June 9, 2016 (Washington, D.C.) – The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the principal membership association representing U.S. state and territorial digital learning leaders, announced today its fourth annual cohort of Emerging Private Sector Partners. These SETDA Emerging Private Sector Partners will debut at the upcoming Emerging Technologies Forum on June 25 and 26, 2016 in Denver, Colorado and will engage with the SETDA state leaders and affiliates and annual partners over the next twelve months:
- Centric Learning http://centriclearning.net @HEROlearn
- Classcraft http://www.classcraft.com @classcraftgame
- Core Learning Exchange http://www.corelearningexchange.com @KatzmanJeff
- Eduporium https://www.eduporium.com #eduporium
- GPA Learn http://www.gpalearn.com/ @gpalearn
- ITG America, LLC http://www.itgamerica.com @ITG_America
- Lea(R)n, Inc. http://www.learntrials.com @learntrials
- Operant Systems, Inc. http://www.operantsystems.com @operantsys
- ThinkCERCA, Inc. https://thinkcerca.com @ThinkCERCA
- Touchjet, Inc. http://www.touchjet.com #gotouchjet
The 2016 cohort of companies were selected from a large, highly competitive pool of applicants based on their status as an emerging company, capacity to leverage technology to serve a need in PreK-12 or pre-service education, and their potential to scale on a state-wide and multi-state basis. The Emerging Partners program is designed to foster opportunities for startups to be seen and heard by state and national digital learning leaders. Throughout the course of the year this program creates intentional, in-person and virtual opportunities to engage in meaningful dialogue regarding trends in the field as well as products and services that states and districts need.
“When state educational technology leaders are able to partner with emerging companies, both win. The state leaders learn about cutting edge digital learning products and services. The emerging private sector partners get a deeper understanding of state level policies, procedures and initiatives,” stated Tracy Weeks, SETDA’s Executive Director. “Ongoing conversations have the potential of resulting in powerful technologies that truly serve to help solve state and district level problems of practice.”
“We’re excited to be chosen as a SETDA Emerging Private Sector Partner,” said Karl Rectanus, CEO and Co-Founder of Lea(R)n. “Since we developed our unique platform with, by, and for educators and administrators, we are looking forward to partnering with more state leaders to ensure their rapidly changing policy, funding, and technology landscape is harnessed so all states and districts improve outcomes, increase the impacts of their technology investments, and personalize learning at scale.”
Over the next year, the Emerging Private Sector Partners will also have the opportunity to benefit from interactions with education industry experts via SETDA’s Channel Partners (http://www.setda.org/partners/strategic-partners/channel/), mentors from previous cohorts of Emerging Partners and SETDA staff.
