Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best for Back to School 2026

(Image credit: Future)

Jump To:

PRIMARY
SECONDARY
HIGHER EDUCATION

The 2026-27 school year is off and running, and it’s already shaping up to be another pivotal year for education. While AI remains a massive topic, the biggest headline this fall is the screentime debate, hands down. Communities nationwide—including the country’s two largest school districts—are advocating for strict limitations and outright bans to reclaim screen-free classrooms.

Yet, if there’s one constant in education, it’s resilience. We adapt, we evolve, and we keep going because at the heart of it all, we want what’s best for our students. Instead of a setback, this heightened scrutiny around screentime and AI has forced the edtech community to be better. It demands that the tools we bring into the classroom are safe and built to inspire active creation rather than passive consumption.

The products meeting these rigorous demands are celebrated below as our “Best for Back to School” award winners. Our judges evaluated each solution for its ease of use, overall value, uniqueness in the market, and proven ability to streamline teacher workflows while supporting student achievement.

Congratulations to our winners!

Winners of Best for Back to School 2026

PRIMARY

3P Learning, Reading Eggs

"WIth 30 years of backing, Reading Eggs provides Science of Reading compatible resources and engagement for your elementary readers. IT will love the integration in both Clever and Classlink."

Acer, Acer Chromebook 311 (C725T)

"For students who tend to beat up Chromebooks, this may be one to consider. It offers a 48-inch drop protection, an 11 oz liquid drainage system, anchored keys, and 2-screw repairability. As a bonus it has optional low blue-light capabilities."

Acer, Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (CPE584-1N)

"The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 brings strong performance, long battery life, durability, and useful AI capabilities into a flexible device built for education. Its combination of classroom versatility and easy ChromeOS management makes it a practical long-term option for teachers and districts."

Amplify Education, Boost Reading

"Boost Reading does a strong job of integrating assessment data, adaptive practice, and teacher intervention into a single literacy platform. Its Science of Reading foundation, MTSS flexibility, and evidence of improved outcomes make it a particularly strong option for K–5 reading support."

Belkin International, Connect Rugged USB-C Keyboard Folios for iPad

"Belkin’s Connect Rugged USB-C Keyboard Folios supports student productivity, device protection, and flexibility. While features such as the integrated keyboard, trackpad, adjustable stand, and direct USB-C connectivity offer benefits, I believe the value of this product lies in its ability to simplify device management, reduce classroom disruptions, and help students and teachers make more effective use of their iPads throughout the day."

Benchmark Education, Benchmark Advance

"Benchmark uses modern technology, but its backbone is researched-based pedagogy. It's not based on 'new and flashy', but rather tried-and-true data strategies. It's exceptional with language development."

Benchmark Education, Benchmark Phonics Intervention

"Benchmark Phonics Intervention is a proven and research-backed solution for schools looking for intervention for students needing explicit, systematic structured literacy instruction."

Benchmark Education, Benchmark Adelante

"This isn't Spanish language support, but Spanish Language Arts instruction. For dual-language schools, this can transform your language arts classrooms."

Benchmark Education, Rising Readers Club

"Aligned with the Science of Reading, Rising Readers Club raises reading engagement for your readers in an intervention."

Bookelicious, Bookelicious-BookmojiPLUS

"I am impressed with BookmojiPLUS’s approach to promoting literacy by connecting students with age-appropriate books from their school libraries based on their interests. Its personalized avatar experience makes book discovery fun while empowering librarians and teachers to encourage independent reading. I particularly appreciate the platform’s analytics, which provide insights into student engagement, ultimately maximizing resources and inspiring students to develop a love of reading."

Boxlight, Boxlight Symphony - Primary

"Boxlight Symphony offers a cohesive approach to campus communication by combining everyday paging and bell functions with emergency alerts, visual messaging, and district-wide monitoring. Its ability to keep critical communications running locally during internet outages, while still supporting phased deployment and existing phone systems, makes it especially strong in terms of reliability and infrastructure."

Boxlight, Clevertouch FOCUS by Boxlight - Primary

"Clevertouch FOCUS is a strong all-in-one classroom display that combines teaching tools, screen sharing, device management, and school-wide alerts in one system. Its broad, well-integrated feature set gives it value beyond instruction and helps reduce reliance on separate platforms."

Boxlight, Boxlight Symphonic Series - Primary

"The Boxlight Symphonic Series modernizes school communication by combining paging, intercom, visual alerts, and camera support into a single PoE-based platform. Its flexible hardware options and compatibility with existing SIP systems make it especially practical for phased campus upgrades."

