For many companies, the decision between building a solution in-house or paying another company for outside services boils down to which product development needs are prioritized—and whether the team can devote enough people (in this case, engineers) to the problem.

Clever is also gaining ground at a time when many districts use legacy student information databases that were not designed to integrate directly with dozens of learning apps or allow students to access them through a single portal. “It’s a barrier to learning, ” said Mr. Bosmeny. “Our goal is to open up access as quickly as we can.”

The badge with the QR is a product of education technology company Clever, which has simplified the way students in almost half of U.S. schools sign on to more than 225 different educational applications.