Barbara Bush Foundation Announces $7M XPRIZE to Tackle Adult Literacy

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Barbara Bush Foundation Announces $7M XPRIZE to Tackle Adult Literacy

Jun 9, 2015

ADULT LITERACY XPRIZE: People usually receive gifts on their birthdays. But former First Lady Barbara Bush celebrated her 90th by announcing a $7 million adult literacy challenge, thanks to a partnership between her foundation and XPRIZE.

The competition is open to any developer creating mobile apps to help the estimated 36 million American adults who lack basic literacy. Get all the details here.

Registration is open until December 2015, after which the teams will have 18 months to build their tools. A panel of judges will then choose five finalists, each of whom will test their app with over 1,000 adults for 12 months. The $4 million grand prize will go to the team that can demonstrate the greatest gains on the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems ( CASAS) test. Two $500,000 prizes will be awarded to teams that prove to be most effective with native and non-native English speakers.

In September 2014, XPRIZE announced a similar challenge, to the tune of $15 million, to improve English literacy for children in developing countries. The five finalists, from the 198 teams that applied, will be announced in 2017.

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