Effective communication between parents and teachers is essential to improving student achievement. Research demonstrates that when parents are kept in the loop, it positively impacts their child's education. However, many obstacles can prevent this two-way flow of information from either side. Work and life demands can impede parents' involvement at their child's school. Limited flexibility in work hours can prevent parents from participating in school events. Taking time off work is often impossible for families in financial difficulty. Parents working hourly jobs, or at irregular hours, can’t participate in school activities. Single parents may not have access to childcare or the finances to pay for it.

Teachers not being able to provide information in a timely manner can obstruct parents from stepping in promptly to tackle issues related to their child in the context of their education. It also leaves teachers in the dark as they lack this additional support from families, having to navigate these issues alone with a child in real-time in the classroom. Text messaging can be a cost-effective way to reduce chronic absenteeism in elementary schools, particularly for those students with a history of missing classes. The National Center for Education Evaluation at the Institute of Education Sciences conducted a study and found that most parents welcomed text messages about their child's attendance. The study found that texting reduced the chronic absence rate in elementary schools by 18% in one year.

ClassDojo is a school communication and behavior management platform for teachers, students, and families to easily share updates, provide feedback, and engage in meaningful conversations, allowing for greater connectivity that is streamlined to support student growth and achievement. Teachers can share what's being learned in the classroom back home through student portfolios, photos, videos, and messages.

ClassDojo was incubated from the Imagine K-12 education seed accelerator and was founded in 2011 by Sam Chaudhary (CEO) and Liam Don (President).

Prior to ClassDojo, Chaudhary studied economics at the University of Cambridge and worked in McKinsey’s education group in London. Don studied computer science at Durham University, did Ph.D. research on educational technologies, and spent some time teaching robotics to high school kids.

Chaudhary and Don started thinking about ClassDojo at a Cambridge entrepreneur's weekend. They were both concerned by how education had drastically changed around the world, but classrooms had remained unchanged. Three months after their first meeting, the pair moved to Silicon Valley. They cold-called thousands of teachers, interviewed hundreds across the United States and the United Kingdom, and learned that the biggest problem teachers were facing is student behavior and classroom management.

Many teachers told the pair that they were spending more than half of their time managing behavior rather than teaching, often leading them to ultimately leave their job. Despite this, teachers were rarely provided with tools to improve behavior; most solutions focused on punishment. After realizing that most companies or tools in the education space prioritize services for grades and tests, Chaudhary and Don consulted teachers and found a major technological gap when it came to behavior management. Seeing the opportunity to make a change, they decided to build a digital tool that would aid teachers in facilitating better classroom management and reinforcing positive student behavior.

ClassDojo's first version, which allowed teachers to provide students with feedback, rapidly grew to 35K classrooms within 12 weeks of its launch. This early success prompted Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham to invest in its seed round personally. The platform started as a simple tool allowing teachers to reward positive behavior points to students but quickly evolved into a comprehensive communication platform.

Teacher-Parent Communication

ClassDojo provides a direct communication channel between teachers and parents. It facilitates the exchange of messages, photographs, stickers, and voice notes. It enables group messaging, class announcements, urgent messages, quiet hours, and attendance management. Teachers can connect parents to their class using a class link, print family invites, and provide parent code invitations. Parents are able to translate posts and messages into different languages.

Source: entrepreneur 360

Class Story & School Story

Teachers can share updates and engage with students and parents by posting to Class Story and School Story. Teachers can edit or delete Class and School Story posts and events, ensuring up-to-date and accurate information. They can create and manage student portfolios, assign activities, and provide a personalized learning experience. Teachers can also find activity ideas and assign worksheets or activities to individual students or groups within a class. Students can access their accounts to view assigned activities, access their portfolios, and submit voice recordings.

Source: ClassDojo

School Directory

School Directory enables school administrators to manage and organize their school’s information. It offers functionalities such as uploading a roster, importing students to specific classes, editing the directory, merging duplicate listings, removing teachers, and archiving or graduating classes. This streamlines the administrative processes and ensures accurate data management within the school environment.

Classroom Management Toolkit

Teachers are given a toolkit with different features to manage their classrooms. The Directions feature enables teachers to create a list of activities that they can present to their students. The ‘Music’ feature provides auditory options that can promote student concentration or enhance enjoyment during designated leisure times. The ‘Group Maker’ feature creates an automated group to facilitate the arrangement of students into various groups. The ‘Think Pair Share’ feature enables one to post a prompt that fosters interactive classroom dialogue. The ‘Random’ feature is an impartial student selector useful when a volunteer is needed. The ‘Timer’ feature is a timer that can be used for time management tasks and transitions. The ‘Today’ feature allows for the efficient display of morning tasks, welcome messages, or essential announcements.

Source: ClassDojo

ClassDojo Plus

ClassDojo’s subscription plan is a premium offering for families, including unlimited messaging, access to the prior year’s memories, detailed progress reports, unlimited at-home feedback points, upgraded messaging, skill-building resources, and a family account with three additional subscriptions.

Source: ClassDojo

Big Ideas

ClassDojo’s Big Ideas offering guides teachers to initiate classroom discussions on thought-provoking topics that stimulate the mind and encourage personal growth. These topics include growth mindset, empathy, and other brain-expanding subjects. It’s meant to spark engaging conversations amongst students, foster critical thinking, and the development of social and emotional skills.

Source: ClassDojo

Resources

ClassDojo offers a variety of tools and materials to support the use of their platform. Teachers can get started with the quick-start guide and have access to ready-made back-to-school presentations to help families understand how to stay connected and support their kids using ClassDojo. A family introduction letter is provided to inform families, and there’s an overview tour of the family experience on ClassDojo.