Cignition, Inc., K-12 Math & ELA High Dosage Virtual Tutoring

"Cignition stands out as a strong, data-driven tutoring solution that combines experienced educators, live small-group instruction, and standards-aligned progress monitoring rather than relying on software alone. It's refreshing to see a program featuring real tutors who communicate with teachers about students. The emphasis on conceptual understanding, differentiated instruction, and measurable outcomes makes it feel particularly well suited to sustained academic intervention. "

Class Composer, Class Composer

"Class Composer addresses an important school challenge by replacing a cumbersome, subjective class-placement process with a system that combines educator judgment, student data, and algorithmic balancing. Its focused feature set is well matched to the problem, and the addition of historical records and flexible grouping extends its usefulness beyond annual class placement. This unique tool fills an important gap in the edtech market!"

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite

"ClassLink LaunchPad has been a great resource for our younger learners, giving them a simple way to get where they need to go without navigating multiple usernames and passwords. From a district technology perspective, SSO removes a real barrier to learning, and our staff has found it very useful in helping students quickly access the digital tools they use throughout the day."

Clear Touch, Nova

"The 6000 Nova Series takes a different approach to interactive displays by designing around serviceability, modular upgrades, and long-term ownership rather than another short replacement cycle. The hot-swappable Core Module is particularly compelling because it could reduce downtime, installation costs, and e-waste. These displays also deliver classroom features educators expect, including wireless screen sharing, remote panel management, and interactive lesson activities."

Clear Touch, Command Studio

"Command Studio makes professional-quality broadcasting far more accessible by packaging cameras, microphones, switching, and streaming into one portable system. Its mobility, simple touchscreen controls, and strong education use cases make it especially appealing for schools without dedicated production spaces or technical staff.

CodeMonkey Studios Ltd., CodeMonkey Computer Science Curriculum

"Designed for primary education, this computer science platform has engaging videos, complete with cartoon monkey, and nice for those are needing a place to start kids with block coding and a way to transition them to text coding in a real CS language."

Second Step, Committee for Children

"Second Step is a well-rounded, mature solution for teaching social-emotional and behavioral skills. Its comprehensive K -5 scope and sequence allows teachers to make these skills a consistent part of everyday learning. It includes a combination of core human-skills instruction with focused areas like bullying prevention and digital well-being."

Crick Software, Clicker - Unlocking Writing Word By Word

"Clicker is a strong literacy support tool because it gives students meaningful help with writing, reading, and communication without lowering expectations. Its accessibility features, flexible scaffolds, and progress tracking make it especially valuable in inclusive and special education settings."

D2L, D2L Brightspace: Learning Designed for Impact

"Brightspace brings course creation, assessment, communication, analytics, and accessibility together into one, helping educators work more efficiently while providing insights into student learning. Its innovative features, including AI-assisted course development, interactive content, and data-driven decision-making, empower teachers to personalize instruction and support student needs. Brightspace offers a powerful, integrated solution that can enhance teaching and create an engaging and accessible learning experience for students."

Discovery Education, Discovery Education Science Techbook

"Teachers like that Discovery Education Science Techbook blends digital resources with hands-on learning rather than relying on a screen for the entire experience. That balance gives students opportunities to explore science through engaging digital content while still investigating, building, and learning by doing."

Discovery Education, Discovery Education Social Studies Essentials

"Discovery Education Social Studies Essentials balances screen time with classroom conversation, which our teachers found most useful. The digital resources helped launch the learning, while the inquiry activities, and discussion prompts gave students opportunities to talk, and make sense of history."

Edmentum, Exact Path for Primary Education

"Exact Path is a personalized learning system that connects diagnostic assessment, individualized learning paths, and standards-aligned instruction into one workflow rather than leaving teachers to piece those steps together. The breadth of data, external assessment integrations, and reported achievement gains make it highly compelling for elementary schools, with its innovation coming primarily from how effectively it connects instructional practices into a single system."

Epic for Kids, Epic - Primary (K–6)

"I like Epic as a way to add choice, variety, and some fun to reading for students. I see its greatest value as a supplemental resource that can encourage students to explore topics and books that interest them, rather than as part of required or core reading."

ExploreK12, Frax

"Frax does a particularly good job of turning a traditionally difficult area of math into an engaging, structured learning experience, with adaptive instruction and number-line reasoning helping students build genuine conceptual understanding rather than simply memorize procedures. The combination of game-based learning, personalization, teacher reporting, and research-backed program makes it a strong addition to upper elementary math classrooms."

