K-12 or Kindergarten to Grade 12… In recent times, the K-12 education market is witnessing significant activity in the US. This primarily comprises creation of content and assessment tests for K-12 students. Spurred into prominence by the 'No Child Left Behind' (NCLB) Act, which requires the state to produce individual, diagnostic test reports of students' progress, this segment is witnessing dramatic growth. The US federal investment in K-12 education has risen from $15 billion in 2000 to $25 billion in 2005.

State booty translates into huge opportunity

Research firm Eduventures, estimates that the pre-K-12 assessment market could be as high as $2.29 billion in 2006, with maximum growth in state assessment programs.

Some of the large global publishers that have plunged into the opportunity area are NCS Pearson, CTB/McGraw-Hill, Harcourt and Riverside Publishing (Houghton Mifflin). Other global niche players, which focus on test development, administration, scoring and reporting of results include:

• Data Recognition
• Measurement Inc.
• ETS (non-profit)
• American Institutes for Research
  

Looking to build competencies, global publishers are increasingly looking at acquiring niche players, and some of the recent acquisitions include:

• CTB/McGraw-Hill acquired the GrowNetwork
•  ETS bought the Pulliam Group
• Houghton Mifflin acquired EduSoft
  

Approximately $473 million worth of contracts, which included functions like content development, psychometric analysis, scoring was outsourced in 2005, says Eduventures

Can Indian vendors tap the opportunity?

Despite the huge global opportunity there is no significant traction in the Indian vendor space. There are a few vendors trying to service the segments created in the K-12 education industry. The key areas are:

• Study content creation
• Testing and assessment
• Online tutoring

Currently, the Indian vendor space catering to K-12 opportunity is highly fragmented. There are no large players focused onthe US market. Most of the study content providers cater to the corporate as well as K-12 segments. There is a plethora of homegrown outfits, which thrive on one-off contracts particularly in the online-tutoring segment.

Testing and assessment is a huge emerging opportunity, which requires considerable scale, experience and marketing clout on the part of the vendor. Currently there are barely a few in this space, which can drive and service the opportunity and provide the much-touted offshore advantage…