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Meet the 24 Finalists in the Accelerating K-12 Learning Track | 2025 Tools Competition

We are excited to announce the 24 finalists named in the Accelerating K-12 Learning track of the 2025 Tools Competition!

In this track, 695 teams sought to improve K-12 learning outcomes and environments, while advancing learning engineering as a whole.

Tools in this track will dramatically improve learning outcomes for students, and support K-12 teachers in enhancing their instructional practice to better prepare students for college and careers. We saw innovative proposals aimed at increasing accessibility for students with learning differences, supporting educators in curating high-quality educational content, enhancing parent and caregiver engagement, and boosting specific learning outcomes—ranging from core content areas to 21st century skills and career readiness.


Finalists at the Catalyst Prize Level ($50,000)

Catalyst prizes are for early stage ideas or products.

  • CHECKPOINT | University of Florida (United States)

CHECKPOINT generates assessment items to assess students’ knowledge and address specific common misunderstandings and procedural errors.

  • FutureYou | Student Leadership Network (United States)

FutureYou utilizes chatbots to provide college and career counselors with up-to-date knowledge and tested advising strategies, while also working directly with high school students.

  • Hunu | Craft Education (Ghana)

Hunu facilitates collaboration between therapists, parents, and teachers to support children with behavioral challenges and learning differences including autism.

Journify Learning is the copilot for special education—maximizing the productivity of every special educator and driving student outcomes, while helping schools and districts stay compliant.

Knowalla is a learning-by-teaching tool that helps students identify knowledge gaps and deepen their understanding by teaching an AI-character.

LiteracyLeap is an AI-enabled, offline tool that assesses children’s reading levels anytime, anywhere—identifying individual learning gaps and enabling targeted interventions.

Rukots leverages collaborative challenges to foster students’ communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills in math, language, and science classes—systematizing social and emotional learning in schools.

  • TeachSmart | Universidad de los Andes (Chile)

TeachSmart automates the traditionally labor-intensive process of classroom observation—making it scalable, cost-effective, and accessible to diverse educational contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

 

Finalists at the Growth Prize Level ($150,000)

Growth prizes are for products with growing users and scale.

Skye, the A.I. tutor, provides voice-based high-dosage math tutoring—transforming access to effective tutoring to close the math achievement gap.

EdLight instantly analyzes handwritten student math work, providing teachers with actionable insights to effectively tailor instruction and support diverse learners.

FutureReady for All is an inclusive digital program revolutionizing postsecondary readiness, career development, and independent living skills for students with disabilities—empowering their transition to a successful life.

eKitabu’s evidence-based sign language acquisition assessment tool supports formative and summative learning assessments with pre-primary and primary grade learners in Africa who are deaf or hard of hearing as they acquire their first language—sign language.

  • MASCoT-CP (Multimodal-Automated Systems for Classification of Teacher Classroom Practices) | Vanderbilt University & TeachFX (United States)

MASCoT-CP is an automated feedback tool that leverages multimodal data to analyze teacher talk—including tone, prosody, and dialogue—and provides actionable, personalized feedback to enhance classroom management practices and teacher-student relationships.

MyCuraJOY automates psychoeducational assessments and delivers gamified, clinician-supervised, multilingual social-emotional learning and behavior support to empower students and families, ease provider workloads, and bridge equity gaps.

Shaia is an AI coach that makes teachers’ work easier, while supporting the implementation of evidence-based teaching approaches.

Sing and Speak 4 Kids is an evidence-based learning tool supporting young children with speech delays using gamified learning to enhance speech articulation, vocabulary, and social communication.

 

Finalists at the Transform Prize Level ($300,000)

Transform prizes are for established platforms with 10,000 or more users.

AI Agent for Literacy Teachers reduces the time teachers spend on lesson planning and offers personalized AI-driven literacy resources—enhancing teaching efficiency and improving literacy outcomes for Brazilian students.

The AI-Enabled Oral Reading Fluency tool leverages speech recognition and AI/ML to assess reading skills, diagnose learning gaps, and provide targeted remediation—empowering teachers to improve foundational literacy in low-resourced schools in India.

Corinth Voice user assistant listens to user’s requests to help them navigate and operate 3D modules to enhance learning about the topic they’re studying.

Wumbox is a learning platform that uses AI and fun interactive video games to develop cognitive skills and identify learning risks in children ages 3 to 12.

Trained on thousands of successful applications, Athena gives students access to 24/7, personalized, best-in-class support during their college application journey.

TalkingPoints’ At-Home Learning Generator provides personalized, real-time, research-based activities that enable educator-family partnerships to support student success.

LDC DeeperLearning AI generates valid analytic rubric scores, actionable feedback, and next instructional steps in response to writing emerging from rigorous literacy tasks.

TeacherConnect provides scalable, equitable professional development and peer learning to enhance teaching practices in “teaching for learning” and entrepreneurship in education.


See finalists for all tracks here.

The Tools Competition has three phases and multiple prize levels to help winners create or enhance their tools at all phases of development. As they enter the third and final phase, finalists will pitch their tool before a panel of judges who will nominate winners of the competition. 

The Tools Competition has previously named 130 winners from 44 countries—projected to impact 131+ million learners worldwide, from early childhood to adulthood. Winners for all opportunities in the 2025 competition cycle will be announced in summer 2025.

The 2025 Tools Competition is a program of Renaissance Philanthropy and is supported by: Schmidt Futures, Griffin Catalyst, Walton Family Foundation, Axim Collaborative, Oak Foundation, and Calbright College.

Want to be kept in the loop for the next competition cycle?  Join our mailing list!

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Announcing the Finalists of the 2025 Tools Competition!