and long-term relationship building is so local, yes, those larger-scale conferences, like FETC (Future of Education Technology Conference), ISTE, those matter for branding and marketing, right? But in terms of building those trusty relationships, those regional conferences where teachers show up on a year-to-year basis because of lower costs, and travel is a lot cheaper for them, right? Talking to them about what they need to see and the challenges that they're having, I think that can be really powerful, right? 

At this past ISTE conference in San Antonio, we were really grateful to see that some of our corporate members had their executives out on the exhibit hall, not as marketing and heads of state kind of figures, but to interact with actual teachers and being like, “Hey, this is what our tools offer. Like, does that solve a problem that you have in the classroom? If not, like, what should we be doing?” Right? Really collecting that qualitative data or out of the things that they should be seeing. We were like, "Yes, I love seeing you out there, not to pitch your tool, but to actually get feedback. This is awesome." Right? 

But yeah, go to those local events, go to those local conferences where actual teachers and classroom instructors show up, and just talk to them about, you know, what problems that they're seeing. So that, again, going back to what I mentioned before, your tool doesn't become a solution in search of a problem to solve, right? So, that's something that I would definitely recommend. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

Oh, that's fantastic, because, you know, when we're trying to solve a problem, if we don't understand what the problem is, you know, we may all have great solutions, but it's important that it is not only solving a problem, but it's also meeting the directive that's set up by the state. 

And so, one of the conversations I had earlier was around… the states are setting out their own not only agendas, but they plan for the next, you know, the strategy for the next five years. What are they trying to achieve? And so, as a vendor coming in, it sounds like you have to understand that strategy, otherwise, you can be off base, and you're not going to have a lot of luck, right?

Ji Soo Song

Exactly. Not all states have one, but some states do have a state edtech plan as their guiding vision document, which you can read up on as, like, the things that they'll prioritize for the next, you know, four to five years, right? I know– again, Nebraska will be releasing theirs soon, Utah has their master plan, and Kentucky has their master plan, right? So, these are important policy documents that, you know, vendors can actually read upon so that they know– that folks know that they've done their homework. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

Yep. And if you're going to be– let's say I'm stepping into a state and they do have a master plan, is that something legislatively, or something when I put in an application that I can articulate? Are there places or ways in which to articulate that to districts or to states so that they understand that it is meeting or referencing that particular plan going forward? How does one do that effectively? Have you seen effective solutions?

Ji Soo Song

It's going to differ by state. Like with all these questions about, like, best practices, I hate answering it this way because it's such a non-answer, but it's going to depend on the state that you talk to, right? And it's going to depend on the district that you talk to, right? For example, I know that in the LA Unified School District, for example, they give extra points for vendors for having the ISTE Seal, right? And you can show that directly on their application, and you will know about their ongoing relationship with ISTE by doing the homework on their district-level plan, right? 

So it's going to defer by district, it's going to defer by state, but there are examples of those states and district that have, you know, slots in their RFP (Request for Proposal) that say that say, “Show us how you're meeting X, Y, and Z things that are required by our legislature, or something that our teachers have been asking for”, right? There are states that we highlight– one of our recent publications on procurement where states have been sort of showing that kind of leadership through, you know, a pre-approved list of tools that meet our cybersecurity and online privacy standards that would get extra points if a district was looking for them, right? And if they don't want to be as hands-on, you know, they give sort of more generic guidance on the procurement of instructional materials. 

So, again, a very non-answer to your question, right? Because it's going to depend on the state you're talking about, it's going to depend on the district, and it's going to depend on the degree to which local control is a thing within that state, so, yeah. 

Rich Portelance

Well, I appreciate it because you didn't create the non-answer. The non-answer has been created by the circumstance we find ourselves in. And I just want to say, it's really a pleasure speaking with you, Ji Soo. You have a wealth of knowledge. 

I did want to pivot a little bit to SETDA, because as an organization, your group is now taking on a lot more responsibility. At least that's my guess. I would like to understand a little bit more about what you're doing. What are some of the current things that are happening that support this community? And then, what are some of the things in the future that you're going to be doing to support the community?

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, I'll answer this question in sort of three phases: things that we have committed to continue doing, things that we will be releasing in the near-term future, and things that we're strategically thinking about as sort of a longer-term investment, right?

