Changes in Procurement of Educational Products Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 4, 2025 | By Erin Smith

Students in classroom with facemasks

The COVID-19 pandemic forced districts and schools to quickly pivot and adapt from in-person learning to remote classrooms. Research during the pandemic has suggested that remote learning is associated with less instructional time, less coverage of curriculum, and poorer student outcomes. Challenges in accessing technology and learning in an online format increased the demand for programs that accelerated learning and supported students academically as well as social-emotionally. At the same time, many districts received additional funding to support pandemic recovery, such as those provided by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). There is little research about how the emergent student needs and influx of funds brought on by the pandemic may have changed the products districts purchased and the process used to procure them.

Procurement is the process by which schools discover, evaluate, select, and acquire educational products. Such products can be used by teachers, students, and families to help accelerate learning and address pandemic-related learning interruptions.

In spring 2023, the LEARN Network conducted research to understand procurement practices in K–12 education, including how procurement practices changed in response to the pandemic and whether these changes persisted after the pandemic. During the study, we surveyed 1,036 school leaders and 208 district leaders and conducted 39 interviews with school and district leaders, teachers, parents, and caregivers. We learned that changes centered around the procurement of more digital products and products that helped address student learning interruptions.

In this blog post, we share insights about procurement during the height of the pandemic and as schools reopened after the pandemic. We conclude with recommendations for how schools and districts can continue making purchasing decisions to address student needs.

What changed?

School leaders shared that what educational products they procured changed more than how they procured them.

Among both school and district leaders, when asked about the extent to which the pandemic changed procurement practices, the majority said that procurement only changed a “small extent” or “not at all” (65% of district leaders, 62% of school leaders). Some leaders indicated that procurement changed to a “moderate or large extent” (34% of district leaders, 27% of school leaders).

School leaders who indicated their procurement practices changed to a “moderate” or “large” extent shared that there were changes to the types of products procured. They reported procuring more digital and educational technology (edtech) as well as materials focused on addressing interruptions to student learning (such as interventions with tiered or accelerated supports), materials to identify students who may need additional support to get back on track, and materials with a social-emotional content focus. Multiple leaders also shared that educators and school personnel placed greater importance on products that were easy to implement; during and after the pandemic, time became an even more precious resource, making products with lengthy on-ramps less feasible. Finally, leaders shared that the influx of funding allowed for the purchase of supplemental and support products that were previously unaffordable.

COVID-19 relief funds, such as those provided by ESSER, created more opportunities for procurement, but the expiration of funds presents new challenges.

The influx of education relief funds changed procurement practices. Interviewees mentioned that ESSER funds provided necessary money to purchase additional learning materials to address learning interruptions and to help address preexisting needs within their schools and districts. A quarter of interviewees discussed the impacts of receiving ESSER funding, sharing that the funding allowed leaders to provide professional learning to teachers. Interviewees also mentioned that as ESSER funds came to an end, they faced difficult decisions in how to reduce spending, including staff who were hired during the peak of the pandemic.

How permanent were the changes?

Only 14 percent of school leaders indicated that the changes in procurement were permanent or were still in place as of spring 2023.

If school leaders indicated that procurement practices changed a “moderate” or “large” extent on the survey, we then asked them about the permanence of those changes. Of the 27 percent of school leaders who reported a moderate or large change in procurement practices, 53 percent said those changes were permanent or still in place post-pandemic (14 percent of school leaders overall).

Implications for post-pandemic procurement

In summary, we found there was a shift in the types of products being procured, with more focus on edtech products, products with tiered levels of support, and products with a social-emotional content focus. With the end of ESSER funding and the impacts of the pandemic still very present, we provide three recommendations for procurement in a post-pandemic world.

District and school leaders can strive to use funds available to procure products most efficiently and effectively, especially in the face of more limited resources. This starts with assessing the need, be it a specific challenge leaders are attempting to address or a set of outcomes they hope to improve. Leaders can use student data and speak with team members to understand where the impacts of learning interruptions persist, or where other challenges exist.

Next, it’s important to understand the product landscape and choose products that align to the identified student needs. One component of understanding the landscape may involve collaborating with product developers or vendors to partner with a school or district for a pilot. Working with researchers and developers to understand product effectiveness and ease of implementation through a pilot can help leaders understand programs relevant to their school or district context and the student populations they serve. In addition to pilots, leaders can consider speaking with peers in similar contexts to generate localized evidence.

Researchers can continue to study how needs for products that address interrupted learning or accelerate learning are shaping the educational product landscape and procurement practices in various contexts and post-ESSER. They can also evaluate products that experienced an uptake during the pandemic, such as tiered and social-emotional learning supports, for effectiveness at addressing learning interruptions.
Product developers can focus on understanding what drives adoption of their products and what market forces are persisting in the post-pandemic education landscape. They should be sensitive to resource constraints—both time and money—and address the growing need to provide products that can address interrupted learning and are straightforward to implement. Developers can work with end users like teachers to better understand classroom needs and product implementation and incorporate their feedback.

Additional Resources

Explore the LEARN to Scale Toolkit for researchers and product developers! The toolkit offers resources to support the early stages of product development through scaling and widespread adoption. It contains information on how to mindfully work with end-users to create products that are effective and easy to use.

Tags: Educators and systems leaders Evidence-based Procurement Research & Developers