The
Innovation Fund has awarded $50,000 to North Jackson-based The Learning Egg. Funds will be used to improve their web-based application, Lightning Grader.
“[Lightning Grader] allows teachers to quickly and easily create a learning assessment, grade 100 pages a minute, and generate an analysis of student performance,” explains Elijah Stambaugh, CEO at The Learning Egg.
He says he got the idea when he was teaching middle school math at National Heritage Academy in Youngstown. “I was frustrated with reaching kids, understanding what they knew and what they didn’t.” Stambaugh’s frustration led to a meeting with the
Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) during the summer break of 2010. “With YBI’s amazing encouragement and business acumen, I was able to take my dream of making teaching more effective into reality.”
Feedback from teachers has been equally amazing. With teachers subscribing to the app from Alaska to Texas (32 states in total), Stambaugh says learning professionals are “finding they rely on the 14 real-time reports as a way to measure and improve achievement among students, teachers and their respective states.” Lake Catholic High School in Lake County, Green Local Schools in Summit County, Lorain County Educational Service Center and Canfield Middle School in Mahoning County are among Ohio schools currently using Lightning Grader.
Now Stambaugh hopes to use the Innovation Fund award to make some improvements on his product.
“The Learning Egg will enhance its feature set and continue school integration across the country,” he explains. “[We’ll] also continue to integrate with other educational applications, such as books, content providers, professional development groups, and assessment solutions.”
Before long, Stambaugh hopes to refocus on building web assessment technology, so teachers can use any means to assess students. “The Lightning Grader solution is the only all in one solution for assessment.”
Source: Elijah Stambaugh
Writer: Joe Baur