ExploreK12, Raz-Plus

"Raz-Plus is a supplemental literacy platform, bringing foundational skills, comprehension, assessment, differentiation, and independent reading together without forcing teachers to juggle multiple resources. Its Reading Growth Assessment and Science of Reading alignment allows it to meet the needs of learners, while its innovation is in how effectively it brings these components together rather than in a completely new instructional model."

ExploreK12, Reflex

"Reflex is highly effective solution for a specific math need, using adaptive practice and game-based activities to make fact fluency more engaging while giving teachers visibility into individual gaps. Its focus on math fluency means it is not as broad as a complete math platform, but the personalization, progress tracking, and motivational elements make it a strong tool for building automaticity."

Frontline Education, Frontline Education AI for Education x Frontline Professional Growth

"This professional development tool is a timely, practical approach to AI adoption in K–12. It focuses on AI literacy and responsible classroom practices rather than training teachers around a single tool that could quickly become outdated. The integration with an existing professional-learning platform, combined with tracking, continuous updates, and district-wide implementation, gives it strong practical value."

HamiltonBuhl, Personal Finance Foundations™

"Personal Finance Foundations is a practical way to introduce financial literacy at an age when students can begin developing real-world habits, using discussion, scenarios, and collaborative decision-making instead of relying on worksheets and vocabulary drills. Its classroom-ready, reusable design gives teachers strong value across K–5. It is an effective hands-on, tech-free implementation of financial literacy for elementary schools."

Incident IQ, iiQ Facilities

"If you are using iiQ for technology inventory and help tickets, this can provide one ecosystem for facility requests and help, using the same tools and support you are accustomed to with iiQ."

InfoCase, PermaLock™ XP Case

"The PermaLock XP Case’s innovative locking design prevents students from removing protective cases while reducing device damage, classroom disruptions, and repairs. The pilot results, including 78% fewer break/fix events and an estimated $12,000 in savings, demonstrate how this solution can improve efficiency and extend device lifespans, while the guaranteed buyback program helps districts maximize their technology investments."

Inquisitive, Inquisitive — PreK–5 Science

"Inquisitive makes a strong case for solving one of elementary education’s persistent problems—getting rigorous science taught consistently—by combining ready-to-use lessons, hands-on inquiry, built-in assessment, and extensive accessibility support. Its phenomena-based approach makes it engaging for students and high quality for teachers. The breadth from PreK–5, multilingual resources, low-cost model, and new automated assessment tools give it impressive practical value."

Instructure, Mastery

"From a data-review lens, I have found Mastery Predictive Assessments gives leaders and schools clear, visually accessible information that can help teams identify needs and more accurately plan interventions. I also liked being able to quickly understand the data and turn it into instructional next steps is where we found the greatest value."

K12 Tutoring, K12 Tutoring Reading Enrichment Program

"The K12 Tutoring Reading Enrichment Program stands out for using assessment data, small-group instruction, and consistent certified teachers to give young readers targeted support. Its strong reported growth and evidence-based structure make it a practical approach to improving foundational literacy at scale."

Kai's Education, KaiBot: Screen-Free Coding for Math and Computational Thinking

"KaiBot is a hands-on approach to coding education, using physical programming, feedback, and cross-curricular activities to teach computational thinking without screens. Its accessibility, curriculum connections, and progression from card-based coding to advanced programming give it impressive range. The tactile, screen-free approach makes it a great tool for any students, even the littlest learners! Teachers can use KaiBots in screen-free, fully virtual, or a hybrid format."

Lightbox Learning Inc., Lightbox Learning-Spark

"Spark is a unique resource for supporting students at varying reading levels, especially in the primary grades. The short, accessible articles allow younger learners to engage with curriculum topics at a level that feels manageable while still building their confidence and understanding as readers."

Linewize, Linewize EdTech Manager

"From a district perspective, Linewize EdTech Manager gives us valuable visibility into how technology is being used across our schools. Our teachers especially like Classwize because they can view student app usage and screen time, while also having the ability to share a student’s screen to the projector, making it useful for both classroom management and instruction."

MAXCases, Folio Work-In Case

"The Work-In Folio is a budget-conscious solution that emphasizes protecting school-issued devices without sacrificing usability. It offers rigid construction, secure fit, cooling channels, and easy port access. Its universal-fit approach and successful drop testing make it particularly appealing for districts managing diverse range of devices. This thoughtful design solves many storage, use, and protection dilemmas!"

