Resource mobilization: Ecosystem mapping, investing in organizations and products to solve for gaps, and developing proof points to tackle system level barriers to blended learning.

Scaling practices: Creating resources, capturing practices and launching system networks to disseminate and scale quality practices and conditions with quality.

2012

Launch of The Learning Accelerator

TLA created with the mission to address barriers for school districts implementing blended and personalized learning.
Learn More
2012

February 2013

Investing into Education SuperHighway

$500k catalytic investment spurs organization scaling to respond to the “Digital Divide.”
Learn More
February 2013

May 2013

Human Capital Research: Understanding Teacher Needs

Supporting 8 organizations building human capital in education.
Learn More
May 2013

June 2013

Advising Tech Leaders: President Obama’s ConnectEd Initiative

TLA, Digital Promise, and EveryoneOn guide leaders as they upgrade schools with free technology and expertise.
Learn More
June 2013

October 2013

Exploring Open Education Resources

Leaders from 3 states and 4 education-focused organizations join TLA’s convening on open education resources (OER).
Learn More
October 2013

February 2014

K-12 OER Collaborative Launches

$400K of seed-funding from TLA supports organization expansion.
Learn More
February 2014

August 2014

Communication Supports for Districts

Working with 3 districts in Rhode Island, Colorado, and Ohio, communication supports are co-tested.
Learn More
August 2014

April 2015

Open-Access Communication Guides for Districts

2 communication guides created to support districts.
Learn More
April 2015

July 2015

Community Collaboration for School Innovation Toolkit

48 Colorado schools impacted through pilot of new toolkit.
Learn More
July 2015

March 2016

Beth Rabbitt Named CEO

The Learning Accelerator: A New Path Forward.
Learn More
March 2016

April 2016

From K-12 OER Collaborative to Open Up Resources

The Collaborative rolls out into its own 501(c)3 organization: Open Up Resources.
Learn More
April 2016

December 2016

New Measurement Framework for Blended and Personalized Learning

A blended learning measurement framework is created with a focus on teaching and learning.
Learn More
December 2016
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    Launch of The Learning Accelerator

    TLA created with the mission to address barriers for school districts implementing blended and personalized learning.

    A dynamic nonprofit founded with the belief that tech can and should play a role in supporting students. Drawing on over a decade of impact, TLA is a national nonprofit that works across the education sector to help practitioners, leaders, and policy-makers learn faster from success and innovation and apply that knowledge to improve how we are educating students.

    • 12+ years of accelerating sector learning 
    • 10+ organizations and products created 
    • 150+ unique insights and tools developed
    • 650+ district and system leaders connected 
    • 250,000+ educators interacting with TLA tools yearly 

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed:

    Driving Innovation

     

    Field Impact: 

    • 12+ years of accelerating sector learning 
    • 10+ organizations and products created 
    • 150+ unique insights and tools developed
    • 650+ district and system leaders connected 
    • 250,000+ educators interacting with TLA tools yearly

    Investing into Education SuperHighway

    $500k catalytic investment spurs organization scaling to respond to the “Digital Divide.”

    As part of efforts to close the “Digital Divide,” TLA was responding to the challenge of schools lacking infrastructure and access to sufficient internet connectivity. To spur gap-closing efforts with the goal of closing the K-12 classroom connectivity gap by 2020, TLA invested $500,000 into EducationSuperHighway and provided ongoing strategic guidance and special-project funding to support the organization in its mission to upgrade the internet access in every public school classroom.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Supporting Organizations

    Field Impact: 

    • $500K invested into ESH and the organization is able to scale efforts and hire key employees

    Human Capital Research: Understanding Teacher Needs

    Supporting 8 organizations building human capital in education.

    Supporting educators in moving to new approaches is critical to accelerating the implementation of high-quality blended learning in school districts across the U.S. In partnership with Bellwether Education Partners, TLA’s research on teacher-needs provided an initial framing around the nature of the problem. TLA and Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL) go on to create the first comprehensive framework to guide practitioners in understanding the critical needs and skill needed for teachers. Simultaneously, TLA launches an investment strategy identifying high quality organizations that could create a set of open resources to help solve the human capital problem.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Supporting Organizations

     

    Field Impact: 

    • TLA invests in 8 organizations working across the education ecosystem building human capital

     

    Advising Tech Leaders: President Obama’s ConnectEd Initiative

    TLA, Digital Promise, and EveryoneOn guide leaders as they upgrade schools with free technology and expertise.

    As part of the Obama administration’s ConnectEd Initiative, leaders from Adobe, Apple, AT&T, Autodesk, Coursera, edX, Esri, Microsoft, O’Reilly Media, Prezi, Sprint, and Verizon worked with TLA, Digital Promise, and EveryoneOn to communicate, coordinate, and deliver transformative technologies to school districts across the United States.   


