Hello, World!

One year ago, if you had visited STRIVE Prep, you would have found me in my first-floor office, seething. My eyes were glued to my computer screen, and 1-800 number support muzak was ringing in my ears. I was on hold, waiting to learn why one of my student’s records was not updated correctly in our online assessment software. Seemingly small errors like this one frustrated my teachers – an out-of-date record meant a student couldn’t log in, couldn’t be assessed, and couldn’t learn that day. So I spent hours listening to muzak and talking to support reps, trying to keep records and rosters updated, so teachers wouldn’t lose trust in technology. “Why,” our principals frequently asked, “do we continue to pay for online learning and assessment programs if the data is so out of date our students and teachers can’t use them?”

In the year that has passed, I started Clever because software has to just work in order to get used in schools. My experience at STRIVE Prep taught me that online learning tools that are not integrated with school data systems don’t work. Since Clever launched in summer 2012, we’ve received an incredible outpouring of support from online learning providers, schools, industry veterans, and innovative teachers. These partners of ours share our passion for making great educational software just work, and together we are redefining what is possible in education. We’ll use this blog to share our partners’ stories. We’ll also keep you posted on what’s happening behind the scenes at the most exciting startups in education, so stay tuned.