We were honored for our School Continuity Initiative, a program we created in March 2020 when schools were forced to close, impacting the academic lives and growth of millions of children. True to our mission to help children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning, we created this program to offer preschool through middle school students free home access to our leading digital education programs—ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, and ReadingIQ. More than 80,000 schools, school districts, and teachers contacted us within days of announcing the School Continuity Initiative, allowing us to reach more than 1.2 million children. The children who participated in the program not only continued learning while sheltered at home, but they also experienced academic gains.

We recently shared the findings of an independently funded study that analyzed how children engaged with ABCmouse during the summer of 2020. The study found that:

• Children using ABCmouse for at least 45 minutes per week across three days, and completing 15 Learning Activities, were able to increase learning and minimize the learning loss that often takes place during the summer.
• ABCmouse is especially beneficial to those who start the summer with lower skills: with regular program usage, those students were able to catch up to their higher-skilled peers by the summer’s end, closing the gap by up to 87 percent.

Here is what we heard from a few of the many parents and teachers who reached out during this time:

“My daughter loves ABCmouse!  She has become more confident and quicker with her ability to add and subtract…I’m so proud of how I’ve seen growth even since schools closed!” – Parent of ABCmouse user

“This program has really helped our children grow at a time when social distancing was enforced.” – PreK Teacher, Pennsylvania 

“Last year I had the privilege of being the Kindergarten Virtual Teacher. I was able to provide ABCmouse for families and happy to say that for my students who used the apps and consistently attended school or watched recorded sessions they were reading at or above grade level by the end of the year.” – PreK Teacher, Texas

Thank you again to the City of Glendale for this award. It is an honor to be recognized by our community for our work in helping children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning.

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The Age of Learning Foundation works in partnership with governments and NGOs—including UNICEF and UNESCO as a member of their Global Education Coalition—to provide highly scalable, sustainable digital learning programs proven to measurably advance academic skills, at no cost to the children and families being served. The Foundation also provides teacher training, family engagement, and community outreach support.

Zamchiya brings to his new role more than two decades of experience leading organizations and teams in global development and education. Most recently, he was Managing Director of the Luminos Fund, an international NGO helping out-of-school children in low-income countries catch up academically and enter formal schooling. Zamchiya co-led strategy and partnerships with governments, donors, and grant makers, scaling the organization’s reach and impact severalfold over four years. Prior to that, Zamchiya served as Senior VP of Partnerships at Ashoka and as CEO of the Albany Charter School Network. In 2000, Zamchiya founded The BOOST Fellowship in Zimbabwe, which has helped thousands of students successfully transition from the classroom to the workplace as leaders and innovators.

Zamchiya began his career in strategy and business development roles at the International Finance Corporation, AES Corporation, and Barclays. He is an Echoing Green Fellow, a Pahara Fellow, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and has authored several children’s books. He earned his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Bristol, and an MPhil in Development Studies from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

“Hundreds of millions of children throughout the world are educationally underserved. Our goal with the Foundation is to mitigate this crisis by making Age of Learning’s proven learning solutions available to this enormous population of children in need,” said Doug Dohring, Founder and Executive Chairman of Age of Learning and Chairman of the Age of Learning Foundation. “Mubuso’s leadership and experience in creating global education partnerships, along with his passion for our mission and the potential to help hundreds of millions of families, gives me every confidence in his ability to rapidly accelerate our growth going forward.”

“Age of Learning has pioneered a highly effective approach to educating young learners at scale by harnessing learning science, putting children and the joy of learning at the center of product development, and maintaining a deep commitment to educational efficacy,” said Mubuso Zamchiya, Managing Director of the Age of Learning Foundation. “At a time when digital learning is more central to addressing the global education challenge than ever before, I could not be more excited to join the Age of Learning Foundation. I look forward to working with partners around the world to bring quality digital learning to children everywhere.”