    In 2013, more than 60% of K-12 public schools lacked the high-speed, high-capacity internet access they needed. The ConnectEd Initiative set out with a goal to connect 99% of students to high speed broadband by 2018.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Driving Innovation

    Exploring Open Education Resources

    Leaders from 3 states and 4 education-focused organizations join TLA’s convening on open education resources (OER).

    High-cost, low-quality, and often out-of-date text books were prevalent across U.S. school districts. TLA spurred the opportunity to replace the current publishing model with open education resources and convened a group of state and non-profit leaders to explore the topic.

     

    Mobilizing Knowledge


    Field Impact: 

    • 3 states and over 4 education organizations joining convening
    • Following 2014 convening K-12 OER Collaborative launches (in later slides).

     

    From K-12 OER Collaborative to Open Up Resources

    The Collaborative rolls out into its own 501(c)3 organization: Open Up Resources.

    During the last year’s of the Collaborative, TLA led the process to expand the Collaborative membership to include 12 states, their content specialists, and 8 other education-based organizations. In partnership, the Collaborative members announced an open RFP for vendors interested in developing full-course open instructional materials and received over 200 submissions. The Collaborative surveyed the most critical needs in K-12 instructional materials and rolled out to its own 501(c)(3) after identifying middle school mathematics as its starting point. In 2016, the Collaborative announced its new organization: Open Up Resources, which is now in its go-to-market strategy for its Illustrative Mathematics curricula. The Collaborative/Open Up Resources has raised over $10 million from leading foundations. Today, its vision is to provide educators the tools to transform their classrooms into communities of student achievement and education equity by providing educators best in class, research-based Pre K-12 curricula and professional learning.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Supporting Organizations

     

    Field Impact: 

    • 1 new organization formed
    • $10M in funding

     

    Communication Supports for Districts

    Working with 3 districts in Rhode Island, Colorado, and Ohio, communication supports are co-tested.

    Effective communications can make or break blended learning initiatives. After co-testing communication supports in three districts that were implementing blended learning, TLA builds an understanding of what communication supports are most valuable, what messages are resonating with stakeholders, and if there is a value in communications planning templates.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

     

    District/State Support

     

    Field Impact: 

    • Worked with 3 districts

     

    Open-Access Communication Guides for Districts

    2 communication guides created to support districts.

    After collecting research with three districts implementing blended learning, TLA created resources in order to provide school leaders with an actionable roadmap for developing a communications plan for their blended learning initiatives and included helpful tips and examples from communications experts.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Mobilizing Knowledge

     

    Field Impact: 

    • 2 free, open-access communications guides created

     

    Community Collaboration for School Innovation Toolkit

    48 Colorado schools impacted through pilot of new toolkit.

    TLA collaborated with the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Education Initiative to help school districts understand the importance of community collaboration as a key to innovation. The toolkit included case studies from Colorado school districts, video tutorials, and templates.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    District/State Support

     

    Field Impact: 

    • Archuleta #50 JT school district: 3 school sites
    • District 51 in Mesa County: 45 school sites

     

    Beth Rabbitt Named CEO

    The Learning Accelerator: A New Path Forward.

    Beth Rabbitt becomes Chief Executive Officer of The Learning Accelerator (TLA), championing a focus in 2016 on TLA’s vision of blended learning, measurement, human capital, and knowledge and tool dissemination. She is a nationally recognized expert in education innovation and blended and personalized learning. Prior to becoming CEO in 2016, Beth was a Partner on TLA’s start-up team, leading the organization’s work to develop educator training systems and research on emerging teaching and learning models and practices.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Theme

    New Measurement Framework for Blended and Personalized Learning

    A blended learning measurement framework is created with a focus on teaching and learning.

    TLA embarked on two research-practitioner partnerships with Distinctive Schools in Chicago, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating the work of charter schools serving kids from traditionally underserved backgrounds, and Leadership Public Schools — a network of public charter high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. This partnership demonstrated how the Measurement Agenda could be put into action. TLA measured their personalized learning initiatives. This research identified 5 key takeaways that could be used by other school systems to conduct sound measurement on personalized learning, including: no new data needed to be collected by the school system, measurement needs of each system are unique, and measuring these initiatives can be accomplished in a low cost way.

    Field Resource(s)/Earned Media/Thought Leadership to Embed: 

    Mobilizing Knowledge

     

    Field Impact: 

    • 5 key takeaways
    • 1 new framework

     

    Let’s Connect

    Looking for more information? Email us at

    info@learningaccelerator.org

    Have a media inquiry? Contact Lacey Gonzales at

    lacey.gonzales@learningaccelerator.org

    411 Congress St
    Office 403
    Portland, ME 04101

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