Highlights from the LEGO State of the Classroom Engagement Report

Last week, I attended the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) conference in Chicago. The exhibit hall at the conference was packed with organizations hoping to inform policymakers on just about every topic under the sun. To help illustrate the wide array of organizations present, EdChoice’s booth was nestled next to the Beer Institute, McDonald’s, and Decriminalizing Sex Work. There was certainly no shortage of interesting conversations in our area of the exhibit hall.

Another company present at NCSL was LEGO. I was quick to visit their booth for two reasons. First, obviously, I hoped they were giving away LEGOs (no luck there). Additionally, I made a point to ask about LEGO’s relationship with K-12 education and if there were any internal conversations at LEGO around school choice or education savings accounts (ESAs), more specifically.

I learned that LEGO Education has been around for over 45 years, working alongside schools, school districts, and educators to help students learn about a variety of subjects including robotics, science, computer science, and AI, just to name a few. I was hoping they’d have a high-level data point or dollar amount to help illustrate that LEGOs have been a part of public school curriculum for a long time, an idea that school choice opponents tend to forget nowadays. Unfortunately, they did not have any data to share in terms of how many schools or school districts they currently partner with.

As a whole, the representatives I spoke to were not super familiar with school choice or ESAs, but they pointed out that LEGO Education has done a bit of research on classroom engagement as recently as 2024.

Turns out, they might’ve undersold their own research. LEGO Education’s State of Classroom Engagement Report examines survey data from over 6,000 administrators, teachers, parents, and students (age 5-14) across 5 different countries, including the US. The survey was fielded from May 15 – June 15, 2024.

Given what we know from EdChoice’s own public opinion research, I was keen to learn what LEGO Education’s report found on the topic of classroom engagement and see how our data stacks up in comparison, when possible. Here are a few of the highlights from LEGO’s report:

Students prefer hands-on, play-based experiences and opportunities to collaborate with classmates

When asked about different ways of learning, students prefer hands-on experiences and opportunities to collaborate with classmates over options like “watching a movie/video,” “playing online games,” or any options involving working alone. Notably, this preference increases by age, rising from 36% for students in grades K-2, to 44% for students in grades 3-5, to 46% for students in grades 6-8.

Unfortunately, according to the report, the opportunities for playful, hands-on, and collaborative experiences become less frequent as students get older. Just under half of students in grades K-2 (49%) report frequent opportunities of hands-on learning experiences, while 39% of students in grades 3-5 say the same, finally dropping to 33% for students in grades 6-8.

Disengagement is linked to a few key issues schools are facing

According to the report, nearly half of US administrators (47%) believe that absenteeism and overall declines in enrollment are related to students being disengaged. Moreover, nearly two-thirds of US teachers report that disengaged students demonstrate increased behavioral issues.

We’ve seen this sentiment in our own polling as well, specifically from the absenteeism angle. In our August 2024 survey of American teenagers, we asked teens why they think chronic absenteeism has affected more than 25% of American students over the past few years. The most likely reasons, according to teens, were that “they think school is boring” (43%) or “they think school is pointless” (42%).

In a similar vein, in our March 2024 survey of teens, 64% of teenagers agreed with the statement “school is boring,” while only 44% of teens agreed with the statement “my teachers prepare interesting lessons.”

High student engagement correlates to teacher well-being

This finding might seem obvious, but it serves as another lever to pull when we’re considering the issue of teacher retention and burn out. Data from the LEGO report showed that 80% percent of teachers say they’d be happier in their job and find it more rewarding if their students were more engaged in learning. Of teachers who describe their students as “engaged,” only 42% say they are considering leaving the profession. Among teachers who do not describe their students as “engaged,” the percentage who say they are considering leaving the profession jumps to 53%.

Our most recent survey of teachers (April 2026) revealed more about the dire state of teacher morale. Just over one-fourth of teachers (26%) said that K-12 education is heading in the right direction nationwide. Furthermore, only 22% of teachers were likely to recommend the teaching profession to a friend or family member.

Where do we go from here?

Increase student engagement and…. boom! Education reform is an easy game!

In all seriousness, increasing student engagement and implementing strategies to do so are not always straightforward. At the same time, there are some findings from this report that deserve more attention. I’m most curious about the first one. How can we increase the frequency of hands-on, collaborative experiences for students as they progress in school? More hands-on collaborative experiences has the potential to produce positive second order effects, as increased student engagement can be a boon for students, families, as well as teachers. That is something I’ll be thinking more about in my work going forward.

Unsurprisingly, I’m also thinking about how we can give families more flexibility in a growing K-12 education marketplace. A more robust marketplace will allow for a supply side of K-12 education that is more responsive to the changing needs of parents and students. Perhaps there are more schools now than before that are prioritizing hands-on, collaborative experiences for their students. ESA funds can also provide parents the flexibility to buy tools, curricula, and experiences that are more hands on.

It’s our job now to make it so every family has the knowledge and the funds to access such opportunities.

This was originally published to our Substack.