TCEA 2026: Esports' Benefits Outweigh Its Implementation Challenges

Gaming Toward Better Education Outcomes

Educational experts at TCEA said they see esports as a viable avenue to improve teaching outcomes, and every year  more districts show interest. 

"I've seen it go from constantly having esports 101 conversations and just even explaining what this is, to now it's, 'OK, I know I want to do this’ to ‘How do I do it,’ or ‘I have this version, I'm ready to level it up,'"Josh Whetherholt, esports learning environment advisor at CDW•G, said.

According to Whetherholt, schools have documented improvements in grade-point averages, behavioral issues and attendance. Esports has also helped fold new students into the school community.

"Usually about 65% to 70% have never been in an extracurricular before they joined esports,” Whetherholt said. “So we're tapping into an underserved population. 

Attendance, which was flagged earlier this year as a top concern among K–12 districts, also benefits 

“A lot of times if they didn't have anything, they didn’t necessarily have a reason to show up to school,” Whetherholt said. “When we bring esports into the classroom and provide structure, we can put the same codes of conduct we would on any other extracurricular. So now they have to show up the day before and after a competition to be eligible for the next one, and they have to keep a 2.5 or 3.0 GPA.”

Creating New Career Pathways for K–12 Students

Esports has also demonstrated its ability to open up viable new career pathways for students.

“Students want to learn how to code their own games, how to make their own digital assets,” Whetherholt said. “They want to start broadcasting and streaming. Maybe they want to work back-of-house and learn about lighting and sound." 

As a billion-dollar industry, esports now touches a vast web of professional disciplines. This includes everything from human resources, to general managers, team trainers, marketing professionals, content creators and operations managers. Most of these skills are transferable to other industries. 

"For example, learning how to be an HR person for an esports team is the same as learning how to be an HR person for a tech company," he said. 

Fort Sam Houston's students experienced career benefits first-hand.

"We've had students in the past that have gained internships with big companies," said one student during the forum. "We had one student get an internship with Dell."

Other students said they’ve benefited from networking at competitions and open houses. For instance, one student was approached by Aaron Jaggers, the head of Texas A&M University-San Antonio Esports program, who told him, "tell me when you graduate."

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Overcoming Esports Adoption Challenges

Schools that attempt to launch an esports program will inevitably face technical and cultural obstacles.

From a technology perspective, schools need to make equipment purchases and infrastructure investments, Obed Hernandez Norism Instructional, technology coordinator, Clint ISD, said. This includes ensuring you have a physical practice space, the requisite connectivity infrastructure, monitors and other equipment. Making a case for these investments isn't easy, nor is securing funding for equipment. PC gaming presents an added layer of complexity in the form of driver updates and continuous maintenance requirements.

As a workaround, many districts start out with Nintendo Switches, which have fewer maintenance requirements. 

Brian Dickman, President of Cleverlike Studios, emphasized during a session on the exhibition floor that accessibility doesn't require high-end devices. Minecraft Education and tools like BlockBench — which is a free 3D modeling software — work on Chromebooks. His company develops custom tools — skin pack generators for customer characters, image importers and voice narration capabilities — to help bridge gaps between gaming platforms and educational requirements. 

An image importer, for example, can pull external images into Minecraft Education so students can create virtual galleries or exhibits that impart educational information — historical context for an art piece, or scientific details like how to identify plants, for instance. 

Dickman's "game brain" methodology empowers students to learn transferable skills such as 3D spatial awareness, hierarchy and other animation fundamentals while remaining engaged and motivated. Students can also create Minecraft character skins for projects tied to English characterization, history or art. 

"We sneak in the vegetables," Dickman said.

Parental buy-in is a steeper challenge. Parents often view video games as distractions rather than educational tools. For Clint ISD, Hernandez said that he addressed skepticism through open houses where parents could see students competing and collaborating. 

Despite these challenges, schools are continuing to integrate esports into career and technical education pathways. 

"We have a lot of schools that are like, 'we have a varsity team or an after school club, and we're competing,” Whetherholt said. “We're ready to make this more academic.”

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