Ever since the days of overhead projectors and microfilm readers, American schools have had to play catch up with the rest of society in the technology they offer.
"Teachers have very complex jobs, and traditionally have had archaic tools to do that complex job," Jennifer Carolan, co-founder and senior partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Reach Capital, tells Business Insider.
Carolan's firm has made it a mission to seek out companies that help schools go from Luddites to early adopters, all in the hopes of personalizing kids' education as much as possible.
Here are some of the companies Reach has invested in that Carolan believes could transform the American education landscape.
SEE ALSO: This education startup you've never heard of is in 75% of American classrooms
Kaymbu
Carolan says early education is one of the hardest areas to invest in, because "you just don't want to put kids in front of screens at all." One company taking a unique approach to using screens in early education is Kaymbu.
Kaymbu, founded in 2015, is a communication portal that lets teachers send pictures, video, and notes to a child's parents. That may seem unremarkable at first glance, but Carolan says the program has led to greater attendance rates — a critical component of achievement later in life, according to some research. The company claims it saves teachers 1.5 hours each day and 5,000 sheets of paper each year from moving communication online.
"I think this is the first wave of this tool, because preschools are non-tech places, which is a good thing, but when you can capture the learning you can use it as professional development tools to train other teachers," says Carolan.
Newsela
Only 3 years old and already in 75% of American classrooms, Newsela is a sophisticated literacy program designed to build reading skills for K-12 students.
The program has two main components: intelligent software that adjusts news stories to the reader's ability; and real-time, in-text feedback that teachers can use to see how kids are handling the text.
Newsela has already managed to raise literacy among kids below the 50th percentile on standardized tests by an average of 12 percentage points, according to the company. "That's like passing hundreds of thousands of kids," says Matthew Gross, Newsela's founder and CEO.
Tynker
Coding has gotten a lot of attention in the last decade since many education policymakers see it as a vital skill in the modern student's arsenal. Carolan says the K-8 platform Tynker is one of the stronger companies in the space. More than 34 million kids have used the platform since its launch in 2012.
Kids can use Tynker either at home or in school to learn basic coding at their own pace. They can build apps and games and use their code to control drones and robots.
Earlier this summer, Apple chose Tynker as its go-to platform for the many Apple Camps held in the company's retail stores.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider