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.

But it’s our latest pilot program that’s been generating an exceptional amount of excitement and interest. More than 900 largely economically disadvantaged pre-K students in the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District in Texas, started using My Math Academy in the fall. As recently reported on the Government Technology magazine website, “math skills more than doubled for 4-year-old pre-K students and tripled for 3-year-olds. The average pre-K student aged 4 is now at mid-kindergarten level, while the average pre-K student aged 3 is approaching kindergarten-level math skills.”

According to Carmen Alvarez, Director, HCISD Early Childhood, for the school district, My Math Academy, which includes a robust teacher dashboard, is giving teachers unparalleled insights into the learning needs of each individual student: “It’s kind of like being a great doctor,” she said. “A great doctor is going to look at the data before they go see a patient, and that’s exactly what the teachers are doing.” She also noted that the program allows students to learn at their own pace and “gives teachers more flexibility to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to instruction.”

Read the full article on GovTech.com…

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Tomorrow, from 3:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m. (EST) , the head of our Schools Division and senior researcher on our Learning Science team will introduce Age of Learning’s newest classroom solution—My Math Academy—to Tech Summit attendees and share the truly amazing results we have seen while rolling out this new product in school district pilot programs. We hope you’ll join their presentation: Results Count, My Math Academy Delivers! A PreK-2 Game-based Approach that Tripled Math Gains for Early Learners.

Age of Learning spent six years applying the latest research and learning science to develop My Math Academy, which is a highly-individualized learning solution designed to bring equity and efficacy into every classroom. From the creators of ABCmouse, My Math Academy guides PreK through grade 2 learners through a highly-personalized learning adventure featuring engaging and just-right challenges that empower children, encourage persistence, and lead to a love of math.

During our session at #NYCSchools Tech Summit, participants will see detailed pilot results showing how My Math Academy tripled learning gains for PreK and Kindergarten students during the 20-21 school year despite the pandemic, hybrid learning conditions, and other community challenges.

Additionally, there will be an active virtual exhibit hall where participants can explore new education technology, including My Math Academy, and network with other Summit attendees. Our virtual booth will give you access to documents outlining My Math Academy’s alignment to academic achievement and funding guidelines, efficacy research, a My Math Academy Program Overview, and two instructive videos: My Math Academy Teacher Overview and Harlingen School District Spotlight.

We hope you can join us as we continue to inspire and connect through new learning techniques and resources!

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Age of Learning has long recognized that learner variability in the classroom and the demands of differentiating instruction may be one of the biggest obstacles to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to succeed. However, recent advancements in technology, data science, and adaptive instructional systems (AISs) offer an opportunity to provide a solution for learner variability at scale. Age of Learning has spent years developing and iterating a mastery-based Personalized Mastery Learning Ecosystem (PMLE)—the platform for our adaptive, game-based My Math Academy and My Reading Academy—to empower teachers to differentiate instruction through real time diagnostics and a robust collection of resource materials.

We have taken a Learning Engineering approach to developing these innovative products. Our Learning Engineering team at Age of Learning is interdisciplinary—consisting of curriculum experts, learning scientists, data scientists, design researchers, efficacy researchers, and game developers—and their work applied learning sciences research to inform pedagogy and instructional design, as well as in applications of user-centered research methodologies, evidence-centered design, and learning analytics to drive learning outcomes.

Members of two Age of Learning teams developing, testing, and iterating on the development of these products have recently published chapters in the book Adaptive Instructional Systems. Design and Evaluation, which will be presented at the upcoming HCI International 2021, the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

To share their insights, we are highlighting these chapters and presentations and encourage everyone to read and attend if possible.

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Age of Learning, founded in 2007, develops digital educational programs with proven efficacy in increasing children’s learning gains. To date, these programs have helped educate more than 50 million children around the world and have been used in hundreds of thousands of classrooms.

“Every child deserves a strong foundation for academic success, and we are committed to delivering on this promise for kids everywhere,” said Paul Candland, CEO of Age of Learning. “We combine best practices in education, cutting-edge technology and the creativity of a major digital studio to build products that are proven by extensive research to really deliver results for children. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with TPG and their global team as we continue to unlock access to opportunity for all kids around the world.” 

“Age of Learning has established itself as a leader in education technology over the last decade,” said David Trujillo, Partner at TPG and Co-Managing Partner of TPG Tech Adjacencies. “Their talented team has innovated to create digital education programs that both engage and provide effective learning solutions for children around the world. Age of Learning was built on the vision of helping children everywhere develop a love of learning, and we are excited to partner with them to accelerate that mission.”

The capital raise will enable Age of Learning to reach more children, families, caregivers, and teachers through its digital educational offerings:

• ABCmouse Early Learning Academy is the #1 digital education program for children ages 2-8 in the U.S. and will expand to include more personalized experiences for kids.
• My Math Academy is a breakthrough personalized learning program that adapts and pinpoints each child’s skill level and continuously provides just-right challenges to help learners master the foundations of math. My Math Academy recently launched in schools with strong early success.
• Adventure Academy is a first-of-its-kind massively multiplayer online education game (MMO) for elementary and middle school students—a constantly-expanding world of learning content and social and multiplayer features.
• ABCmouse English helps children around the world learn English in the way they naturally acquire their native language. It is now expanding with new reading and writing content, placement assessments, and more.

