Los Angeles, January 21, 2020—Education technology innovator Age of Learning today announced 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 its 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.
About Age of Learning
Age of Learning, Inc.® , is a leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success. Age of Learning’s flagship product in the U.S., ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, is a comprehensive, research-validated curriculum for preschool through second grade, available on all major digital platforms and used by tens of millions of children to date. ReadingIQ® is a digital library and literacy platform for children 12 and under, designed by reading experts to improve literacy skills, with many thousands of expert-curated books from leading publishers. Most recently, the company launched Adventure Academy™, the first-of-its-kind 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. Age of Learning educates children around the world, including English language learning in China through its partnership with Tencent and in Japan through its partnership with Rakuten. Connect with Age of Learning at www.AgeofLearning.com or on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.