Nick Garvin is on the Forbes List: 30 Under 30 in Education

Red Cup Agency is excited to give a huge congratulations to Nick Garvin of Stackup, for making the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in education for 2018.

Garvin has envisioned, developed, and promoted a Google Chrome extension that gives students credit on any online reading they complete. The app incentivizes learners to thirst for more knowledge and allows teachers to better track their student’s reading habits. It is free to students.

Stackup allows educators to create assignments and track metrics on how students engage with the homework. In return, learners can earn awards based on the reading they do in any of the numerous categories Stackup tracks. With up to 60 subject areas comprised of materials from publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic and Time, there is something for every young learner to dive into.

The extension also offers a Measure Reading Level feature. With it, teachers and students can instantly identify the grade level of the text on a web page with a single click of a button. This simple tool helps teachers assign reading at the right level, ensuring that students are learning at their correct pace.

To program the measurement of reading levels, Stackup is referencing the Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level readability test. Now, in real time, a teacher can quickly decipher whether a certain web page is an appropriate reading assignment for her students. This feature will be also helpful for students who want to ensure that they are reading appropriately leveled texts.

For example, this NASA article is categorized as “Aerospace”, the reading level of it is 11th grade, and Stackup can tell whether or not you have read it (patented smart technology detects real reading with high accuracy). Teachers are calling Stackup “The Fitbit of Reading.”

“This is really a great tool for teachers to give credit for independent reading,” Garvin said. “This has been a big push with educators…they’re saying we just need students to read.”

To make reading fun and easy, Stackup has just introduced the Stackup Library, where they are bringing popular educational articles from across the web, and organizing it by subject area and reading level.

The plug in has garnered 50,000 weekly users and was named the Tech Startup of the Year by The Denver Post.

Garvin joins the Forbes 30 Under 30 list alongside other up and coming movers and thinkers such as Melissa Lee of The GREEN Program, Arjun Singh of Gradescope, and Justin Ling of EquitySim.