MobyMax, MobyMax

"MobyMax stands out for combining a broad K-8 curriculum with adaptive learning, diagnostics, progress monitoring, and engagement tools on a single platform. Its ability to automatically identify and address skill gaps gives it strong practical value for teachers managing students at very different levels."

Otus, Otus

"Otus has the ability to connect over 50 data sources within and outside your SIS to give you one source for data visualizations. It uses AI to analyze that data to also give teacher-level suggestions for instructional needs."

Perpetual Learning, BookBreak

"BookBreak offers a compelling way to make reading feel more social and engaging through author talks, ready-to-use lessons, and family resources. Its growing K-12 reach and strong focus on building a lasting reading culture give it more depth than a typical literacy engagement tool."

PowerSchool, Stronger Start with MyPowerHub

"MyPowerHub makes it much easier for families and educators to find the information they need without having to jump between multiple systems. Its tight connection with PowerSchool SIS and role-based experience make it a strong solution for simplifying communication and improving family engagement."

Presence, Kanga by Presence

"Kanga by Presence is a platform for elementary special education that combines assessment, therapy resources, caseload management, documentation, and secure reporting. Its strength is less about flashy innovation and more about making clinicians’ day-to-day work easier. The integrated documentation within the platform saves teachers time. Kanga offers flexible, engaging tools to individualize services and support students across remote and in-person settings."

Quizizz Inc. (DBA Wayground), Wayground for Primary Education

"Our teachers like that Wayground has a built-in game modes that can make assessment and practice more engaging for students, turning activities into more interactive experience. Teachers can still customize assessments to meet their instructional goals, fun and flexibility into checking for understanding."

William H. Sadlier, Decodable Text Placement Wizard

"The Decodable Text Placement Wizard does a nice job of turning foundational-literacy assessment data into an actionable instructional starting point. It reduces the guesswork and planning time involved in matching students with appropriately challenging decodable texts. It has transparent recommendations within the Sadlier program, flexible digital or paper assessment, and direct assignment of texts. The Wizard is a useful tool for K–3 differentiation."

Savvas Learning Company, myView Literacy

"Delivered through the Savaas platform, which gives district insight/oversight, myView Literacy offers a complete K-5 ELA ecosystem. A favorite feature is the ability to create custom decodables for students."

SchoolAI, SchoolAI for Primary Education

"Through their Spaces, SchoolAI utilizes AI to pair a teacher's knowledge of their students with just-in-time academic feedback for students, and progress monitoring that is sharable to other educators who need to know."

SchoolStatus, SchoolStatus Attend

"The SchoolStatus Attend platform is focused on reducing chronic absenteeism. It streamlines not only the communication process for messaging interventions but also allows fewer personnel to manage student attendance. In addition it offers robust interventions for behaviors that lead to chronic absenteeism, using a positive, proactive approach and outreach processes to work with families on the root causes and not just the symptoms."

Science Interactive Group Standards & Starlab: What Alignment looks like Under the Dome

"Starlab has been around just short of 50 years, but the stars much longer and they are still worth exploring. Now with curriculum that adheres to NGSS along with the communal experience under the dome to spark curiosity."

SMART Technologies, SMART Control Signage

"This solves two problems - repurposing SMART panels that can live on as communication boards and seamlessly communicating to panels across a school or district. Non-technical users will find it easy to share directly from Canva, Google Slides, or video sources."

SmartLab / Salesforce, SmartLab Spot

"SmartLab Spot brings curriculum, training, support, and community resources into one easy-to-navigate platform, which should make life noticeably easier for facilitators. Its value lies less in flashy features and more in reducing friction and helping educators get what they need faster."

SpringMath Accelerate, Inc., SpringMath

"SpringMath takes a focused, data-driven approach to math intervention by identifying specific skill gaps and turning them into ready-to-use weekly instruction. Its combination of strong progress monitoring, paper-based student work, and automated intervention planning gives it real value for schools trying to strengthen MTSS without adding more screen time."

TalkingPoints, TalkingPoints Attendance Improvement

"This communication tool for schools and parents is SMS first, which removes a technology barrier some parents have. With translations into 150+ languages, this is accessible for just about any parent to receive notifications and have two-way communication about their students."

TalkingPoints, TalkingPoints District Engagement

"For schools that need next level messaging, including translations to 150 languages, plus a low-barrier to access from the teacher and parent side, this is a tool that meets communication needs of today. While it has an app, there is a functional option for no wifi and no login required."

