OAKLAND -- Six local schools will receive a share of a $2.1 million grant from the Rogers Family Foundation and other nonprofit partners to help bring personalized learning technology to the classroom.

Among the grant recipients are ASCEND K-8 Lodestar, a school set to open in Fall 2016; Redwood Heights Elementary; Roosevelt Middle School; Urban Montessori; Urban Promise Academy and NGLC Learning.

Each school will receive $350,000 over two years, which will help them to bring innovation to the classroom using technology to bring personalized learning to students starting this fall.

This is the six schools' second round of funding from Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant, which is provided by Next Generation Learning Challenges, a nonprofit partnership focused on accelerating educational innovation through applied technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, NGLC named Oakland one of seven hubs of education innovation, awarding a first round of planning grants and support to a number of Oakland schools in 2015.


The Rogers Foundation was tapped to lead the initiative's design and launch locally, and the six schools received the guidance and support of the national nonprofit, Mastery Design Collaborative, to help create three-year blueprints for innovation at their schools.

"Support from the NGLC network will facilitate Oakland's breaking out of the factory system of education and evolving toward a world where every student grows and thrives," said Roosevelt Middle School Principal Cliff Hong, in a statement.

Contact Joyce Tsai at 925-945-4764. Follow her at Twitter.com/joycetsainews.