With services in about one in every three U.S. schools, Discovery Education is a very large player in classroom education technology. Their core service is producing and providing technology and digital resources for instruction, and the company says it serves some 4.5 million teachers and ten times as many students, with a global presence in about 100 countries.
That puts Discovery Education in elite company.
Recently, Discovery Education (DE) commissioned and released a new survey report – The 2024-2025 Education Insights Report: Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow. It’s the company’s first such report, but promises to be an annual publication. And although the new report is not going to make news by revealing the single key to maximum educational attainment and performance, it is still important.
As part of the report’s release, I was able to sit down with the CEO of DE, Brian Shaw, who was named CEO last year, but had been in c-suite offices at the company for years prior.
The key word in the report – and a primary driver for Shaw – is curiosity.
More than 90% of surveyed stakeholders agreed that curiosity is central to learning, including 94% of teachers. DE leaders agree, of course, but also highlight the parallel finding that three-quarters of teachers and 80% of students also said that there are not enough opportunities to be curious in today’s classrooms.
“Curiosity is universally important to all stakeholders. They understand the importance of really engaging students to drive better learning outcomes,” Shaw said.
It’s filling in that gap, the feeling that there are too few opportunities to be genuinely curious in a classroom, that Shaw believes DE fits.
“We offer multimedia content and instruction support to help teachers create innovative classrooms and we provide engagement tools and unique corporate partners that help us connect classrooms to the real world. In the process, we save teacher time and effort and help scale best practices to, ideally, ignite curiosity and engage students,” Shaw said.
“Our report also shows,” Shaw continued, “that teacher time is precious.” Indeed, the DE survey found that 94% of teachers said that they are seeking classroom tools that will give them time back to focus on students.
“Educators also see the promise of adaptive learning that helps students progress at the right speed and get the right outcomes,” Shaw said. DE describes adaptive learning as, “meeting students where they are in the learning process and providing students targeted feedback based on their answers that helps them grow perseverance and knowledge.”
Connecting learning to career and life skills is another area of interest highlighted in the report – outcomes that students say they want but are not getting sufficiently. As such, it’s been a focus for Shaw and the DE team. “Career Connect, which is new in 2024, is really gaining great momentum as we’re pairing classrooms with industry professionals where they can share what they’re doing and connect to kids in interactions, where kids can ask questions. Those types of connections are really, really important,” said Shaw.
Backing out from the report, Shaw sees an education and edtech environment in which school systems nationwide are rationalizing their edtech spend and consolidating the number of edtech resources that they use, keeping those only that are deemed effective. It’s a trend that’s been brewing for a few years, even as more and more tools, resources, solutions, and platforms appear on the market every day.
“During covid,” Shaw said, “the use and adoption of education tools flourished. But the data will now show which are being used and which aren’t, which are driving learning outcomes, and which are not. As districts are consolidating edtech spending on fewer, high-power solutions, what’s going to win is what is driving outcomes.”
Shaw continued, “We are really well positioned for that because we have deep partnerships and a suite of products that checks off all the boxes and really meets the spirit of helping students and teachers thrive.”
Looking ahead a few years, Shaw says the company will be “all about expanding reach and impact – not a new strategy or entering a new market. Organizational growth is really what we’re excited about. Our existing offerings are all really easy to use, highly engaging, efficient in driving efficacy, and interoperable – making sure that a piece is not a point solution, but that it’s part of an ecosystem.”
That feels right.
If it’s possible to inspire more curiosity in today’s classrooms, and you can design and deliver strong teaching tools that meet it, while continuing to feed it, you’re probably in the right place – not just for learning, but for an education company.
“In our poll when you see that 90% of respondents said curiosity is central to learning. That’s not just about digital, not just video, that could be, should be, all activities in the classroom all coming together,” Shaw said. “For us, that is the DNA of our company, the theme is incredibly centric to everything we do,” he said.