Frequently Asked Questions
What is EduSignal?
EduSignal is a K-12 district intelligence platform built for EdTech sales teams. It consolidates public education data - enrollment trends, demographics, test scores, per-pupil spending, accountability grades, and more - into instant district profiles that sales reps can scan before any call or visit. Instead of spending 15-20 minutes bouncing between NCES, state DOE websites, and district pages to research a single prospect, reps get everything in one searchable profile in seconds. EduSignal also includes AI-powered sales analysis that generates personalized talking points and opportunity assessments based on your specific product and each district's data.
How is EduSignal different from procurement tools like GovSpend, SmartProcure, or RFPSchoolWatch?
EduSignal is not a procurement platform. Tools like GovSpend, SmartProcure, and RFPSchoolWatch focus on tracking RFPs, bid alerts, and purchase order history - they tell you what districts are buying. EduSignal focuses on the step before procurement: understanding who you're talking to. We provide district context - enrollment, demographics, academic performance, financial indicators, and AI-generated sales analysis - so your reps walk into conversations prepared. Many teams use EduSignal alongside procurement tools: EduSignal for research and preparation, and procurement platforms for tracking active opportunities.
Where does EduSignal's data come from, and how current is it?
EduSignal aggregates data exclusively from authoritative public sources. At the federal level, we pull from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD), the F-33 School District Finance Survey, and EDFacts. At the state level, we integrate assessment results, accountability ratings, and graduation rates directly from each state's Department of Education. We also source strategic plans, budgets, and board meeting information from official district publications. Data freshness varies by source - state assessment data is typically from the current or most recent school year, while federal finance data from the F-33 survey runs about two years behind due to the Census Bureau's collection cycle. We refresh data as new reports are published and clearly display the data year for every metric.
What states does EduSignal cover?
EduSignal currently covers districts across multiple states, with more being added regularly. Each state pack includes all K-12 public school districts in that state with enrollment data, demographics, academic performance, and financial indicators where available. You can see our current state coverage, including the number of districts and students covered in each state, on our interactive map at edusignal.ai. We prioritize adding the largest EdTech markets first and accept requests for specific states from subscribers.
What data is included in an EduSignal district profile?
Each district profile includes identification and location data (NCES ID, county, locale type), enrollment figures with year-over-year trends, school counts by level (elementary, middle, high), staffing data including student-teacher ratios, financial indicators (per-pupil spending, total budget, revenue breakdown by federal/state/local sources), demographic data (racial/ethnic composition, free and reduced-price lunch rates, English language learner percentages, students with disabilities), and academic performance (math and reading proficiency rates, graduation rates, and state accountability grades or ratings). All metrics include the source and data year so you know exactly what you're looking at. See our State Data Status page for more detail.
How does EduSignal's AI-powered sales analysis work?
When you open a district profile, you can input a description of your product or solution and EduSignal's AI generates a personalized analysis for that specific district. This includes a product-fit assessment based on the district's actual data, specific talking points that connect your solution to the district's challenges and characteristics, conversation starters grounded in real metrics (not generic pitches), and follow-up questions to deepen your preparation. You can also run AI analysis across a list of districts to compare opportunities and prioritize outreach. The analysis draws on each district's enrollment, demographics, academic performance, financial data, and other available context to produce recommendations that are specific and actionable. EduSignal uses the latest AI models (currently Anthropic Claude 4.5 Haiku) to ensure accuracy and relevancy.
How much does EduSignal cost?
EduSignal offers three tiers. Starter ($49/month) includes access to all 13,000+ districts in 50 states, 10 AI analyses per month, and the ability to save up to 10 districts - ideal for individual reps getting started. Pro ($99/month) includes unlimited AI analyses and unlimited district tracking with custom lists, suited for power users who need full access. Enterprise pricing (annual commitment) includes all Pro features for every team member, admin dashboards, usage reporting, and upcoming SSO and CRM integrations for full sales teams. All individual plans include a 7-day free trial with no credit card required to start. See our pricing or talk to Sales to learn about our Enterprise plan.
What is per-pupil spending and why does it matter for EdTech sales?
Per-pupil spending (PPS) is a district's total current expenditures divided by its student enrollment. It's reported through the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey and is one of the most commonly referenced metrics in K-12 sales - but also one of the most misunderstood. PPS includes salaries, transportation, materials, and operations, but excludes capital outlay and debt service. A district with $15,000 PPS doesn't necessarily have more discretionary budget for technology than a district at $10,000, because PPS is heavily influenced by regional cost of living, staffing ratios, and fixed costs. For EdTech sales, PPS is best used as a relative indicator within a state or region, not as an absolute measure of buying power. EduSignal displays PPS alongside revenue source breakdowns so reps can assess budget context more accurately.
