Something very cool hit my inbox recently: Teaching Lab, a non-profit that provides professional development to educators, was among the winners of a global edtech competition.
Their award-winning idea is to build an open-source dataset of 28,000 images of hand-written student math work. Once annotated and organized, the images will be used to train AI to read things like students’ notes and worksheets to help teachers understand where their students made errors and whether they absorbed the concepts taught.
This is an innovative and forward-thinking idea, and because the dataset will be made available to developers and researchers for free, there’s no telling what new ideas, platforms, or products will come from it.
The Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI) was founded to advocate for the creation of this kind of research and development infrastructure. While I’m thankful that philanthropies and companies are helping to create new R&D infrastructure by supporting opportunities like the Tools Competition, a global edtech innovations challenge, it is a reminder that the government – federal, state, and local – must do more to support education innovation.
Much of the great education R&D happening across the country is occurring in small, isolated pockets.
So much of the great education R&D happening across the country is occurring in small, isolated pockets, disconnected from other, similar projects and the classrooms that will benefit. Creating a more robust, networked infrastructure would turbo-charge projects like Teaching Lab’s handwriting dataset, enabling it to be bigger, more comprehensive, and potentially more useful to researchers and developers.
That’s not to say the government hasn’t done anything to spur education innovation. In fact, a handful of federal agencies have recently sponsored edtech competitions. For example, DARPA sponsored a track of the Tools Competition, Building an Adaptive and Competitive Workforce, to support tools that help adults upskill and meet the demands of the 21st-century national security workforce. The National Science Foundation and three philanthropic organizations partnered to co-design and co-fund the VITAL Prize Challenge, which enabled interdisciplinary teams to build prototypes of next generation edtech. The Institute of Education Sciences sponsored the XPrize Digital Learning Challenge, funding the development of digital learning infrastructure.
Yet, these competitions only scratch the surface of what is possible. That’s why ALI supports the formation of a new center for informed-risk, high-reward education R&D at the U.S. Department of Education, modeled after Advanced Research Project Agencies like DARPA in the defense sector and ARPA-H in the health sector. Such a center would focus on informed-risk, high-reward education research and development that could facilitate big, breakthrough innovations.
Creating a more robust, networked infrastructure would turbo-charge projects like Teaching Lab’s handwriting dataset, enabling it to be bigger, more comprehensive, and potentially more useful to researchers and developers.
ALI also supports building the R&D capacities of states and local districts. A recent ALI task force examined what it would take to strengthen more local education R&D infrastructure. It determined that a well-funded, networked education research system at all levels of government would help solve many ongoing problems and make the education sector work better. This approach would give all students educational opportunities that boost economic mobility and support communities, families, educators, and learners in meeting today's challenges and seizing tomorrow's opportunities.
Last week, the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act was introduced in the Senate. In addition to strengthening and modernizing Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, this bill would create a DARPA-like center for education R&D. While the legislative process moves ahead, I’m heartened and excited that philanthropy and the private sector are enabling opportunities like the Tools Competition. Their involvement is further evidence that investment in education R&D must be a priority for the country.
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