New Ed Tech Accelerator To Establish Network of Educators

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

  • robot typing on a computer

    Microsoft Unveils 'Computer Use' Automation in Copilot Studio

    Microsoft has announced a new AI-powered feature called "computer use" for its Copilot Studio platform that allows agents to directly interact with Web sites and desktop applications using simulated mouse clicks, menu selections and text inputs.

  • AI microchip under cybersecurity attack, surrounded by symbols of threats like a skull, spider, lock, and warning shield

    Report Finds Agentic AI Protocol Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

    A new report from Backslash Security has identified significant security vulnerabilities in the Model Context Protocol (MCP), technology introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 to facilitate communication between AI agents and external tools.

  • educators seated at a table with a laptop and tablet, against a backdrop of muted geometric shapes

    HMH Forms Educator Council to Inform AI Tool Development

    Adaptive learning company HMH has established an AI Educator Council that brings together teachers, instructional coaches and leaders from school district across the country to help shape its AI solutions.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Introduces Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.