Kansas City, MO – LEANLAB Education awarded $92,500 in grants to seven area schools, as part of its inaugural Pilot Research Program, a program which connects K-12 schools with emerging technology startups to conduct research on education technology. 

“This program represents a turning point for LEANLAB,” said Katie Boody Adorno, LEANLAB Education founder and CEO. “The expertise of educators is in high demand among education startups that are looking to develop their products. We’ve developed a methodical approach to make sure teachers get paid for expertise and entrepreneurs get the research and data they need to create impactful products.”

During the first year of this new program, LEANLAB has accepted seven schools into its inaugural cohort. Currently, these schools are tackling the following critical issues in K-12 schools.

Citizens of the World Charter School and Guadalupe Centers Elementary partnered with Boddle Learning to find a way to make math assessments more engaging. They implemented Boddle’s 3D math app that teaches math concepts through a fun game?

Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy was seeking to improve academic achievement and partnered with LeverED Learning to implement a math curriculum that allows students to progress at their own pace.

George Melcher and Longfellow, two elementary schools in the Kansas City Public School district, wanted to increase social emotional learning among their students, and they partnered with ClassCraft to implement a platform that gamifies and reinforces positive behaviors.

Three schools in the Clinton County School District (Ellis Elementary, Clinton Middle, and Plattsburg High) along with Gordon Parks Elementary also wanted to increase social emotional learning, so they chose to work with Sown to Grow, a platform that empowers students to set their own goals and reflect on their growth.

These research projects are underway at all seven schools and they’re already seeing the initial results. “I was interested in being a part of the LEANLAB Pilot Research Program because I am always eager to find new innovative ways to meet my students' needs in the classroom,” said Justine Volkman, Kindergarten Teacher at Gordon Parks Elementary. “LEANLAB seeks to understand the pain point that a school is facing and works to find creative solutions for each unique problem. I have already seen powerful student responses to the technology that we have integrated into our classroom and I am hoping to continue to collect more data on my students socio-emotional development as a result of our research.”

Through this program, LEANLAB is aiming to give schools a better way to find and evaluate education technology. 

“Educators were stretched for capacity before the pandemic and now we’re asking even more of them. When it’s done right, edtech platforms work with educators to take some weight off their shoulders.”  said Stephanie Campbell, Vice President of Communications & Operations. “We want to help schools find, trial, and adopt the best technologies and give them a voice in the development of those products.”

 LEANLAB’s research team guides schools through an innovation process that starts with a deep-dive to uncover the root causes behind the school’s biggest challenges. LEANLAB then presents the school with a list of aligned solutions working to solve the problem. After the school chooses a solution, they partner with that company to design and implement a research study. 

Though this is the first year of the program, LEANLAB is already busy recruiting schools and companies for the next school year. 

“We’re excited to launch such a unique program here in Kansas City,” said Katie Boody Adorno. “We’ve coordinated an unparalleled network of innovative schools across the Kansas City region and plan to expand that network in the coming years across Missouri, creating a hub for education technology and innovation like no other in the country.”