Teachers can access training materials to share ClassDojo with colleagues and school leaders. The site also provides various visual assets, including pre-designed images for class stories, classroom organization materials, coloring sheets, and classroom decoration options with a wide set of images and posters.

Source: ClassDojo

Customer

ClassDojo’s core customers are parents, teachers, students, and administrators. Teachers can use ClassDojo to help manage their classrooms, track student behavior and participation, assign and grade assignments, and communicate easily with students and parents. Parents use it to receive real-time teacher feedback, view their child’s progress, access assignments and grades, and gain insights into their child’s performance. Students use its interactive digital tools to enhance their learning, set goals, and receive feedback from their teachers.

Market Size

The rapid adoption of classroom messaging platform tools in K-12 schools across the US is evident, as their use has increased by 25% in the five years preceding 2023. As of April 2023, over 90% of K-12 schools in the US use some form of digital communication tool, while 75% of teachers reported using a messaging platform at least once a week to communicate with students. The global market size of academic learning management systems, which ClassDojo could be considered adjacent to, was $16.2 billion in 2022 and was projected to reach $41 billion in 2029, representing a CAGR of 14% during the forecast period.

Schoology: Founded in 2009, Schoology enables communication between teachers, students, and parents. It provides a centralized platform for course management, assignment distribution, discussions, and more functions. As of May 2022, Schoology reported having over $20 million users on its platform, which is used in about 60K schools across the United States. Schoology has raised a total of $57 million. Schoology is broader in its offerings in comparison to ClassDojo, including features such as internet usage monitoring, report card generation, and more collaboration tools. PowerSchool, an LMS provider, acquired it in 2019.

Remind: Founded in 2011, Remind is a communication platform designed to connect teachers, students, and parents to facilitate easy communication. Like ClassDojo, it allows schools to reach their communities and connects educators and families. As of May 2023, Remind reached over 80% of US public schools, serving more than 7 million students and families. It facilitated over 20K one-on-one tutoring sessions. The company has raised $59.5 million in funding.

Seesaw: Founded in 2013, Seesaw is a digital portfolio platform that allows students to document their learning progress through photos, videos, drawings, and other digital media. Teachers and parents can also view and comment on the student’s work. As of May 2023, the platform is used by over 10 million teachers, students, and families every month across more than 75% of schools in the US. Seesaw has raised $188 million in funding. Unlike ClassDojo, Seesaw is more focused on the digital portfolio component to track students’ progress.

Bloomz: Founded in 2014, Bloomz is an all-in-one communication app that connects districts, schools, teachers, parents, and students, increasing parental engagement. Like ClassDojo, for teachers and schools, it supports announcements, attendance management, events, assignments, and groups. Bloomz has raised $5 million in funding.

ClassDojo generates revenue through a freemium model. The company does offer an optional, paid subscription that provides additional features for families to further engage with their child’s school. Families can try ClassDojo Plus with a seven-day free trial before opting for a monthly plan that costs $4.99 or a yearly plan that costs $59.99.

Source: ClassDojo

As of July 2022, ClassDojo is used by 95% of all schools in the United States. It served 51 million students in 2020. As of January 2021, it had more than over 100 million downloads.

In 2019, the company reportedly achieved profitability for the first time four months after introducing Beyond School, an optional subscription plan offering families additional learning experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 accelerated the growth of ClassDojo’s revenue and customer base. The company nearly tripled revenue in 2020, with hundreds of thousands of families becoming paying subscribers. In 2022 it was estimated that ClassDojo’s annualized revenue was more than $30 million.

ClassDojo raised $125 million in a Series D funding round led by Tencent at a ~$1.3 billion valuation in 2021. Notable investors previously involved in ClassDojo’s funding include Shasta Ventures, SignalFire, Reach Capital, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. ClassDojo has raised $191.1 million in total funding.

Continued Expansion into International Markets

ClassDojo has an opportunity to keep expanding into international markets. Although the company states as of 2023 that its platform is used in 180 countries, it can deepen its market penetration in those countries to resemble the US, where it is reportedly used in 95% of all K-8 schools. The company can strategically focus on growing its user base in international markets where it has already established a foothold to enhance its global market position.

Integration of Data Analytics

By having tools that allow for collecting and analyzing data on student engagement, behavior, and academic performance, ClassDojo can generate more actionable insights that inform instructional decision-making. This can include identifying areas of improvement, tracking student progress, and providing personalized feedback.

Professional Development for Teachers

ClassDojo has the opportunity to expand its offerings by providing more professional development and support resources for teachers. By carving out a dedicated space within the platform for educators to access professional development courses, teaching resources, and collaboration tools, ClassDojo can empower teachers by providing more opportunities to help enhance their instructional practices.

Monetization Challenges

ClassDojo’s revenue model is primarily based on its optional subscription service for families. Its core service can be used for free by teachers, schools, parents, and students. If the company fails to convert enough users to paid subscriptions or expand its offering strategically, it could negatively impact its revenue and financial viability.

Regulatory Compliance

ClassDojo operates in a highly-regulated sector, and the company needs to comply with various laws and regulations, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Non-compliance with these regulations could result in significant fines and legal action, negatively impacting the company’s reputation and financial performance. Furthermore, new and emerging regulations in education could increase compliance costs and impact the company’s operations. As the regulatory environment evolves, ClassDojo will have to remain vigilant and ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

ClassDojo is a school communication and behavior management platform for students, parents, and teachers. It facilitates communication between educators and parents or guardians, including student academic and behavioral performance updates. The company’s revenue model mainly relies on its subscription service, which remains vulnerable to economic downturns, budget constraints, and fluctuations in the education sector. The rapidly changing regulatory landscape in education implies that ClassDojo must remain adaptable to evolving regulations and compliance obligations. The company’s prospects remain tied to its ability to navigate these uncertainties successfully.