AcceleratED Annual Update: Year 1

Growth = Persistence + Experimentation + Lots of coffee

July marks the conclusion of our first academic year of operations in Ethiopia. 2016 could be termed as our “primordial soup” phase: there has been a lot of chaos and complexity, but our team has managed to push through to our next phase of growth. Over the past year, the AcceleratED team has learnt a lot and we have validated many assumptions. We wanted to share some quick highlights with all our supporters.

2016 Snapshot:

• 200 teachers across 5 schools were mentored.
• About 5,000 primary school students reached — out of which around 3,000 are girls.
• Most teachers and school leaders report very high satisfaction rates, improved classroom experience and boost in student results.

2016 activities:

We have trialled and tested multiple ideas and interventions in various schools including teacher trainings, benchmark assessments for students, blended learning content, math contests and classroom observations, exam analysis and student dashboards. We have learnt quite a lot and have fine-tuned many of these early prototypes.

Plans for the 2017/18 academic year:

• We expect to double our scale and support around 500 teachers in over 10 schools this year. We are still waiting on a few partnerships.
• We are retaining all of our 2016 cohort schools while expanding our scale, impact and revenue in each.
• Focus this year will be on building data systems, increasing operational efficiency and better impact measurement.
• By 2020, we expect to work with 200 schools and 3000 teachers and are seeking partners to achieve this vision.

Sneak peek into our Operational Model

Over the past year, we have learnt that schools prefer flexible and unbundled options. Accordingly, we have streamlined our products into a “build your own pizza” model.

• Step 1: The “base” is our TeacherPD program which is an year long intensive teacher coaching and mentoring plan for selected teachers in a school. This grade/subject agnostic program includes:
• (5–7) pedagogy trainings designed to boost active, student-centred learning in the classroom.
• Regular classroom observations and data collection designed to ensure implementation of trainings by building better teacher habits and to provide timely, relevant feedback.
• Step 2: Schools select the “sauce”, i.e., target grades and subjects.
• Step 3: Finally, schools select the “toppings” — the combination of learning inputs that their teachers will use. These include:
• e-learning content,
• high-quality lesson plans, activity kits and question banks
• Student learning analytics and performance reports.

External Partnerships

• We’ve been selected for the prestigious SPRING program as one of the 19 companies from 5 countries in East Africa. We have gained a lot from the program in terms of skills and contacts to help us better develop our products and services and for big picture planning.
• We are also supported by an amazing mentor from DB who is helping us lock down our pricing model, define our medium term strategy and build our investment readiness.
• AcceleratED has also been featured in a new report — The Business of Education in Africa by Caerus capital.
• We have some further exciting partnerships in the works. Stay tuned!

Our work and progress would not be possible without your support. All of you have been very generous with time, funds, advise and motivation. Thanks a lot for your continued encouragement.

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The AcceleratED Learn-it-Alls

Check out some recent insights:

• Decoding user friction and the IKEA-effect in education
• Trojan horse model of social enterprise: Achieving product-market-impact fit

AcceleratED is an innovative, award-winning social enterprise that blends technology and behavior design to promote active learning in primary classrooms. We are on a mission to rescue teachers and students from boring, scary and ineffectual classrooms.

Through regular mentoring, trainings and classroom observations, we provide teachers with essential skills and complementary learning inputs like multimedia modules for blended learning sessions, activity kits and data analytics to help them boost student learning while increasing student participation in the classroom.