To date, the Age of Learning Foundation has provided educational ABCmouse programming reaching millions of children through broadcast networks in Kenya, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In addition, through a partnership with the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica, the Foundation has made available the ABCmouse Aprende Inglés program for English language learnings to families throughout the country. Under Zamchiya’s leadership, programs will expand to serve more countries and families, with an initial focus in Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

About the Age of Learning Foundation

The Age of Learning Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to fundamentally improving the education of underserved children on a global scale. The Foundation works with governments and NGOs—including UNICEF and UNESCO as a member of their Global Education Coalition—to provide highly scalable, sustainable digital learning programs that have been proven to measurably advance academic skills, at no cost to the children and families being served. The Foundation also provides teacher training, family engagement, and community outreach support. Working collaboratively with partners such as UNICEF, UNESCO, Save the Children, United Way, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, General Motors Foundation, ministries of education, and other organizations, the Foundation has enabled children on five continents to benefit from Age of Learning’s research-proven learning resources.

About Age of Learning, Inc.

Age of Learning^®, is a leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success. Based in Los Angeles, the company is Bringing Learning to Life^® by blending educational expertise, innovative technology, and insightful creativity. Age of Learning’s flagship product in the U.S., ABCmouse.com^® Early Learning Academy, is a comprehensive curriculum for preschool through second grade, available on all major digital platforms and used by tens of millions of children to date. In 2016 the company launched ABCmouse English to teach English to children internationally, and in 2019 Adventure Academy^®, the first AAA educational massively multiplayer online game (MMO), serving elementary- and middle-school-aged children with thousands of learning activities in a fun and safe virtual world. 2020 saw the release of My Math Academy^® for schools, an adaptive, personalized program that helps students master foundational math concepts; My Reading Academy is scheduled for release in 2022. Connect with Age of Learning at www.AgeofLearning.com or on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

The post The Age of Learning Foundation Appoints Veteran Global Education Leader Mubuso Zamchiya as Managing Director first appeared on Age of Learning.

The announcement of this partnership between Age of Learning and the Florida House of Representatives is one of the highlights of Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! and the New Worlds Reading Initiative. The initiative is designed to help improve literacy rates through Florida’s first-ever statewide book delivery and parental-engagement program.

Age of Learning’s partnership offers every Florida family FREE access, through Dec. 31, 2021, to a comprehensive digital library of books at ReadingIQ.com/NewWorlds.

Literacy Week and the New Worlds Reading Initiative are meant to highlight how essential it is for children to have access to books to foster a lifelong passion for learning and put them on a path to success. Currently, only 47 percent of Florida’s students beginning elementary school are academically prepared for kindergarten, and only 43 percent of the state’s 3rd grade students are reading at grade level based on statewide assessments. These 3^rd grade reading struggles lead to negative long term educational outcomes: 88 percent of students who do not graduate from high school struggled with reading in 3rd grade. The free access to books offered to Florida families by Age of Learning through our ReadingIQ digital library is expected to help improve literacy rates in the state.

“Age of Learning is excited to support the New Worlds Reading Initiative through our ReadingIQ program,” said Age of Learning CEO Paul Candland.  “The easy-to-access ReadingIQ platform will immediately provide Florida’s children with thousands of high-quality titles from popular publishers that help them build and grow a love of reading, all while improving comprehension and literacy. This resource will also allow parents to develop a better understanding of their children’s current reading level and progress through the assessment feature of ReadingIQ, while ensuring each child has access to books that match his or her interests and level.”

Florida families can sign up for free access our comprehensive digital library at ReadReadingIQ.com/NewWorlds.

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Our philanthropic arm—the Age of Learning Foundation, led by Foundation Chairman Doug Dohring—is dedicated to fundamentally improving the education of children around the world. Partnering with governments and non-governmental organizations including Unicef, UNESCO, and Save the Children, the foundation works to support families and educators in helping underserved children improve academic skills through its digital learning programs.

The latest collaboration supports education excellence and the development of the educational system in Sri Lanka, partnering with business leader Dhammika Perera and his new philanthropic initiative, DP Kids.

