In September, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded numerous grants for their Literacy Courseware Challenge. The primary goal of this challenge is to provide funding to companies that will use innovative methods to help close the K-12 literacy gap.
ConnectEDU, a technology company that is empowering students by informing their academic and career decisions and guiding them on their pathways from school to career, was the recipient of a $500,000 grant, the highest amount awarded.
I recently had the chance to speak with Nick Franco, the Senior Director of Business Development for ConnectEDU, and discuss how the company plans to use this money to build on current innovations and create new technologies to help close the literacy gap.
I recently had the chance to speak with Nick Franco, the Senior Director of Business Development for ConnectEDU, and discuss how the company plans to use this money to build on current innovations and create new technologies to help close the literacy gap.
If you’re not familiar, ConnectEDU is an organization that serves over 20 million users, in 5,000 educational institutions, across 40 countries. They provide a variety of services to the K-12 sector, everything from data management, to helping schools find 3rd party resources, to assisting students with college and career planning.
Now that ConnectEDU has received this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they will be meeting with the other award recipients in late October. These companies, which include 3rd party content developers, and content aggregators (like ConnectEDU), will work together to develop new solutions to not only close the literacy gap, but to improve K-12 education in general.
Now that ConnectEDU has received this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they will be meeting with the other award recipients in late October. These companies, which include 3rd party content developers, and content aggregators (like ConnectEDU), will work together to develop new solutions to not only close the literacy gap, but to improve K-12 education in general.
ConnectEDU has also been working with the New York State Education Department (NYSED) in partnership with CaseNEX-DataCation to deploy a digital dashboard that will make learning resource recommendations from EngageNY, the State's digital content repository.
NYSED recently launched an initiative to catalogue, tag, and organize learning materials in EngageNY, which will make this recommendations framework possible. Imagine a teacher being able to log onto a digital dashboard that shows them exactly where each student stands in relation to specific content and Common Core State Standards.
NYSED recently launched an initiative to catalogue, tag, and organize learning materials in EngageNY, which will make this recommendations framework possible. Imagine a teacher being able to log onto a digital dashboard that shows them exactly where each student stands in relation to specific content and Common Core State Standards.
Using real-time data, ConnectEDU’s DataCation Compass does just that, alerting teachers, parents and students of progress against Common Core Standards to recalibrate and realign instruction based on individual student needs. Not only that, but this dashboard pulls from a huge variety of lesson plans (both online and classroom-based) that focus on the specific skills that their students need extra help with, providing supplemental courseware recommendations to the students, themselves, on an individual basis.
In the big picture, this is what ConnectEDU has created, a framework for managing digital content. Teachers, administrators, students, and districts can use the ConnectEDU dashboard to manage and analyze student data, discover new learning material, plan and prepare for college or career paths and align learning opportunities to the Common Core Standards, and it’s all in one easy to find place.
In the big picture, this is what ConnectEDU has created, a framework for managing digital content. Teachers, administrators, students, and districts can use the ConnectEDU dashboard to manage and analyze student data, discover new learning material, plan and prepare for college or career paths and align learning opportunities to the Common Core Standards, and it’s all in one easy to find place.
Overall, Mr. Franco and ConnectEDU are incredibly excited for the opportunity this grant has provided. This funding will undoubtedly help the company build upon their current momentum and meet their goal of empowering students by informing their academic and career decisions. If your district is looking for a better way to manage student data, recommend lessons, and organize Common Core Standards-based information, I definitely recommend taking the time to check out ConnectEDU.