Things that our members have found to be helpful and we have committed to continue doing is to longitudinally track what states care about, what their pain points are, and what they're prioritizing. So I mentioned the State Edtech Trends Report, right? This is a partnership with the Siegel Family Endowment. Every year, we ask all 50 states, “Hey, what are your biggest unmet needs? How are you prioritizing them? And we often include case studies of folks that are doing a great job of bridging those gaps, right? When we come out with our 2025 update in September, that will be the fourth year doing this, and we'll be doing this at least up until 2027 to longitudinally track what states are doing. And our members have said, "Hey, this actually gives us extra ammunition when we go talk to our legislators about budgeting, when we talk to our state chiefs about policy initiatives, because we can say, ‘Hey, look what this neighboring state is doing. It looks like they're prioritizing some stuff. What can we do to help our students and families in districts?’" So, it often, you know, helps to have an extra trusted organization, like SETDA, giving that data to our members to say, “Hey, here are some tools that you can use to advocate with”, right? So, that's number one. 

In the near term, we have a project funded by Google.org where we're really taking a look at Title II, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act, right? When you look at the data from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), we know that Title II, Part A funds professional learning, but edtech professional learning tends to get deprioritized, right? So we've been doing some research around, like, what are the systems that lead to that kind of deprioritization, and what are the systems that we could be building to make sure that federal dollars like Title II, Part A and other sources of professional learning dollars do get spent to meet educators’ demands and needs when it comes to implementing emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence? So, we'll be coming out with the results of that research and recommendations this fall. 

And then, strategically for the future, what we've been thinking about at the request of our state leaders is to create an in-house research center at SETDA, right? So, right now, we do research through contracts and partnerships with folks within our network, but we really like to set up a model where we have research that is responsive to states’ needs, something that is built for state leaders by state leaders, right? We've been calling it the “SERIC Initiative”, building on ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), the research initiatives up at the State Edtech Impact and Research Center, and we've been socializing this idea around with a couple different funders and partners, as well. But, you know, because of the diminished role that the federal government has in terms of both research and vision-setting, states could usually go to, like, the regional education labs and other sort of research organizations to get the evidence and data that they need, but they're having to depend on themselves right now. So we're trying to fit within that role. Maybe the center starts with a needs assessment to figure out what kind of research products our members would find the most helpful, what topics they would find the most helpful in getting some more evidence around, and then to conduct some research projects that are really responsive to their needs at this current moment. So, that's something that we've been thinking about and socializing with a few different folks, but that's a strategic investment that we've been thinking about for the longer-term. Yeah. 

Rich Portelance

Fantastic. Those are incredibly important things. You know, getting the data and understanding how it can impact the states and the vendors. I'm sure that's going to be a big success. And if you can build that in-house group, you have more control over, you know, what's being researched, how it's being researched, and the timing of things. So, it sounds like you guys have some pretty aggressive initiatives going on to aid the states. How has membership changed over the last year or so? Is it–  I would imagine it's picking up. Are you seeing some additional funding coming from other places to support the initiatives that you're putting out?

Ji Soo Song

Yeah, I mean, in terms of like, you know, absolute numbers in the number of, you know, member states, or member affiliates, or member corporate members, it's remained relatively stable. Folks have gone in and out because the size of the edtech market has sort of shrunk in the past year, right? And again, state education budgets have been shrinking, so it's been a little flux, but overall kind of stable, right? 

But the folks that have been involved with SETDA, they are seeing an increased sort of return on relationship with SETDA, right? Being involved in projects in developing guidance and recommendations, being involved in our research projects or committee-led efforts, and things like that. So, we're seeing increased levels of engagement from folks who have recognized that, “Hey, a lot of the decision-making, a lot of the guidance development, a lot of the leadership is now happening at the state level, and also at the district and local levels, so these relationships matter. And I think our corporate members are seeing value out of that. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

So, sometimes it's easy to get lost in the sauce as we talk about the things that we do as professionals and the kind of work that we do. I think it's important to remember, and I know you do. I want to point it out to our audience that, you know, we're here to support educators and students.

Ji Soo Song

Yeah. 

Rich Portelance

To help them learn better, to teach better, and to, you know, have a higher proficiency. What trends do you see that will allow that to happen?

Ji Soo Song

Could you clarify that question because I can imagine a number of ways that I could answer that question, but could you clarify… yeah, what exactly? Yeah. 

Rich Portelance

So, perhaps maybe it's… are there any prevailing trends that you're seeing that are going to help students of tomorrow, you know, from 2025 going forward, learn better, and to help our kind of overall national profile increase in terms of our ability to educate our children? Do you see any specific trends that you can pinpoint that you think will have an effect on that? 

Ji Soo Song

Yeah. I don't know if it truly qualifies as a trend, because I would love trends to be backed by data, but this is just me speaking anecdotally. We see an increased focus on, you know, what does it mean for a student in K-12 to be AI literate at this moment, right? What are the skills and competencies that we would like to see from a student who graduates from the K-12 system that is knowledgeable about how AI functions, how it can be helpful to their daily lives, how it can be used in their performance as students in postsecondary, workforce settings, and things like that? 

