Move over, reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic--the three Rs are soon replaced by “the three Cs: code, college readiness and community impact,” according to Caroline Howard at Forbes. And according to the magazine’s fourth-annual “30 Under 30: Education” list, the 3 Cs of 2015 will be ushered in by a promising 41 twenty-somethings.
Selected by judges Stacey Childress, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, David Coleman, CEO of College Board, and Deborah Bial, Founder of The Posse Foundation, the “30 Under 30” cohort boasts some impressive accomplishments, helping to drive change from within startups, nonprofits, large companies and schools.
So, which education youngsters made it onto 2014’s list? We’ve picked up on a couple trends beyond the “3Cs”:
The Nonprofits
Forbes’ list highlights several nonprofits building local community support in education, including Karim Abouelnaga from PracticeMakesPerfect and Michael J. Carter from Strive for College, two organizations which provide mentorship to low-income students, and Maria Gabriela Pacheco from The Bridge Project, Abigail Seldin from College Abacus, and Amelia Castaneda from Higher Achievement, all of whom work to get underprivileged students to college. Forbes also highlighted some of the big nonprofit players supporting entrepreneurial projects, honoring Sarah Kunst, who leads efforts to make tech funding more diverse at Venture for America, and Vinit Sukhija, who supports his fellow Teach for America alumni in launching new education projects.
The Classroom Tools
The list includes individuals supporting tools oft-praised by teachers in the classroom: William Zhou of Chalk, the “Microsoft Office for teachers” with lesson planning, assessment and collaboration tools; Benjamin Levy from eduCanon, a video tool which helps teachers create multimedia lessons for their classrooms; and the team behind Schoology, the online learning management system used in over 200 countries.
For Administrators
The list includes the minds behind tools that aim to make education more effective at the district level: Jess Gartner of Allovue, which offers financial data visualization and analysis to help K-12 administrators base education spending off of student outcomes; Jason DeRoner, Andrew Gioia and Michael Gioia of Teachboost, helping admins evaluate educators; and Andre Feigler of Enriched Schools, which offers schools an alternative to substitutes with worksheets through a subscription service of “guest educators” from the community.
Helping the Self-Starters
The list also celebrated tools that help individuals learn on their own from elementary school (Danny Yaroslavski of LightBot and Alex Klein of Kano both aspire to teach kids to design and code) to graduate school (Victor Saad of Experience Institute offers a DIY graduate-level program) and beyond (Matthew Wahl heads up the mobile development team at Khan Academy). Forbes even highlights a platform for young aspiring entrepreneurs: Stephanie Shyu and Lydia Fayal of AdmitSee work to help students and graduates sell the college application materials on the e-commerce platform.
Who’s Missing?
While Forbes is first and foremost an industry publication, a list about education naturally begets the question: where are the educators? Only one of the 41 honorees this year is working full-time within a school: Elena Sanina, blended learning manager at Aspire Public Schools.
Here's the full photo gallery of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education (2015)
Other members of Forbes' "30 under 30" club for education (2015):
- Abena Agyemang, National Director, School Partnerships, Families for Excellent Public Education
- Miriam Altman and Alexandra Meis, Co-founders, Kinvolved
- Mattan Griffel, Co-founder, One Month
- Dan Johnston, Group Product Manager, Chegg
- Christie C. McNeill, Rachel Wolf, Amplify
- Angela Maldonado, Lead Talent Management Coach, TNTP
- Zak Ringelstein, Co-founder, UClass
- Sam Strasser, Facebook
- Matthew Wagner, Director, Office of the President, College Board
- Matt Wahl, Product Manager, Khan Academy
- FractalUp, Co-founders
- Oohlala, Co-founders
