Outschool is Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company in Education in 2021

On March 9, 2021, Fast Company released its highly anticipated annual list of the Most Innovative Companies in the world. Outschool is honored to have been recognized as #12 out of the 50 companies ranked and the number one most innovative company in education in 2021.

In 2020, we rose to the challenge of filling in gaps left by school closures and change prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With grateful hearts, we’d like to reflect on how we expanded our mission of helping kids love learning.

We dramatically increased the number of teachers on our platform while maintaining the quality of the experience for our learners. As schools around the world closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we moved quickly to bring thousands of teachers to our platform to help them begin teaching live online classes. This helped us support thousands more families who were dealing with an uncertain future about their child’s learning. Pre-COVID, we had around 80K learners enrolled in our classes. Today, that number is over 800K.

We worked to address the gap in access to supplemental learning opportunities by launching Outschool.org. We started by making $1 million of Outschool classes available to learners at no cost to their families. Since then, we’ve also awarded $2.5 million in grants to community partners and organizations that will provide Outschool classes to learners at no cost.

We supported dozens of educational organizations and camps in bringing their enrichment and after school activities online. With families across the globe unable to go out, explore, learn and be inspired, we realized that it was time to bring the world to them. Now organizations like Central NY Chess and The Whole N' Happy bring their exciting, interest-based learning opportunities to kids on Outschool every day.

We gave employers a new way to support their employees by offering Outschool classes as a benefit. With millions of kids at home due to school closures, and many parents also working from home or requiring additional child care, families have been placed under extreme stress by the pandemic. We launched Outschool for Employers so companies can support working parents by providing a high-quality learning experience for their kids, freeing up time for parents to get work done or take a break.

We helped schools massively expand the interest-based learning opportunities offered to their students. As administrators grappled with the best way to support students during remote or hybrid learning, we began partnering with schools and districts to expand elective offerings, provide additional support in core classes, and give kids a chance to explore their interests.

As we look ahead, we are excited to continue innovating, especially by supporting families in finding the best learning options for their children, and creating a safe, accepting and fun community for our learners.

We would be remiss not to mention our ongoing appreciation of our teachers, the true heroes in the work Outschool does to inspire students to love learning.

To read more about Outschool’s Most Innovative Company in Education award, click here.