TalkingPoints, TalkingPoints Academics at Home

"This communication and instructional tool has two features of note. One is the text-first delivery model across 150+ languages, removing tech and language barriers. The second is its low-prep activity creation that aligns with district-specific scope and sequences."

Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI), Social Studies Alive! — TCI K–5 Social Studies

"TCI offers an engaging, interactive curriculum that supports differentiated instruction. Its flexible reading levels, language translation options, immersive video activities, interactive maps, and built-in review games empower teachers to personalize instruction while making learning more meaningful and accessible. I believe TCI provides an excellent balance of digital and hands-on learning experiences that can increase student engagement, strengthen understanding, and support academic success."

TranslateLive, LLC., Every Family in the Conversation: Expanding Engagement with TranslateLive

"ILA makes real-time communication available across a broad range of languages while still providing a path to professional interpreters when automated translation isn't enough. It has two-way translation, app-free Broadcast Mode, ASL support, and can be used with different devices. These features have meaningful real-world value. Its biggest innovation is how it brings multiple forms of language access into everyday school interactions."

VariQuest, StudioVQ™ - Primary Education

"StudioVQ is a well-integrated solution that removes friction from creating and producing school materials, especially for educators who don't have design expertise or time to start from scratch. It offers a huge education-specific resource library, collaboration tools, and direct connection to hardware. The collaboration tools are especially helpful, allowing teachers to work simultaneously on posters, signs, templates, graphic organizers, infographics, and more."

ViewSonic Corp., ViewSonic myViewBoard Quiz Tools Powered by ClassSwift

"ViewSonic delivers again, this time with an 'on-the-fly' Snip and Share, which allows a teacher to turn any teaching material into a and interactive activity. Another feature to admire is the multi-modal functionality, including simultaneous audio recording."

Voyager Sopris Learning, Step Up to Writing

"The Voyager Sopris Learning Step Up to Writing curriculum is designed using research-proven practices. This program was created for students to use strategies that can be integrated into any curriculum or implemented as a standalone writing solution. This unique approach breaks writing skills into smaller steps for quick wins as students fine tune their writing abilities."

SECONDARY

#HalfTheStory, Social Media U

"Social Media U tackles digital wellbeing in a way that feels current, practical, and genuinely relevant to teens. Its mix of AI literacy, emotional resilience, media literacy, and active discussion gives schools a strong framework for helping students build healthier relationships with technology."

Acer, Acer ProDesigner PE270K L1

"Bridging the gap between professional grade and classroom grade, the ProDesigner gives students who create and design digital content a tool to increase their skills and level up their creative potential."

Acer, Acer Veriton GN100 AI Mini Workstation

"For districts looking for a way to put generative AI on prem, this workstation provides a viable and more affordable option. Specifically designed for AI workloads, it packs a punch with a Blackwell GPU, a 20-core Arm CPU, 128 GB of unified memory, and up to 4 TB of storage."

Amplify Education, Amplify ELA

"Amplify ELA offers a strong, well-rounded middle school literacy program that coherently connects reading, writing, discussion, vocabulary, and critical thinking. Its built-in differentiation, engaging content, and useful teacher reporting tools make it especially effective for classrooms with a wide range of student needs."

AVID Products, AE-56

"These are strong headsets; we have used the brand for years with high satisfaction"

Boxlight, Boxlight Symphony

"Boxlight Symphony brings bells, paging, intercom, emergency alerts, and visual messaging into a single system, simplifying both daily communication and campus safety. Its local operation, district-wide monitoring, and compatibility with existing phone systems make it a strong option for schools modernizing in phases."

Boxlight, Clevertouch FOCUS by Boxlight

"Clevertouch FOCUS packs a lot into one classroom display, from whiteboarding and screen sharing to device management and campus alerts. The tight integration of teaching and school communication tools gives it a strong edge over more basic interactive panels."

Boxlight, Boxlight Symphonic Series

"The Symphonic Series is a thoughtful modernization of school communication, bringing paging, intercom, visual alerts, and camera capability into a single PoE-powered system. The three-model lineup and SIP compatibility make it flexible enough for different spaces while simplifying installation and long-term management."

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite

"Our high school teachers found ClassLink especially useful because students could have class-specific apps right in their suite, making it much more efficient to get where they needed to go. Having those resources organized in one place reduces time spent searching and logging in and allows teachers to focus more quickly on the learning."

