The Education Technology Industry Network, a division of the Software & Information Industry Association commissioned Empirical Education Inc. to provide guidelines for research given the accelerated development of cloud-based technology and the important policy changes brought about by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The guidelines will help developers and publishers ride this wave of change from No Child Left Behind's (NCLB's) sluggish concept of "scientifically-based" to ESSA's dynamic view of "evidence" for continuous improvement. These Guidelines focus on the K-12 market because there are characteristics that make schools unique, particularly the availability of standardized data at national, state, and school district levels that can be used as outcome measures. These characteristics are driven by federal legislation in the U.S. that does not regulate pre-K, higher education, or international institutions. [This report was produced for The Education Technology Industry Network of SIIA.]