Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, instruction, collaboration, assessment, and communication. This policy brief highlights how these platforms are not neutral “tools” but complex ecosystems shaped by technical architectures, commercial imperatives, and political-economic interests. While educators tend to view them as aids for instruction, platforms extract and monetize data, linking schools into broader markets of advertisers and data brokers. For educators and policymakers, this reality calls for an ecological perspective that asks not only how platforms function in classrooms but also whose interests they serve, what values they embed, and whether nondigital means might better achieve educational goals. To guard against overreliance on industry marketing and the amplified risks of emerging AI systems, schools must articulate their own needs and values first, adopt platforms selectively, and seek policy safeguards that protect their educational mission.

Suggested Citation: Boninger, F. & Nichols, T.P. (2025). Fit for purpose? How today’s commercial digital platforms subvert key goals of public education. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/digital-platforms