How Woodford County Streamlined Their Edtech to a Single Unified Platform
Woodford County Public Schools in central Kentucky serves about four thousand students from preschool through grade twelve. The district has a long-standing reputation for putting practical innovation into action and building lasting partnerships that keep teachers and students at the center of its mission.
Why one connected system matters
As Chief Information Officer of Woodford, Dr. Josh Rayburn knows what matters most in an edtech relationship. “The biggest thing I look for is having a good customer service team,” he said. “We have about seven to eight hundred teachers and staff members, and everyone has a different idea of what they are looking for. Finding a partner that can provide us with multiple services and provide them under one umbrella is very important to me."
For Dr. Rayburn, a unified platform is about trust, security, and efficiency. “For me, it’s about not having to roster and share data with multiple platforms, and knowing one vendor meets our cybersecurity requirements,” he said. “Pear Deck Learning is one platform and one organization, and I know they are safe. Knowing Pear Start’s AI doesn’t train models with student data is very important.”
That single-vendor model also means less time spent managing contracts and integrations, and more time focused on instruction. Woodford also partners with GoGuardian, Pear Deck Learning’s parent company, to provide safety and security solutions for their district and classroom management support. With one vendor, Woodford gets seven connected products that cover everything from classroom engagement to assessment to student safety.
From pandemic tool to innovative platform
That combination of breadth and support has kept Woodford County invested in Pear Deck for years. But this last year, usage began to taper off. Dr. Rayburn took a hard look at the numbers. “I looked at our usage this year and thought, ‘We are really low’. We had internal discussions about how we could increase usage so we could keep Pear Deck Learning. I even told our customer service representative we were not going to renew.”
Instead of letting the conversation end there, Pear Deck Learning took a transparent approach and shared what was coming next. The team walked through the release of Pear Start, explaining how it would expand the unified Pear Deck Learning platform and make it easier for teachers to create differentiated learning materials in seconds. We invited Woodford County into early access through our alpha program as we continued to evolve Pear Start into what it is today.
During the program, Dr. Rayburn saw the transformation of a tool he considered a relic of the pandemic to a platform ready to address all his district’s needs in one place.
“We saw how forward-thinking Pear Deck Learning is as a company,” Dr. Rayburn said. “It’s not stagnant. Pear Start lets us bring Pear Deck back to our teachers and show how easy it is for them to use AI for their benefit. Our usage has gone way up since we introduced Pear Start.”
Finding gaps and filling them
One of the key features that interested Woodford in Pear Deck Learning was the integration of AI throughout the platform. As AI shocked the education world in 2022, Dr. Rayburn knew he couldn’t just block and ignore it. AI needed to be included in his district. “We did not block ChatGPT,” he explained. “I wanted students using AI so they would be prepared for their workplace. It’s not our workplace, it’s theirs.” This also included using AI to support their educators in the classroom.
Sandra Adams and Erica Snow, Woodford’s digital learning coaches, were part of the Pear Start alpha program, helping shape the tool by sharing ideas for features they wanted to see. At the same time, they were exploring other AI tools on the market. When the Pear Deck Learning team quickly incorporated their feedback into the alpha build, the combination of listening and forward thinking convinced the district to stay. “That kind of listening and forward thinking kept us as customers,” Dr. Rayburn said. “It stopped us from pursuing another AI tool.”
Erica was also impressed with the single platform approach. When she joined Woodford, she investigated how many tools were being used across the district, and quickly discovered many administrations had no idea. “When I came in, I asked teachers what they were using because we didn’t have a clear way to track tools,” she said. “Even administrators couldn’t tell me everything that was being used, and that made it hard to know where we were spending money and whether it was making a difference for students.”
Through that discovery process, certain tools stood out. “Teachers were enthusiastic about Pear Assessment,” Erica said. “We saw another district using it with fidelity and showing tremendous growth. Once we saw how Pear Assessment, Pear Practice, Pear Deck, and Pear Start work together and tailor learning to students, it became an easy sell. It does what we need it to do.”
Sandra had seen that same energy in pockets across the district. “We already had teachers who loved Pear Assessment,” she said. “When we showed those teachers how Pear Start could build differentiated materials right into Pear Assessment and across the platform, their jaws dropped.”
Impact in the classroom
For Woodford, the unified system translated into stronger student engagement and performance. “Across Pear Deck, Pear Practice, and Pear Assessment, students get the whole picture,” Sandra said.
During a training on Pear Practice, a middle school math teacher who tried Pear Practice in her classroom shared with Erica how much her students loved it, and invited her to come see it firsthand. “She told me, ‘My students are eating this up, it’s amazing.’ I visited her class and saw teamwork, individual practice, and fun elements like avatars,” Erica explained. “It was the most engagement I’ve seen in a math class in a long time.”
Pear Assessment has also become a teacher favorite. By mirroring state testing formats, Pear Assessment gives students an advantage when test day arrives. “That familiarity helps students build confidence and helps districts improve scores,” Erica said.
“Data informs everything we do,” Dr. Rayburn said. “From the district level down to the individual student, it guides the next step. With GoGuardian Teacher and Pear Deck Learning together, a teacher can respond to data right away and push out targeted practice. Having all of that under one umbrella is powerful.”
Redefining how AI fits into learning
Even the name of Pear Start resonates with Dr. Rayburn because it fits his philosophy. “With AI, it’s a starting spot, not an ending spot,” he said. “AI is your friend. It helps you get started, but it’s not going to finish the product for you. You still have to tweak it and understand the basics.”
For Erica, the real benefit is how AI gives teachers instant, actionable data. “They can walk around, confer with students, and help them take ownership of their learning,” she said.
Sandra sees the AI capabilities in Pear Deck Learning as empowering, especially when it prompts students to revisit and strengthen their understanding through daily practice on previous standards.
In the math class she visited, a Pear Practice activity generated by the AI contained a few errors. Instead of seeing that as a setback, the teacher used it as a teachable moment. “Students were talking about why the AI got it wrong and how to fix it,” Sandra said. “That was pivotal for me. It showed them that learning matters, and that they are still needed in the process. AI is not replacing them.”
Partnering for ongoing innovation
Woodford County’s journey shows what happens when a district and an edtech partner work side by side. The teachers and leaders spoke up when something was not working. They shared ideas. Pear Deck Learning listened, adapted, and built the features they needed. The result is a platform constantly evolving to make teaching and learning stronger every day.