Curriculum Associates, Stile

"Stile’s PROVIDES real-world, hands-on science investigations that encourage students to learn through experience rather than simply reading about science. By combining inquiry-based learning with integrated digital resources and assessments, Stile helps students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and scientific reasoning skills. I particularly appreciate how it empowers teachers to focus on meaningful learning experiences that connect classroom instruction to real-world applications and future STEM opportunities."

D2L, D2L Brightspace

Edmentum, MajorClarity for Secondary Education

"MajorClarity stands out as a strong college- and career-readiness platform because it connects student interests, academic planning, postsecondary exploration, credentials, and real-world experiences instead of treating them as separate activities. The combination of student ownership, dynamic career matching, and district-level data makes it especially useful for turning career planning into an ongoing process rather than a compliance exercise. "

ExploreK12, Gizmos

"Gizmos is an engaging STEM learning platform, with a large library of interactive simulations, virtual investigations, and real-world STEM cases. The combination of inquiry-based learning, standards alignment, formative assessment, and career-connected activities makes it both practical and engaging. Students will love exploring the simulations, investigations, and inquiry-based activities!"

Follett Software, IT Asset Manager

"The Follett Software IT Asset Manager is a great tool for tracking assets and resources, as well as providing real-time reporting on usage. IT Asset Manager is an AI-enabled technology operations platform built for K-12 school districts. It connects device lifecycle management, asset tracking, help desk ticketing, repairs, reporting, and mobile workflows."

Frontline Education, Frontline Education AI for Education x Frontline Professional Growth

HUE, HUE HD Pro

"The HUE HD Camera does a terrific job of not only capturing still pictures, but also video and audio for teachers to use for lessons beyond the average document cameras. The included software does a great job of capturing content in a easy to embed format for online lessons as well as using the camera for Zoom or Meet sessions with classrooms all over the world."

iCEV, iCEV’s Comprehensive Solution

"iCEV offers more than 200 courses across 16 career clusters that connect classroom learning with real-world industry expectations. Its support for 19 industry-recognized certifications provides students with credentials that can lead to career opportunities and workforce readiness. I particularly appreciate how iCEV combines hands-on learning, certification preparation, and data-driven insights to help schools prepare students for careers while addressing the demand for skilled workers."

Instructure, Canvas K-12

"For high school students who move between multiple classes, teachers, and electives throughout the day, Canvas can maximize efficiency by keeping learning materials, assignments, and communication in one consistent place. That organization makes it easier for students to navigate their courses and for teachers to create a more seamless learning experience across a secondary schedule."

IXL Learning, Rosetta Stone for Schools

"With 16 languages represented across our district, supporting multilingual learners and. Rosetta Stone for Schools has been a valuable resource for our teachers, students, and families by giving learners opportunities to build confidence and begin using their new language right from the start."

Lightspeed Systems, Screen Time Dashboard

"Lightspeed Insight gives districts a clear, data-driven view of student screen time, making it easier to evaluate usage, spot trends, and communicate with stakeholders. Its focused analytics and benchmarking tools make it especially valuable for districts trying to connect technology use with instructional goals and accountability."

Magic EdTech MagicBox

"MagicBox brings content delivery, assessment, analytics, AI-powered instructional support, and offline access together in one ecosystem. Its scale and integrations make it especially practical for schools and publishers. The AI enhancements and white-label flexibility add meaningful value, although much of the innovation is in how comprehensively these capabilities are integrated rather than in introducing an entirely new learning model."

ManagedMethods, Classroom Manager

Classroom Manager helps a teacher direct students to the learning activities of the day. Key feature include the "Follow Me," which makes it easy for teachers to manage students accessing additional resources during class time, and integration within the Microsoft and Google environments.

MAXCases, Folio Work-In Case

Minga.io, Minga

"Minga tackles a major weakness in K–12 operations: the number of disconnected systems teachers and administrators have to manage daily. Its combination of behavior, attendance, hallway management, interventions, communication, and real-time data creates a strong unified workflow. Its integrations with existing school systems (SIS and LMS) means it will help teachers document a range of student information with ease."

NetSupport, classroom.cloud

"The NetSupport Classroom Cloud product is amazing when it comes to mobile device management at the classroom and teacher level. This system is also device agnostic and allows teachers to have full control over the content and use of their students devices that are district owned."

