NewSchools Ignite $1.5M edtech challenge aims to help kids at math

NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture firm split between offices in Oakland, Calif., and on R Street NW, is all about finding solutions to close the achievement gap in school learning. The firms latest focal point? Math.
After speaking with teachers in the field, NewSchools Ignite, the arm of the NewSchools Venture Fund that runs “learning challenges” to promote new edtech tools, found that existing edtech products for math just aren’t that great.
And so they’ve launched a “Middle and High School Math Learning Challenge” — offering $1.5 million in funding and an accelerator program to companies working on digital math learning tools.
“While edtech has improved many aspects of teaching and learning, pockets of the industry crave innovation,” Stacey Childress, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, said in a statement.
“We’re focused on math now because the need is tremendous. Despite the array of products already on the market, teachers are telling us these tools don’t meet their needs,” Tonika Cheek Clayton, managing partner of NewSchools Ignite, added.
This math challenge is Ignite’s second national learning challenge — the first being a science learning challenge that took place last summer.
Is your early- or growth-stage edtech company developing a math learning solution for students in the 6th through 12th grades? Ignite is looking to fund up to 15 for- or non-profit companies, and offer access to a six-month-long virtual accelerator program run in partnership with WestEd, a nonprofit education research agency. And all this, it bears mentioning, in return for no equity.
Applications for the challenge are being accepted through March 14 — learn more, and apply, here.