“Since our founding more than a decade ago, Age of Learning has led with a mission to help children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds or circumstances,” said Doug Dohring, Age of Learning’s Founder & Executive Chairman. “This funding enables us to increase our investments in bold and innovative programs and reach even more kids and families, which is vital now more than ever.”

In January 2020, the company established the Age of Learning Charitable Foundation, a standalone 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that partners with Ministries of Education, NGOs, and companies in lower income countries to make Age of Learning’s educational programs available at no cost to families and schools. To date, Age of Learning’s product donations have helped educate more than 10 million children, with a total value of more than $200 million.

TPG is making the investment out of its TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD) fund, an investment vehicle focused on flexible capital solutions for the technology industry. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC served as Age of Learning’s exclusive placement agent and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as the company’s legal advisor for this transaction. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal advisor to TPG.

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. In 2019 the company launched 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. My Math Academy^® for schools is an adaptive, personalized program that helps students master foundational math concepts. Connect with Age of Learning at www.AgeofLearning.com or on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

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 Starting today, all Costa Rican families will enjoy free access to ABCmouse Aprende Inglés, a comprehensive digital English language learning program for children ages 3 – 11. Available on computers, tablets, and smartphones, ABCmouse Aprende Inglés was created by Age of Learning and is being offered at no cost throughout Costa Rica by the company’s philanthropic Age of Learning Foundation led by Chairman Doug Dohring. Aligned to international language learning standards, ABCmouse Aprende Inglés is designed specifically to help Spanish-speaking children learn to speak English fluently and confidently and support their important journey to becoming bilingual at an early age. Its engaging, game-based language learning activities makes learning English fun for kids.

In Costa Rica, the ABCmouse Aprende Inglés app is endorsed by the Ministry of Public Education as a valued complement to the English classes received by students in their schools.

Offering more than 4,000 English learning activities expertly designed to teach and practice the language, ABCmouse Aprende Inglés also helps children build confidence in understanding and speaking English as they independently progress along the Step-by-Step Learning Path. While the program is easy for children to use on their own, parents are encouraged to accompany their children in the English learning process and, at the same time, have fun and learn together.

“Everyone at Age of Learning is very excited to be offering ABCmouse Aprende Inglés to all families in Costa Rica at no cost—it’s the first time we’ve made  our English  language learning program available for free in Central America. We want to give Costa Rican children the life-changing  opportunity to become fluent in English from an early age, so they can expand their opportunities as they grow,” says Dr. Rebecca Palacios, a U.S. Hall of Fame teacher with more than 30 years of experience, an expert in dual-language learning, and the spokesperson for  ABCmouse Aprende Inglés.  “We are hoping to reach as many children and their families as possible throughout the country.”

Anyone in Costa Rica interested in taking advantage of this free offer can simply go to www.ABCmouseAprendeIngles.cr  to download the program or open the App  Store on their Android or iOS device, search for the ABCmouse Aprende Inglés app, and download it for free on their mobile devices.

According to Manuel Rojas, advisor to the academic office and coordinator of the Alliance for Bilingualism at MEP, it is extremely important that students have digital resources adaptable to the interests of the student body.

“With the recent approval of the Educational Policy for the Promotion of Languages, guidelines are included that enhance technology as a tool in the language learning process. Based on real content and fun activities with pedagogical intentions, the student population strengthens reading, speaking or listening inside or outside the classroom; with the purpose of expanding exposure to the language and strengthening the entire language learning process,” Rojas says.

Costa Rican families can also visit the program’s new Facebook and Instagram pages for additional information about the app, helpful tips, complementary language learning activities, and much more. On Facebook, go to ABCmouse Ingles Centroamerica.

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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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Unlike vendor diversity programs of the past (which are typically limited to tracking minority ownership), this new initiative will use a simple survey to also track the representation of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ individuals within a vendor’s employee base, leadership team, and board of directors. It will evaluate the vendor’s use of inclusive practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing members of traditionally marginalized groups as well.

“Improving diversity, equity, and inclusion is an industry-wide challenge for the technology sector,” said Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey. “We have work to do within our own businesses to become anti-racist. We also want to help upend the systemic bias we know still exists in the broader business community. This new initiative enables us to turn diversity, equity, and inclusion into a business metric that will drive accountability in the organizations we rely on to power our companies. Better data will lead to more accountability and—ultimately—progress on critical diversity initiatives.”

Age of Learning and other participating organizations have agreed to begin laying the groundwork for collecting diversity and inclusion data from new and existing vendors within the next 30 days, and to incorporate supplier diversity into decision-making over the long term. The companies will continue to collaborate and develop best practices for using their budgets to push for change within the broader business community.

Of the initiative, dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and SurveyMonkey Board Member Erika James said, “This is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to untangling the complicated factors that lead to underrepresentation across corporate America. There’s power in these companies coming together to take a stand and leverage their budgets to make an impact. No one company can have the impact that the collective can.”

The program was created in collaboration with the social impact consultancy The Justice Collective, which will continue to provide support to participating companies and their vendors. Additional resources and a link to the vendor workforce diversity survey template can be found at surveymonkey.com/equity.

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