NOLA Education, Star Academy

"Star Academy takes a comprehensive approach to helping struggling middle school students catch up academically while rebuilding engagement and confidence. Its combination of accelerated academics, hands-on learning, career exploration, and ongoing teacher support gives it strong potential for meaningful, lasting impact."

Otus, Otus

ParentSquare, ParentSquare

"ParentSquare has been a game-changer for how we communicate and connect with families across our district. Having communication in one place, along with translation and multiple ways for families to receive information, has helped us make district and school communication more accessible, consistent, and effective."

Presence, Kanga by Presence

"Kanga by Presence is a platform for secondary special education that combines assessment, therapy resources, caseload management, documentation, and secure reporting. Its strength is less about flashy innovation and more about making clinicians’ day-to-day work easier. The integrated documentation within the platform saves teachers time. Kanga offers flexible, engaging tools to individualize services and support students across remote and in-person settings."

Proximity Learning Inc., Proximity Learning

"Proximity Learning offers a practical, scalable answer to teacher shortages by putting certified teachers into classrooms live, while its tutoring and SPED case-management services extend the platform beyond simply filling vacancies. The synchronous model, strong reported outcomes, and ability to serve hard-to-staff subjects regardless of geography make it especially useful. This core approach represents an effective evolution of virtual education."

Quizizz Inc. (DBA Wayground), Wayground for Secondary Education

"I like the flexibility Wayground gives secondary teachers to customize assessments while still keeping the teacher at the center of the process. The ability to bring existing paper assignments into the platform, add accommodations and translation is especially useful."

Robolink, Robolink CoDrone EDU

"The CoDrone EDU is a programmable drone for learning which allows users to code in Python or block-based coding. It's an effective and engaging tool for teaching beginning coders as well as more advanced students."

SAE International, A World In Motion® (AWIM) Career Pathfinder

"AWIM Career Pathfinder’s engaging, interactive approach helps students explore diverse career opportunities while developing critical thinking, communication, and research skills. What makes this product particularly appealing is that it is completely free, allowing school districts to provide high-quality career readiness experiences to all students without adding financial strain to already limited educational budgets, making it an outstanding resource for promoting equity, accessibility, and college and career readiness."

Savvas Learning Company, myPerspectives English Language Arts

"The myPerspectives English Language Arts program from Savvas is a program for math and ELA. myPerspectives English Language Arts diagnoses student performance and provides real-time data to create a picture of where students are in their learning and pinpoint a path forward."

SchoolAI, SchoolAI for Secondary Education

"SchoolAI’s Spaces provide a strong student platform where teachers set the learning outcomes while AI helps adapt the experience to individual student needs. We found this approach especially useful for making assignments and communication more efficient while still keeping the teacher in control of the learning experience."

Share-A-Cart, Share-A-Cart

"Share-A-Cart solves a very practical school workflow problem by making supply requests, approvals, and purchasing much faster and easier to manage. Its free pricing, Google Classroom support, SSO integrations, and growing retailer coverage make it a useful tool, even if its overall scope is fairly focused."

SMART Technologies, Lumio AI Assist - Activity Generation

"Lumio AI Assist differentiates its classroom activity generator by parsing pre-existing teacher material to build interactive activities for quick and easy use. It also features an LMS integration and mandatory teacher review to ensure a Human-in-the-Loop AI experience."

SpringMath Accelerate, Inc., SpringMath

"SpringMath offers a practical way to turn math screening data into targeted instruction without adding student screen time. Its automated intervention planning, weekly progress monitoring, and evidence-backed MTSS model make it especially useful for schools trying to close foundational skill gaps efficiently."

Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI), TCI Social Studies, Grades 6–12

VariQuest, StudioVQ™ - Secondary Education

ViewSonic Corp., ViewSonic WPD-900E Wireless Presentation System

"When you need a wireless presenter solution to cast to a display, this lives up to the hype. No need for WiFi or a long HDMI cable. If the display has HDMI and USB ports and you have a USB-C port, you are good. No need to call IT support."

Voyager Sopris Learning, LANGUAGE! Live

"LANGUAGE! Live is a comprehensive literacy intervention for struggling students in grades 5–12 that incorporates both online and teacher-guided instruction. I particularly liked the blended learning opportunities the online components provided students by allowing them to move at their own pace in authentic texts."

HIGHER EDUCATION

Ascend Learning, Engage® Series

"Engage Series with Claire AI gives nursing students a strong mix of interactive practice, personalized support, and clinically focused learning. The AI integration stands out because it is directly tied to nursing content and helps faculty reduce prep time and target student needs."

