Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


New Ed Tech Accelerator To Establish Network of Educators

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/02/15

The foundation that supports the University of Virginia Curry School of Education has launched an $11 million initiative to identify and scale promising education innovations. The "Jefferson Education Accelerator" will offer mentoring, analysis, networking opportunities, access to financing and evaluation of products and services to companies in the education sector at the "growth" stage.

The accelerator is a public-private partnership that is separate from the school itself; support comes from the Curry School Foundation, individual alumni and USA Funds, a non-profit organization best known as a student loan guarantor.

The Accelerator will establish a network of K-12 and college-level educators, researchers, business people and investors focused on improving educational outcomes and with an emphasis on research and development. The accelerator will connect companies that have products to test with schools and institutions to try out the offerings. Evaluation of products will be guided, vetted and interpreted by a review board composed of Curry School faculty.

"Successful education technologies must be informed by the insights of teachers, administrators and real-world implementation data," said newly appointed CEO Bart Epstein in a statement. "The number one criterion for investing in education has to be efficacy. We want to bring transparency to the process of evaluating solutions — to help both educators and investors make better informed decisions and make an impact."

Companies that participate in the Accelerator will give a "small portion" of their equity back to the accelerator, which intends to pass some of the proceeds back to Curry's foundation to benefit the school itself.

The board of the accelerator will be chaired by Curry School Dean Robert Pianta, who noted that schools of education have a "responsibility" to equip classrooms with tools that have proven their effectiveness. "We see engaging the education tech sector as a critical component of our mission, providing invaluable experience for faculty and students, and enabling the most impactful solutions to achieve scale."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • digital lock with circuit patterns

    IBM Adds New AI-Powered Cybersecurity Tools

    IBM has unveiled an expanded portfolio of AI-powered cybersecurity products, positioning the company to compete more aggressively in a rapidly evolving market where enterprises are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to defend against automated cyber threats.

  • abstract interconnected cubes and shapes with glowing edges

    Blackboard Emerges as Stand-Alone Company Following Financial Restructuring

    Having completed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process announced last fall, Anthology has rebranded as Blackboard, the company's core Teaching & Learning business.

  • large cloud icon on the right in an abstract world above a polygon with a dark blue background

    Cloud Security Alliance Expands Agentic AI Governance Work

    The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has announced a series of CSAI Foundation milestones aimed at securing what it calls the agentic control plane, including a new catastrophic risk initiative, CVE Numbering Authority authorization, and the acquisition of two agentic AI specifications.

  • Digital cyberspace with particles and Digital data

    Survey: AI Is Moving Faster than Data Trust

    AI agents are already in use or pilot at most organizations, but data visibility, governance and precision recovery capabilities have not kept pace, according to a new survey from Veeam Software.