CONTINUING EDUCATION
Businesswire | May 24, 2023
Amplify, a publisher of next-generation curriculum and assessment programs, announced today it has raised a Series C funding round led by Cox Enterprises, a family-owned, Atlanta-based company committed to connectivity, mobility, and sustainable innovation. Cox joins Amplify’s current investors, including Emerson Collective, Learn Capital, and A-Street Ventures.
The funding will support Amplify in continuing to expand the breadth and depth of its K-12 product portfolio, which distinctly combines high-quality, evidence-based instruction with digital-forward delivery to help teachers celebrate and extend their students’ thinking, knowledge, and skills. Already a market leader in literacy and science, Amplify is launching a suite of math programs that will reshape mathematics education by bringing together the leading open-source curriculum (IM K-12 Math™ authored by Illustrative Mathematics®) with the most-beloved teaching and learning platform in math education, Desmos Classroom. The goal is to help every student learn – and learn to love – mathematics.
“Amplify has experienced significant growth and is now proud to serve close to a third of U.S. K-8 students today with programs that uniquely blend the best K-12 content and pedagogy with digital tools that help teachers reach all students and drive measurable academic gains,” said Larry Berger, chief executive officer of Amplify. “This investment will help us grow while ensuring that we elevate K-12 instruction and have as much impact as we can.”
Amplify currently delivers its products and services to over half a million teachers in the United States. Its existing core programs have earned all-green scores on EdReports, a third-party curriculum evaluation site. Amplify’s digital supplemental program, Boost Reading, continues to help schools drive gains in early reading, as does its gold-standard early reading assessment, mCLASS®. By meeting the demand for evidence-based, digital-forward programs, Amplify’s bookings have grown at over a 50 percent compound annual growth rate over the last five years (2017-2022). Amplify also continues to see measurable gains in student achievement when districts and schools implement its programs with some measure of fidelity, e.g., recent studies on Amplify Science, Boost Reading, and Desmos Math 6-8.
“At Cox, we are committed to investing in companies that will reshape their industries over the next generation, bringing positive impact to communities across the country and around the world,” said Mark Lewis, vice president of strategy and investments at Cox Enterprises. “We are excited to help Amplify continue to scale its product offerings and footprint.”
About Amplify
A pioneer in K–12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our captivating core and supplemental programs in literacy, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products turn data into practical instructional support to help all students build a strong foundation in early reading and math. All of our programs provide teachers with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of every student. Today, Amplify reaches more than 10 million students in all 50 states.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | May 18, 2023
Flatiron School, a global provider of technical education, launched curriculum enhancements designed to teach students how to leverage powerful, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The curriculum enhancements affect Flatiron School’s four disciplines - software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and UX / UI product design - and come at a time where AI requirements are increasingly appearing in job descriptions. For the past 10 years, Flatiron School has been committed to keeping curriculum modern, aligning with the ever-evolving tech landscape. Now, as new AI tools emerge, Flatiron School continues to lead tech education in providing students with the skills needed to thrive in today’s job market.
“Even as AI reshapes the industry, we expect demand for tech talent to remain strong,” said Kate Cassino, Flatiron School CEO. “The most competitive talent will have the skills needed to unlock the full potential of AI, and that’s why now is the time to invest in our students. Our latest curriculum enhancements empower students with the skills needed to not only excel in an evolving job market, but also to advance the future of tech through innovation.”
The enhancements cover topics such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and prompt engineering. Students will learn how to use generative AI as a research tool, effectively communicate with AI chatbots, build AI models, and leverage machine learning (ML) for testing. Curriculum enhancements include:
• Software Engineering. Discover how AI can help with code debugging, enable code completion, and integrate AI features into apps. Students will also learn prompt engineering and how to successfully correspond with chatbots.
• Data Science. Learn the fundamentals of AI theory, including concepts such as data leakage, overfitting, and regularization. Students will also learn scikit-learn (a popular AI library for Python programming language) as well as how to build AI models for text data (also known as natural language processing).
• Cybersecurity. Gain experience leveraging AI and machine learning for threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability and penetration testing, and detecting anomalous and behavioral events. Students will also learn how bad actors could leverage AI to crack encryption.
• UX / UI Product Design. Explore how to co-create with AI for inspiration, as well as how to analyze potential biases in AI-generated design solutions. Students will also learn about the implications of AI on intellectual property, how to develop user journeys with generative AI, and how to use natural language processing to automate identification of patterns in user data.
Taught by instructors with real-world experience, Flatiron School’s courses are offered online or in-person on New York City or Denver campuses. Students can choose full-time or part-time programs, which are paced between 15 and 60 weeks. Upon graduation Flatiron School provides up to 180 days of 1-on-1 career coaching.
About Flatiron
Since 2012, Flatiron School has been an education innovator, training over 10,000 graduates in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and product design. Flatiron School works with students, universities and colleges, and industry-leading companies around the world to provide essential technical training. When it comes to landing a job, Flatiron School graduates have a proven track record of success thanks to experienced instructors and dedicated career coaches.
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CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
StrongMind | March 21, 2023
StrongMind recently earned the 1EdTech™ certification for OneRoster® 1.1 for its StrongMind Rostering product.
With OneRoster, schools can securely and reliably exchange roster information, course resources, and grades between learning tools, platforms and systems, saving educators time in their already busy days. Using OneRoster to reduce the administrative burdens of ensuring the technology works, gives educators the space and time to leverage their tools to create more impactful and personalized learning experiences.
StrongMind is invested in the mission of 1EdTech, as a Contributing Member of the member-led, non-profit ed tech organization that is accelerating the digital transformation of learning. As such, StrongMind prioritizes privacy and security for student data and interoperability among systems, leading to ease of use for StrongMind products by schools.
StrongMind Rostering helps teachers and administrators easily share student information between different education programs, such as class rosters, grades and enrollment data. With StrongMind Rostering, districts and schools can save time and reduce errors because it utilizes the 1EdTech One Roster specification, making it easy to use and ensuring security of student information. Schools can say goodbye to manually transferring data between systems and hello to seamless information exchange with StrongMind Rostering.
"We are excited to announce the adoption of the OneRoster specification for our StrongMind Rostering product, which will enhance our product's interoperability and streamline data management for educators, ultimately improving student outcomes," said Derek Neighbors, Senior Vice President Technology, StrongMind.
"To earn this certification, StrongMind had to put in the work and not only say they complied with the OneRoster standards but prove they made it work," said 1EdTech Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Rob Abel. "With this certification, it will be easier for StrongMind's customers to get the data they need when and where they need it."
About StrongMind
StrongMind partners with schools for forward-thinking solutions to address unique challenges. With engaging digital curriculum and SEL, a suite of edtech tools, services, and clear insights, we maximize student achievement and help schools thrive. With multiple Digital Promise Research-Design certifications and more than 60 awards, we innovate into the future.
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