Chairman Doug Dohring Welcomes Global Education Leader Mubuso Zamchiya to the Age of Learning Foundation as Managing Director

Chairman Doug Dohring welcomes Mubuso Zamchiya to the Age of Learning Foundation

Since I announced the establishment of the Age of Learning Foundation at the Education World Forum in London last year, we’ve made tremendous progress on our goal of reaching more underserved children and improving their education, having already provided our learning resources to millions of children in Central America, Africa, and South Asia in this short time.

To further build on this progress, I felt it was time to appoint a highly qualified Managing Director to lead our Foundation’s efforts. After an exhaustive search, I am very pleased to announce that we have found an exceptional candidate: Mubuso Zamchiya. He is a highly respected global education leader with more than two decades of experience in serving children and families. Mubuso earned his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Bristol and a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. You can find out more about his remarkable career in the press announcement linked to below.

Mubuso’s leadership and experience make him an outstanding person for this role. He has such enthusiasm for our learning solutions–ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, and My Math Academy, to name just a few–and the enormous potential of making them available to hundreds of millions of children around the world, at no cost to governments, teachers, and families.

It is the mission of the Foundation to distribute these valuable learning resources to underserved children on a global scale.

I am very excited to have Mubuso join the Age of Learning team to lead the Foundation’s efforts.

Click here to read read more …

Age of Learning Raises $300 Million in Financing Led by TPG, the Largest-Ever Raise by a U.S. Edtech Company

I am thrilled to share that Age of Learning, the edtech company I founded in 2007 and creator of ABCmouse Early Learning Academy, Adventure Academy, English language learning app ABCmouse English, and My Math Academy, has announced a $300 million equity investment in the company. The round is led by TPG and includes Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Madrone Capital Partners. The capital will be used for the company’s global expansion and further increasing investment in new products and technologies to effectively educate more learners.

This funding further validates all the work we’ve done to develop digital educational programs with proven efficacy in increasing children’s learning gains. To date, these programs have helped educate more than 50 million children around the world and have been used in hundreds of thousands of classrooms.

“Every child deserves a strong foundation for academic success, and we are committed to delivering on this promise for kids everywhere,” said Paul Candland, CEO of Age of Learning. “We combine best practices in education, cutting-edge technology and the creativity of a major digital studio to build products that are proven by extensive research to really deliver results for children. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with TPG and their global team as we continue to unlock access to opportunity for all kids around the world.”

“Age of Learning has established itself as a leader in education technology over the last decade,” said David Trujillo, Partner at TPG and Co-Managing Partner of TPG Tech Adjacencies. “Their talented team has innovated to create digital education programs that both engage and provide effective learning solutions for children around the world. Age of Learning was built on the vision of helping children everywhere develop a love of learning, and we are excited to partner with them to accelerate that mission.”

Read more about this Age of Learning funding announcement and $3 billion valuation on Bloomberg or visit the Age of Learning blog…

Age of Learning Launches ReadingIQ, an Expert-Curated Digital Library

I’m thrilled to share that last week Age of Learning launched ReadingIQ, an advanced digital library for children 12 and under, which gives families and teachers access to thousands of high-quality books, curated by experts to advance literacy.

ReadingIQ provides the best of children’s literature, including Caldecott and Newbery award winners, National Geographic and National Geographic Kids books, more than 1,000 exclusive titles, and thousands of additional high-quality fiction and nonfiction books from leading publishers. Plus, the entire ReadingIQ library is easily searchable by topic and leveled with both the Guided Reading and Lexile® systems so that children can find titles that match their interests and reading ability.

As with ABCmouse Early Learning Academy, we’ve made ReadingIQ available at no cost to teachers for use in their classrooms, with the ability to assign an entire reading level of books to each student to read at home, completely free. Families who want full home access to all of the ReadingIQ library can subscribe for less than $5 a month or $30 a year. ReadingIQ is available at www.ReadingIQ.com, or can be downloaded to smartphones and tablets through the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Learn more about ReadingIQ on the Age of Learning blog or go to www.ReadingIQ.com.

 

Age of Learning Expanding Opportunity Through Our Education Access Initiatives

Our mission at Age of Learning is simple: helping children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and foster a lifelong love of learning. And we measure progress by our ability to increase learning outcomes for all children, particularly those who are furthest from opportunity.

