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Gary Kosman
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Gary Kosman received an Echoing Green fellowship in 2003 to launch America Learns, a for-profit educational performance and accountability firm now reaching more than 20,000 students across 14 countries.
CLICK on the player to listen to this four-minute interview, or on the link below to download the audio file to your desktop.
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Gary Kosman launched America Learns as a non-profit organization, and it struggled like many NPOs. But when Gary realized that people and institutions were ready to pay for his technology, he switched to a for-profit model and America Learns is now selling products and services to schools and universities in 14 countries.America Learns helps school districts and universities track, evaluate and provide ongoing guidance and training to tutors, mentors and student teachers. Clients include Berkeley, Yale, Georgetown University and Harvard.
Gary Kosman tracks his social impact through constant interviews with his clients, and he asks his customers to provide case studies of good practice. His standard is the accomplishment of four goals:
- To insure that educators and mentors get the support and guidance they need to do their job
- To help educators and mentors capture innovative strategies occurring on the ground and in the classroom and share them among their staff
- To ensure that organizations spend just the right amount of money and time on evaluations and reports
- To help the central offices of education organizations run smoothly by knowing what is going on on the ground.
America Learns is now profitable. Gary says it is incredibly liberating to know he can meet these goals while no longer depending on foundations for support.
His advice for fellow social entrepreneurs: “Care for your hands!” He worked so much at a keyboard that he could not touch anything for a period, as he explains in this video.
CLICK on the player above to listen to her interview.
