Competitions Connect Tech. Startups With K-12 Educators

N.Y.C., Virginia aim to inspire creation of better products

Many education-technology developers are convinced they have great ideas. Many schools have great needs, and are convinced that technology can help meet them, if they can find the product or tool tailored to the challenges facing their students.

Now, some state and local education agencies are bringing an age-old concept—competitions—to unfamiliar environments and audiences in an effort to close what they see as a disconnect between ed-tech developers and schools. The goal is to encourage technology entrepreneurs and companies to think more closely about how they can craft products to meet the specific demands of schools, as opposed to coming up with devices that look or sound great in theory but are of little practical value to educators or students.

The architects of those technology competitions liken them to contests that have brought together public and private sector interests in other fields, such as science, aviation, and transportation, with the...