Quill is a personalized online learning tool that helps students build writing, comprehension and grammar, and develop critical thinking skills. As students work through activities, Quill provides instant feedback and hints to help students improve. The collaborative class lessons tool allows teachers to introduce grammar concepts through an interactive platform. Quill’s technology platform is grounded in an evidence-based set of strategies for teaching writing known as the Hochman Method. We were an early supporter of pilot testing of Quill that implemented Quill’s sentence-combining tool in three Icahn Charter Schools. Our grants were co-funded by the Robin Hood Foundation through the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund, a fund established in 2015 by Robin Hood, the Overdeck Family Foundation and Siegel Family Foundation to focus on the potential of technology to transform learning in NYC. The findings demonstrated statistically significant increases in writing scores. The results and feedback cohort offered deep insights into best practices for creating the optimal conditions that result in the best student outcomes.
Our catalytic grants led to substantial funding from Chan Zuckerberg and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is enabling Quill to make progress in building state of the art algorithms that leverage cutting edge technologies from Microsoft and Google.