$7 Million Adult Literacy XPRIZE : : Barbara Bush Foundation

$7 Million Global Competition to Transform the Lives of Low-Literate Adults

Barbara Bush Foundation: 6.08.2015

The $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation is a competition challenging teams of developers (software, game and app), educators, engineers and innovators to create mobile literacy learning applications for the adult learner.  The finalists teams’ solutions must demonstrate that they can substantially improve the literacy proficiency of adults reading at or below a third grade level, as measured by the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), within a 12-month period.

5 Finalists teams will be chosen. Each finalist team will then test its mobile software solution with 1,000 field participants.  Read the Guidelines.

Field participants will be recruited across two demographics:

1.Native English language speakers 18-64 years old

2.Non-native English language speakers 18-64 years old

The final five solutions will then be entered into a Cities Competition. Cities will compete to encourage the greatest percentage of their low-literate residents to download and use the solutions over a six-month period. The winning city will demonstrate the greatest percentage of application downloads among its low-literate residents.

The $7 million will be awarded as follows:

Grand Prize: $4 million will be awarded to the team with the best performance across all adult learners, over the yearlong field test.

Bonus Prize: $1 million ($500,000 each) will be awarded to the two teams with the best performance in each target demographic (native English speakers and non-native English speakers).

Advanced Market Commitment:  $1 million to be split among all finalist teams that advance to the Cities Competition.

Cities Competition:  $1 million will be awarded to the city that encourages the greatest percentage of its adult learners to download and use any of the finalist solutions over a six-month period.

Teams will compete in a multi-stage competition that tests for:

•Ability to measurably increase the literacy level of low-literate adults within 12 months.

•Creation of a design that is easy and accessible for use on a mobile phone so that learners can access it and operate it from anywhere, anytime.

•Software curriculum that is engaging, relevant and attuned to the needs and interests of the adult learner.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

XPRIZE believes that solutions can come from anyone, anywhere. Game, app, and software developers, coders, educators, and innovators from all over the world are invited to form a team and register to compete.

OPERATING COSTS

Teams will be responsible for funding their own solution development costs. Expenses for the on-site, in-cities test stage of the competition are included as part of the competition and covered by XPRIZE.

JUDGING CRITERIA

•Entries will be evaluated during the first-round down-select process based on the following criteria: Learning, Design and Technology.

•Judges will also assess the background research and quality of explanation of the design.

The $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation is a 48-month competition launching June 8, 2015.

The competition consists of 2 phases:

SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT PHASE

Team registration is open at launch, June 2015, and closes 6 months later, December 2015.

Solution Development begins once registration has closed and continues for 18 months.

Month 24 - Solution Development concludes.

Month 28 - Field testing begins.  Finalists’ solutions are deployed among approximately 5,000 low-literate participants for use over a 12-month period.

Month 39 - Field testing ends and judging begins. Field-testing results are analyzed to determine the winning team(s).

Month 42 - The winning team(s) will be announced and prizes awarded at an award event.

Phase 1 will last 42 months.

THE CITIES DEPLOYMENT PHASE

Upon awarding of the Team Solutions phase, cities across the country will simultaneously launch their education and outreach campaigns encouraging their low-literate residents to download and use any of the solutions that met the competition’s minimum performance benchmarks. At month 48, the judging panel will determine the city that provided these literacy solutions to the greatest percentage of their low-literate residents.

This phase will last 6 months.

NEED FOR THE COMPETITION

- More than 36 million U.S. adults lack basic English literacy.

- Low-literate adults have difficulty reading a child a bedtime story, reading over the counter medicine labels, completing a job application, opening a bank account, navigating healthcare forms, tax forms and more.

- Economic studies show that even a one percent rise in literacy skill scores can increase labor productivity by as much as 2.5 percent, boosting output by as much as $225 billion.

- Improving adult literacy could save the country an estimated $230 billion in extra healthcare costs.

-More importantly, the legacy of low-literacy continues through generations, limiting opportunities and trapping whole families in a cycle of poverty.

-In fact, a mother’s literacy level is the single most accurate predictor of a child’s future educational success and poverty level.  READ MORE !