The project is an extension to Dhammika’s other groundbreaking venture, DP Education, an innovative free online learning platform for school students to enhance their Math and English skills. The partnership will work to ensure an increased amount of children in Sri Lanka will receive a preschool education by providing families free access to ABCmouse as well as hosting its educational video content on DP Kids platforms.

A spokesperson for DP Foundation said, “A child’s early years are the foundation for his or her future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning and learning abilities, including cognitive and social development. Well-established research continues to emphasize the importance of early childhood education as an essential building block of a child’s future success. With this thought we hope that children from different backgrounds in Sri Lanka will be able to access world class resources in a safe and secure online educational environment cost-free.”

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We are proud to announce the creation of the Age of Learning Foundation, a charitable organization committed to helping children furthest from opportunity build a strong academic foundation by providing access to research-proven educational programs at no cost. Doug Dohring, Executive Chairman of Age of Learning, and Chairman of the Age of Learning Foundation, made the announcement at the Education World Forum in London this week, in an address to Ministers of Education of more than half of the countries of the world, representing nearly one billion children. The Foundation pledged to support up to five partner nations in 2020. The Foundation will provide free access to Age of Learning’s research-proven mathematics and English language learning programs, including our flagship product ABCmouse. ABCmouse has helped educate more than 20 million children to date, and 20 research studies—including multiple randomized controlled trials—have shown that it significantly improves early literacy and math skills. Additionally, the Foundation will offer Age of Learning’s world-class digital library with thousands of high-value books in English, with the opportunity to include local, culturally appropriate titles in partner nations’ native languages. Age of Learning has also developed a patented personalized, adaptive digital learning system that powers its programs with AI-driven technology. Working collaboratively with partners, the Age of Learning Foundation will provide these programs to all children across a country or province, enabling an individualized learning experience for each child. The Age of Learning Foundation will also deliver training and support expertise to facilitate implementation. It asks partners only to ensure the availability of basic technology infrastructure, commit to successful broad-scale implementation, and maintain minimum student usage levels. Interested nations and organizations can apply to be a partner at AofLfoundation.org. “According to UNESCO, more than 600 million children are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading and math, and a majority of those children are actually in school,” said Doug Dohring, Chairman of the Age of Learning Foundation. “The Age of Learning Foundation will help address this global crisis by providing highly engaging, highly effective digital education on a broad scale.” Age of Learning has long been committed to helping educate children whose families cannot afford high quality early learning resources, including through the company’s Bring Learning to All initiative. Within months of launching ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy for families in late 2010, Age of Learning began making ABCmouse available at no cost through classrooms, and later in public libraries, public housing authorities, and other community institutions. To date, these initiatives have helped educate more than 7 million children, with in kind contributions of software and services from Age of Learning exceeding $150 million in value. The Foundation will expand on this work, helping many more children build critical academic skills, and engaging their families and communities to better support them.

“The Age of Learning Foundation marks the next chapter in our ongoing commitment to help children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success,” said Paul Candland, CEO of Age of Learning. “Our team at Age of Learning has an immense passion for helping children in all communities flourish. Doug will help bring that passion to serve families worldwide as Chairman of this new Foundation.” The Age of Learning Foundation will manage existing Bring Learning to All deployments as well as develop new partnerships with countries around the world. To date, partnerships with UNESCO, Save the Children, United Way, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, General Motors Foundation, and other organizations have enabled children on 5 continents to benefit from high-quality early learning. For additional information, visit www.AofLfoundation.org.

The post Announcing the Age of Learning Foundation, Led by Chairman Doug Dohring, Providing Effective Digital Education Programs Globally to Help Children Furthest from Opportunity Build a Strong Foundation for Academic Success first appeared on Age of Learning.

The March will also serve as a fundraiser supporting United Way of New York City’s programmatic work with the New York City Department of Education including ReadNYC, an initiative started in Mott Haven to improve early-grade reading, and EducateNYC, which supports the NYC Community Schools Initiative.