Children from low-income families begin to fall behind their peers in vocabulary development before they’re even two years old. By the time they reach fourth grade, 80 percent of these children are not proficient readers (Source: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading). This learning deficit has long-term effects on children’s academic future, including their likelihood of graduating from high school.

To help address this challenge, Age of Learning has developed a set of Education Access Initiatives to make our educational programs available for free to children whose families may not be able to afford a subscription.

Learn more about the progress of these initiatives here on the Age of Learning blog.

Age of Learning Wins 3 Gold Stevie Awards for ABCmouse Mastering Math

I’m thrilled to share that Age of Learning has today won three coveted Stevie Awards for our ABCmouse Mastering Math app: Best PreK / Early Childhood Learning Solution, Best Game-based Curriculum Solution, and Best Mathematics Instructional Solution. In January, Mastering Math was named Best Educational App in the Best Mobile App Awards.

Mastering Math is an innovative, game-based adaptive early learning app (available for Apple/iOS and Android mobile devices) that helps preschool through kindergarten children build a strong understanding of the most fundamental math concepts: number sequences, numeral recognition, and counting objects. Having that foundation is a key requirement for success in kindergarten and beyond. The app uses appealing characters and personalized learning pathways to help children achieve mastery through practice.

The app leverages the Personalized Mastery Learning System developed by Age of Learning. This adaptive learning platform recommends and customizes learning games to deliver an individualized learning path and personalized education to every child. The app actively adapts in real time to a child’s existing knowledge, filling in gaps in understanding and teaching new material as the child demonstrates they are ready for more advanced learning activities. Using data from a child’s interaction, the system adapts the sequence of activities presented, and even adapts within each activity, to optimize each child’s learning experience and ultimately help all children achieve math mastery.

Current ABCmouse members can use the Mastering Math app completely free just by logging in. If you are not yet a member, you can subscribe through this app to begin your family’s ABCmouse learning adventure.

Congratulations to everyone on the Mastering Math team at Age of Learning!

Age of Learning Launches New Mastering the Alphabet App

I’m pleased to announce that Age of Learning recently launched our new Mastering the Alphabet mobile app, which is now available to all ABCmouse members via the Apple App Store and on Google Play!

Mastering the Alphabet is the second mobile app built on our Personalized Mastery Learning System, which creates an individualized learning path for every child. This is our first mastery app for language and literacy, and the first to offer offline access.

Mastering the Alphabet adapts which letters are presented to a child by balancing what he or she already knows and needs to learn with practice. The game further personalizes the learning experience by prioritizing the letters of the child’s name and by allowing children to decorate their letter blocks with custom art. With each demonstration of letter mastery, these letter blocks are brought to life with delightful animations that set the stage for reading success!

This new app is the seventh in our Constellation app series, following ABCmouse Mathematics and Science animations. You can learn more about the first six apps by reading this blog post on AgeofLearning.com.

Mastering the Alphabet is available to all ABCmouse subscribers at no additional charge; download the version that’s right for you at the Apple App Store or Google Play

Age of Learning at Internapalooza

The Internapalooza is the largest gathering of Silicon Valley interns, young engineers, and STEM students in the world! The Age of Learning team was thrilled to be able to present the many exciting opportunities at our company to these talented young men and women, yesterday at ATT Park in San Francisco. And our very own SVP of Strategy and Innovation, Sunil Gunderia, was honored to deliver a keynote speech to the 5,000+ crowd.

 

Age of Learning Research | ABCmouse Helps Head Start Families Prepare for Kindergarten

Personalized Learning: EdTech Meetup at Age of Learning

We have an amazing line-up of panelists and guests coming to Age of Learning headquarters for this edtech meetup. Learn more below. Hope you can make it.

https://www.meetup.com/EducelerateLA/events/236886942/

Age of Learning Joins National Initiative to Transform “Book Deserts” into Book-Rich Environments

I am pleased to announce Age of Learning’s latest education access initiative here on my blog.

More than one million children from birth to age 8 currently live in public housing in the U.S. These children typically have less access to quality education and learning resources, resulting in an achievement gap that begins when they enter kindergarten unprepared to learn and widens as they progress to 3^rd grade. Research shows that more than 80 percent of children from low-income families are not proficient readers by the end of 3^rd grade. To help address this gap, Age of Learning recently joined the Leadership Cohort of the Book-Rich Environments Initiative.

You can read more about this initiative here on the Age of Learning blog.