Blackboard, Cursive by Blackboard

"Cursive takes a more constructive approach to academic integrity by showing how student work was created instead of relying on potentially unreliable AI-detection scores. Its focus on authorship evidence, writing-process visibility, and LMS compatibility makes it especially relevant as schools rethink assessment in the AI era."

Copyleaks, Copyleaks AI Logic

"AI Logic by Copyleaks is an AI content detection product to help academic institutions to make informed decisions surrounding generative AI use. Not only does AI Logic have extraordinary accuracy rates and a .2% false positive rate, it also can detect AI content in over 15 languages, AI-generated source code, and paraphrased AI content and AI text interspersed with human-written text."

D2L, D2L Brightspace: Learning Designed for Impact

D2L, D2L Lumi: Trusted AI for Higher Education

"D2L Lumi combines unique instructional knowledge with the latest in generative AI."

FeedbackFruits, Oral Assessment and Practice

"Two key components to like about this product: pedagogy-first "human-in-the-loop" AI architecture and a scaffolded three-tier learning arc of practice, reflection, and assessment."

Instructure, Canvas

"Canvas is a robust LMS that provides a seamless experience for higher education faculty and students to create courses, manage learning, and communicate in one place. Its strength is bringing the different pieces of the learning experience together in a platform that is organized, flexible, and easy to navigate."

Kahoot!, Kahoot! EDU

"This new, reinvented Kahoot EDU platform is a game changer now that it has added the power of AI! Now, the same power that teacher's have had for years with Kahoot creativity is now also in the hands of students to help them prepare for national placement tests and even next week's test with powerful AI tutoring tools!"

Kaplan, All Access License by Kaplan

"Highly effective preparation for professional licensure and graduate entrance exam—including MCAT, NCLEX, LSAT, GMAT, Praxis, FE, CFA, CPA, and CAPM. Kaplan offers both live-online and self-paced instructional modalities to meet learner preferences."

Money Confidence Project, Venture Valley Game

"Venture Valley Money Confidence Project platform uses experiential learning and gameplay to foster financial literacy, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills as students take on the role of startup founders in immersive, fast-paced business simulations. This experiential way of problem-solving provides real-world tasks that help students understand what it is like to be an entrepreneur while also fostering better understanding of design thinking."

Other World Computing (OWC), OWC USB-C Travel Dock

"The OWC USB-C Travel Dock is a simple, useful accessory that solves the everyday connectivity limitations of thin laptops and tablets. Its mix of display output, USB ports, SD access, and power passthrough offers strong value for students who need one compact adapter for multiple settings."

PFU America, Inc., RICOH SP-2240N

"The RICOH SP-2240N is a capable, straightforward scanner that handles a wide range of administrative and instructional documents without adding much complexity. Its speed, mixed-media support, network scanning, and built-in image processing make it a dependable fit for shared higher education environments."

Science Interactive Group, Science Interactive

"One of the challenges with hybrid learning is getting a physical experience with lab tools. Science Interactive solves this by pairing physical, home-shipped lab kits with interactive digital simulations. "

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, Sharp XP-P621U-W laser projector

"The Sharp XP-P621U-W looks like a dependable, high-performance classroom projector that prioritizes the things education AV teams care about most: strong image quality, low maintenance, quiet operation, and installation flexibility. The combination of a long-life laser source, sealed filter-free design, quiet operation, and a strong warranty makes it a compelling and practical choice for institutions using numerous projectors."

Thea Study, Thea Study

"Thea takes a smart approach to AI-assisted learning by pushing students to actively recall and apply material rather than simply giving them answers. Its personalized study tools, faculty insights, broad language support, and reported learning gains make it a particularly strong higher education platform."

ViewSonic Corp., ViewSonic LDE Series Direct View LED Displays

"Viewsonic offers large scale (100" to 163") displays with a smaller price tag and smaller footprint. Maintaining ADA compliance with a 4" depth and 1080p resolution, they are a great option for those needing a larger display in common spaces."

VitalSource, VitalSource’s Bookshelf+

"Bookshelf+ makes AI study support feel more trustworthy by keeping responses grounded in assigned course materials rather than open web sources. Its in-textbook tools for questions, flashcards, concept review, read-aloud, and language support give students useful help without pulling them away from the content they are supposed to learn."

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, Sharp XP-P621U-W laser projector

Tech & Learning editor and contributor since 2010, Diana is dedicated to ferreting out the best free and low-cost tech tools for teachers.