“This March is a call to all New Yorkers to support our city’s students and teachers,” said Sheena Wright, President and CEO, UWNYC. “I am so grateful for the enthusiasm we are already seeing from not only our partners and sponsors, but from New Yorkers across the city as well. United Way of New York City invites all New Yorkers to come join us on October 13th as we march to support our public schools.”

This celebratory March kicks off with a VIP invite only breakfast honoring teachers at the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) NYC headquarters and concludes with an open-to-the-general-public K-12 family festival with student performers, bands, cheerleaders and choirs.

The “Future Festival” will feature a curated art tent showcasing the best art submitted and judged by a prominent committee and an arts and crafts zone where kids may make their own. The story time tent presented by Scholastic, Age of Learning, and Amazon will feature children’s authors reading throughout the day. Featured readers will include TODAY’s Willie Geist. The Future Festival will also showcase a pop-up shopping village, presented by CHASE and Essence Magazine, featuring small, local, women, minority and veteran-owned businesses. The festival is from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., free and open to the general public.

Age of Learning is proud to be partnering with UWNYC to support NYC students and teachers and will be on site demonstrating how ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy’s research-validated curriculum engages and educates young learners.

“We share United Way of New York City’s commitment to fundamentally improving early reading skills by effectively supporting students, families, and teachers,” said Doug Dohring, founder and Executive Chairman of Age of Learning. “Expanding on the thousands of classroom teachers and tens of thousands of families in New York City that are currently using ABCmouse and ReadingIQ, we are excited to grow our partnership with the United Way to help more young students build a strong foundation for academic success.”

The festival will include special performances by: 10-year-old DJ Annie Red, 12-year-old Drag Kid “Desmond is Amazing”, Coney Island’s teen rapper Lil Dee, LaGuardia High School Show Choir, LaGuardia High School Jazz Band, Brooklyn School of the Arts Creative Artist Ensemble, Brooklyn Tech’s Organized CHAOS, Brooklyn Tech’s Lady Dragon Steppers, The Big Apple Circus, Rock Bands for Kids, Dancing Classrooms Youth Dance Company. Panel discussions and VIP interviews led by 13-year-old Scholastic Kids Press reporter Amelia Poor will take place on the main stage. Come meet PwC’s Code-E the Robot and join 12-year-old “Chelsea Chats” talking Currency Conversations with her mom and grandmother. Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Dental Van will provide free dental education, screenings and treatment referrals to children up to 12 years old.

For more information on how interested individuals and companies can join in marching, starting a fundraising team within their organization, performing at the festival, or becoming a sponsor,  email jwaks@uwnyc.org. Everyone is invited to march with no fundraising minimum. Key person interviews available in advance or on-site day of event.

The post Age of Learning Supports United Way of New York City, NYC Students and Teachers, and the “March United for Public Schools” first appeared on Age of Learning.

We’ve heard from many of the millions of ABCmouse parents and teachers about the positive impact ABCmouse has on young learners’ academic skills and love of learning. But it’s not just anecdotal. A dozen research studies, including several large-scale randomized controlled trials conducted by leading education researchers, show that ABCmouse accelerates learning and helps children make significant gains in early literacy and math skills with as little as 30 minutes of usage per week.

Across the globe, children are learning to count, understand their letters, and become strong readers on ABCmouse. And, just as importantly, they are having fun! In ABCmouse they can explore the natural world, keep dinosaurs and unicorns as pets, race cars, solve puzzles, and read adventures tailored for their age and interests. Through play, they do some serious learning!

More than 4 billion learning activities completed is an exciting milestone. But we won’t stop here—we are committed to continuing to expand, enhance, and increase access to our educational programs. ABCmouse is available to families on a low-cost subscription basis and is free in classrooms, public libraries, public housing authorities, and other community centers as part of our Education Access Initiatives. These initiatives have helped educate more than 6 million children across all 50 states, at no cost to families, teachers, or libraries.

If educating one child can make a difference to her and all the people she will influence throughout her life, imagine what could happen if every child had that opportunity. At Age of Learning, we are committed to making that a reality, one book, game, and puzzle at a time.

