Incubating EdTech: AT&T Announces 4th Aspire Accelerator Class

AT&T runs an EdTech accelerator program. They find, develop, and invest companies that are rethinking the learning revolution. They recently announced the fourth Aspire Accelerator Class.

The program supports organizations using tech to promote student success beyond the classroom. Participants receive financial support, mentorship and guidance from AT&T and other organizations. Since launching the program in 2015, they’ve worked with 19 inspiring edtech organizations to reach millions of students with game-changing learning solutions.

Meet the new Aspire cohort:

Beanstack provides schools and libraries with a web application and mobile app that helps students and families log their independent reading by titles, minutes, and other metrics. It provides teachers and librarians with ready-made reading challenges plus real-time data on students’ independent reading and employs features to keep readers engaged.

Co-founder Felix Lloyd taught and served as Dean of Students at the SEED Public Charter School, a residential school in DC.

Caribu allows any trusted adult to read and draw with children, through an interactive video-call, no matter how far apart they are.  Caribu improves lives by creating real-time reading interactions for children to achieve their twenty minutes of reading a day.

Founder Maxeme Tuchman ran TFA Miami before serving as a White House Fellow.

MindRight empowers youth of color to heal from trauma from systemic oppression, including structural violence, poverty, racism, and discrimination. The nonprofit provides evidence-informed, personalized mental health coaching over text message to teens. They leverage technology to create opportunities for systemic healing for youth of color.

Ashley Edwards led a charter school in Newark and did a couple venture capital internships before launching her startup in 2016.

Move This World provides multimedia content to develop social skills and strengthen emotional intelligence in PreK – high school. Teachers open and close the school day by showing a short and engaging video to develop emotional management strategies, empathy, resilience, and conflict resolution skills.

Sara LaHayne started MTW 11 years ago to create a common language for transforming culture.

Substantial creates the training, resources, and information subs need to be successful; customizes it for each school system’s unique context; and delivers it online with modern, mobile friendly technology. The nonprofit proves provides administrators with the information they need to effectively manage their substitute teaching pool.

Jill Vialet founded Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Arts before attending Stanford d.School.

Unruly Studios combines STEM education with physical play. Their products teach kids how to code and get them active. Splats are light-up buttons that kids runaround and jump on to play active games with friends. Kids program Splats wirelessly with a kid-friendly app.

Bryanne Leeming earned an MBA at Babson and worked in advertising before launching Unruly four years ago.

Weird Enough Productions developed an edtech tool that teaches students how to combat fake news, identify media bias, and create positive content. By using relatable media like comics, short videos, and podcasts, they teache students how to healthily engage with media while improving literacy and traditional classroom outcomes.

Founder Tony Weaver attended (and worked at) Elon University while launching his nonprofit studio.

Words Liive helps teachers to integrate music, a primary cultural article, into lessons –on-demand cultural responsiveness. They modularized lesson building process with a patented algorithm that matches music with classroom texts across common themes and literary concepts. Using the beta app, teachers can immediately integrate their students’ music preferences into the teaching process.

Founder Sage Salvo graduated from Harvard’s Kennedy School before serving as a fellow at the Clinton Global Initiative.

When people from diverse backgrounds — geographically, culturally, ethnically or professionally — come together to address social challenges, the results are awe-inspiring,” said Anne Wintroub, AT&T Director of Social Innovation

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Getting Smart Staff

The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]

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