Boulder edtech startup joins Iowa accelerator

BOULDER — A Boulder education tech startup, Class Composer, is entering a yearlong accelerator program in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Class Composer is a software-as-a-service company that helps teachers and schools make equitable class assignments. It was accepted to the Iowa Startup Accelerator from the New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative.

“This program has a focus on edtech, which is why I applied,” Class Composer CEO and co-founder Mike Cronley told BizWest. “They have experience with companies in the edtech space, and we felt that would be a benefit to help us grow.”

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The program lasts a year, with the first three months being the most time-intensive. Cronley said he will make weekly trips to Cedar Rapids.

The accelerator gives $20,000 up-front to the startups in exchange for 6 percent equity in the company.

Class Composer’s flagship software helps automate the difficult task elementary school teachers have of determining what students are assigned to which class. Cronley, a third grade teacher for 12 years, said that it falls on teachers to assign their students to the next year’s classes in an equitable way, making sure there is a fair spread of students with learning, language or behavioral issues in each class. Often, teachers resort to jotting things down on sticky notes and trying to arrange a jigsaw puzzle of information.

With Class Composer, notes about each student are made within the software and assignments are made automatically through an algorithm. Teachers can then go in and finetune the assignments themselves.

Class Composer launched in the spring of 2017 and already has 25 paying schools, in Colorado and as far spread as Angola. The team of five has been bootstrapping the company up until now.

Looking ahead, Cronley said the company plans to add features that allow the same process of equitable assigning to happen at smaller levels, rather than just the grade and school-level options open now. Teachers will be able to assign small groups within the class using the algorithm, making sure that all the group assignments are fair to the students.