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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. Our Education Access Initiatives have helped educate more than 6 million children and counting across all 50 states, at no cost to families, teachers, or libraries. And the cumulative value of our in-kind contributions exceeds $100 million to date.

ABCmouse for Teachers

In 2011, shortly after we launched ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, we developed a fully-featured version for teachers to use in their classrooms at no cost. Since then, ABCmouse for Teachers has grown every year and served several million students in preschools, Head Start centers, and elementary schools across the country. More than 140,000 teachers, including approximately 1 in 4 kindergarten teachers, used ABCmouse in their classrooms during the last school year.

ABCmouse for Libraries

Recognizing the critical role of libraries in serving at-risk children, we created ABCmouse for Libraries in 2014 to make ABCmouse available for free in public libraries. Librarians have embraced this program, which families can now access in more than 7,800 public libraries—close to 50% of all library branches in the U.S.—including more than 70% of the 200 largest library systems. Over the past year, children have completed more than one million ABCmouse learning sessions in public libraries.

ABCmouse for Community Centers

In 2015, we launched ABCmouse for Community Centers to provide free ABCmouse access in afterschool programs, computer centers in public housing facilities, and other community centers that want to offer educationally enriching experiences for children with limited resources. We have partnered with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ConnectHomeUSA to serve families living in public housing in more than 70 communities. Today, ABCmouse is available in hundreds of community centers and public housing authorities across 43 states.

Says Age of Learning CEO Doug Dohring, “we couldn’t be more excited about continuing to scale this work going forward!”

The post Expanding Opportunity Through Our Education Access Initiatives first appeared on Age of Learning.

The Bring Learning to All Initiative is expanding its reach in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing families throughout the Bay Area with free home access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy via public libraries. Local families can now “check out” ABCmouse accounts for four weeks at a time from the San José Public Library, San Mateo County Libraries, Contra Costa County Library, and 13 other library systems.

Bring Learning to All is a Tides Foundation initiative that works to help close the access and achievement gaps in education by providing research-validated digital education resources to young learners, with a focus on low-income families.

Through Bring Learning to All, libraries are providing families free at-home access to the research-validated ABCmouse curriculum, including more than 10,000 ABCmouse Learning Activities (hundreds available in Spanish), several standalone mobile apps that can be used without internet connectivity, and digital assessments. The program is designed to increase school readiness and reading proficiency and can be accessed by up to three children per family. Libraries also receive physical books for each branch, training for librarians on the use of digital early education resources, and support for family outreach and education.

“The Bring Learning to All initiative is a huge benefit for our families. Providing the tools parents need to help their child succeed in school is one of our priorities,” said Jill Bourne, City Librarian for the San José Public Library. “Now families will have the opportunity to be more proactive in their child’s education by having access to this program from the comfort of their own home.”

According to The Nation’s Report Card, two out of every three children in the U.S. are not proficient in reading by the time they reach fourth grade. Bring Learning to All seeks to change that by partnering with libraries that play a critical role in serving at-risk children and by providing effective educational resources that build on classroom instruction at home.

So far, thousands of children in the Bay Area have accessed ABCmouse through Bring Learning to All, completing hundreds of thousands of ABCmouse Learning Activities, averaging 15 Learning Activities per week. Assessment data shows that children using ABCmouse through this program are averaging 20% growth in literacy and math skills after one month. Importantly, research shows that similar levels of ABCmouse usage help prevent a “summer slide” in reading and significantly increase academic growth in literacy and math.

As part of the Bring Learning to All expansion, three high-need library locations are providing tablets with mobile broadband for patrons to check out with ABCmouse accounts. “I love the format of ABCmouse! The kids really enjoy working on their lessons and the credits they earn!” said one Bay Area library patron. “My 7-year-old grandchild has become an excellent reader!”

To learn more about Bring Learning to All, including how to become a partner, please email Contact@BringLearningtoAll.org.

The post Bring Learning to All Initiative Expands in the Bay Area, Increasing Access to Early Education for Low-Income Bay Area Families Through Public Libraries first appeared on Age of Learning.