Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what’s next.

Here’s what we have on deck for today…

1. Fund gives $1k to teen entrepreneurs (no strings attached)

2. AI that makes math tutors better (even the meh ones)

3. Trump’s pick for Education Secretary has three big ideas to shake up education in America

Fund gives $1k to teen entrepreneurs (no strings attached)

10 months ago, Anand Sanwal stepped down as CEO of CB Insights where he grew the business from $0 to $2.8B. Now he’s on a new mission to empower youth entrepreneurs to build a thousand companies.

How? The Formidable Fund.

It’s a fund that gives $1,000 grants to middle and high school entrepreneurs, no string attached. Doesn’t matter if you’re mowing lawns or coding the next AI agent. If you’re solving problems and serving others, they want to help. Want to see more young builders? Fund the movement (100% tax deductible) here.

Know a young visionary who could use some support? Tell them to apply for a Formidable Fund grant.

AI that makes math tutors better (even the meh ones)

Stanford researchers recently developed an AI tool (Tutor CoPilot) that coaches human tutors on how to better help students with math. In the first randomized controlled trial of its kind, the tool proved to boost student mastery rates by 4% overall.

The crazy part?

1. Students working with lower-rated tutors saw their performance jump more than twice as much, by 9%

2. AND it only costs $20 / student / year — not including the cost of training the model.

So what makes it special? Instead of just giving you the answer — like ChatGPT might — Tutor CoPilot was trained “to behave like an experienced teacher and generate hints, explanations and questions for tutors to try out on students.” In other words, it provides tutors with explanations and questions to encourage deeper thinking of their students.

The most promising use case for AI in education may not be in replacing educators entirely. But in amplifying their impact — especially for less experienced teachers.

Trump’s pick for Education Secretary has three big ideas to shake up education in America

Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary, wants to revolutionize how Americans think about education and career paths. The former WWE Executive and SBA admin has expressed interest in three big changes:

1. Expanding school choice nationwide

2. Opening Pell Grants to short-term workforce training

3. Pushing back against the four-year degree as the default path

McMahon’s agenda suggests a big shift toward alternative learning, potentially creating opportunities to develop new learning models to meet demand for these priorities.

Companies and programs focused on career training and education-to-employment pathways could see new opportunities ahead.

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We’ll be back with another edition on Friday. See you then!

To stay up-to-date on all things education innovation, visit us at www.playgroundpost.com.