So, I have a feeling that, you know, as states have really invested in a Portrait of a Graduate or a portrait of a digitally literate student, we'll be beginning to see states and districts develop profiles of a graduate who is AI literate, right? Because we're seeing AI literacy competencies and frameworks be developed at a national and international scale, right? 

So, how can companies help out by, you know, having tools that are ready to help them develop those skills with, you know, privacy and cybersecurity considerations absolutely in mind, right? So, I think that's something that– I don't know if it truly qualifies as a trend just yet, but we're definitely seeing conversations about that. 

Especially given that the federal government, through their executive orders and some of their supplemental grant priorities at the education department, has really honed in on this topic of AI literacy, right? So, what does that even mean? You know, what is the degree to which, again, we want all graduates from the K-12 system exiting the system with, right? So, those are some things that we've been sort of hearing on the ground that might impact what we consider a professional student later down the road. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

It's interesting, and I think it's somewhat correlated. We were involved with a group out of the University of Chicago called Data Science 4 Everyone, and that's a nonprofit that's trying to bring literacy around data science, which is akin to AI in a sense that, you know, data is the core component of what we're trying to disseminate. And if the better students understand how data is used and how electronic manipulation and dissemination of that data can lead to innovation, can lead to development, it's important, you know, to bring that to them at the earliest possible level. So, they're developing actually the precursor to standards that can be developed for classroom use, right? Which is why EdGate's involved, right? I guess, you know, just to kind of look at– companies like EdGate are there as a bearer of, or an assistant similar to SETDA, someone that can be there to help understand what that data is to aggregate, to disseminate, and to provide to different vendors, right? You know, there are a few companies like that out there. Do you see some others– you know, EdGate is all about standards and the dissemination of those, and SETDA is about helping states understand technology, to better adopt things, and to build better policies. Are there other similar kinds of organizations that might have another niche that companies can leverage potentially for the betterment and helping create better educational systems?

Ji Soo Song

Yeah. I'll definitely give a shoutout to our partner organizations, like CoSN, which I sort of consider as our sister organization at the district level, because they convene the ad tech leaders at the district level, right? And they've been really great partners for us on a various number of initiatives, including some guidance around environmental sustainability of devices that will be published in… around, like, the late fall-ish, I'm expecting. So, CoSN, I'll give a shoutout to. 

Obviously the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), not because they convene those state superintendents, but they also convene working groups of chief information officers and chief academic officers that really serve in that decision-making role, and we've been involved with their edtech leaders’ sort of collaborative on some matters related to digital opportunity and digital equity. So, that's another group that I'll definitely give a shoutout to as a group that, you know, vendors should be aware of. 

Other folks… let's see, the other organizations that make up the EdTech Quality Collaborative that define those five edtech quality indicators, right, that often have badges and certifications that are tied to those indicators, right? So, Digital Promise came out with a new AI sort of quality badge. ISTE has your ISTE Seal to make sure that those tools are actually usable and intuitive by teachers. We have groups like Project Unicorn and 1EdTech that are really about privacy and interoperability, right? And we also have CAST (Center for Applied Social Technology), which is, you know, really focused on making sure that our students with disabilities can make use of different tools and applications as well. 

So these are groups that folks definitely should be familiar with, and definitely should reach out and connect with, because they have tools, guidance, and relationships that vendors can definitely leverage, right? And they're doing some really, really awesome work out there in collaboration with SETDA. So yeah, definitely give a shout out to those organizations that are part of our network. Yeah. 

Closing Thoughts

Rich Portelance

That's terrific. Ji Soo Song, I really appreciate your time today. Reminding everybody, he will be joining us on September the 10th for our webinar that's upcoming to talk about these topics and more. Ji Soo, I want to give you the final opportunity to sign off with whatever you feel is appropriate, and we'll close it out.

Ji Soo Song

Sounds good. Well, thanks again for this opportunity to have this conversation. Feel free to reach out to me at any time. My email is just my first initial, “J”, and then last name “Song” at SETDA.org (jsong@setda.org). If there is a question that you would like to ask of SETDA, what we do, and, you know, how to join our membership for example, feel free to reach out to me about that. Be on the lookout for that SETDA State EdTech Trends Report that reports out state priorities and concerns on an annual basis. This is coming out mid-September-ish. Be on the lookout for our Title II, Part A guide funded through Google.org in November. And yeah, again, feel free to reach out whenever and wherever needed. Oh, I'll make sure to close out by saying check out our procurement guide, which, you know, highlights those five edtech quality indicators that I talked about, and that's just https://SETDA.info/edtechprocurementguide. Yeah.

Rich Portelance

Excellent. Well, thank you so much, and we'll look forward to seeing you on the webinar in a couple of weeks. 

Ji Soo Song

Awesome. Thanks, Rich.

Rich Portelance

Thank you