What is Title I and why does it matter for selling to school districts?
Title I is the largest federal education funding program, providing financial assistance to schools and districts with high percentages of students from low-income families. Districts qualify based on their poverty rates, and the funding is intended to help close achievement gaps. For EdTech sales, Title I status is a significant buying signal - not because these districts have less money, but because they often have more dedicated funding for supplemental programs, interventions, and technology. Title I dollars come with specific spending requirements tied to improving student outcomes, which means districts actively seek solutions that address academic performance gaps. Understanding a district's Title I status, along with their free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) percentage, helps sales reps identify districts that have both the need and the allocated budget for education technology. EduSignal surfaces FRPL rates and demographic data in every district profile to help with this qualification.
When do school districts make purchasing decisions for technology?
School district purchasing follows a cyclical pattern tied to fiscal years, which vary by state but most commonly run July 1 through June 30. Key buying windows include budget planning season (January through March), when administrators are allocating next year's spending and are most receptive to new solutions; end-of-fiscal-year (April through June), when districts spend remaining budget to avoid losing it; and back-to-school (July through September), when implementation decisions are finalized. There are also periods to avoid heavy outreach: during state testing windows (typically March through May, varying by state), when administrators and teachers are focused on assessments, and during the December holiday break. EdTech reps who align their outreach with these cycles see significantly better response rates. EduSignal helps reps time their outreach by providing state-specific context alongside district profiles.
How many school districts are there in the United States?
There are approximately 13,300 regular public school districts (local education agencies, or LEAs) in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The number varies slightly depending on how districts are counted - some tallies include regional service agencies, charter school authorizers, and other special-purpose entities. District counts vary dramatically by state: Texas has over 1,200 districts, California has roughly 1,000, and New York has around 700, while states like Florida operate on a consolidated county-based system with only 67 districts. These structural differences significantly affect how EdTech companies approach each state - selling into 67 large Florida districts is a fundamentally different motion than covering 1,200 Texas ISDs. EduSignal covers thousands of districts across multiple states and organizes them by enrollment size, locale type, and other characteristics to support territory planning.
What is the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD)?
The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the U.S. Department of Education's primary database of information on public schools and school districts. Maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), it contains annual data on approximately 100,000 public schools and 18,000 school districts, including enrollment figures, staffing counts, school characteristics, and geographic information. The CCD also includes the F-33 School District Finance Survey, which provides detailed revenue and expenditure data at the district level. While the CCD is the most comprehensive national source of education data, it has important limitations: data typically lags 1-2 years behind the current school year, financial data can lag even further, and it doesn't include state-specific metrics like assessment scores or accountability ratings. EduSignal combines CCD data with state-level sources to provide a more complete and current picture than either source offers alone.
How should EdTech sales reps research a school district before a call?
Effective pre-call district research should take no more than a few minutes and cover five areas: size and structure (enrollment, number of schools, grade levels served), financial context (per-pupil spending, revenue sources, Title I status), academic performance (test scores, accountability ratings, whether scores are trending up or down), demographics (student populations that might need your specific solution), and recent context (leadership changes, strategic priorities, bond measures). Without a tool like EduSignal, this typically means visiting NCES for enrollment, the state DOE for test scores, the district website for leadership information, and finance databases for budget data - easily a 15-20 minute process per district. EduSignal consolidates all of this into a single profile you can scan in under two minutes, with AI analysis that connects the data points to your specific product for personalized talking points.
Does EduSignal include any student-level data? Is it FERPA compliant?
No, EduSignal does not contain any student-level or personally identifiable information. All data in EduSignal is aggregate, district-level data drawn from publicly available government sources - the same data published by NCES, state Departments of Education, and districts themselves. FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) protects individual student education records, and EduSignal operates entirely outside that scope. Demographics like racial/ethnic composition and free and reduced-price lunch percentages are reported as district-wide percentages, never at the individual level. This means there are no compliance concerns for your team in using EduSignal for sales research.
Why is education data so different from state to state?
Education in the United States is primarily governed at the state level, which means each of the 50 states has its own Department of Education, its own assessment system, its own accountability framework, and its own approach to data collection and publication. Texas uses the STAAR assessment, Florida uses FAST, North Carolina uses its own End-of-Grade tests - and each reports results in different formats with different proficiency thresholds. Some states organize districts by county (like Florida's 67 county-based districts), while others have hundreds of independent districts (Texas has over 1,200). Data accessibility varies widely too: some states publish comprehensive, downloadable datasets, while others bury information in difficult-to-navigate portals. This fragmentation is one of the core challenges for national EdTech sales teams managing multi-state territories, and it's the problem EduSignal was built to solve - we normalize data across states so your team can research and compare districts regardless of which state they're in.