Changing the world, one student at a time...

STAFF

HISTORY

Before HUDDLE Learning became an official non-profit company, organizers and believers collaborated with RESOLVE to approach learning differently. By looking beyond obvious issues, shortcomings, and rough edges, we began to see the potential in all learners and educators to become more successful. After a couple years of dreaming, planning, and fighting back doubts that this dream was beyond our reach, a plan was forged. Sometimes the best way to move forward is to plant yourself and say, “This is WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE BELIEVE.”

Therefore, pairing the quiet confidence of an educator/school improvement specialist with the complementary experience a pediatric nurse/12-year school board veteran, moved our vision forward to establish HUDDLE Learning, Inc. in 1999. The organization was approved as a 501(c)(3) in December, 2004. (ID #2868057)  Our team was dedicated to “Helping Undo the Digital Divide while Learning Electronically”(HUDDLE). At the time, the disparity of digital resources available to schools and the student’s homes we served was of great concern. Since then, technological disparity has eased somewhat with more technology being used in today’s school curriculums and with the advancements in cell phones becoming smartphones. Today, we choose to position HUDDLE as “Helping Utilize Digital Diagnostics to enable Learners to Excel.”

VISION

HUDDLE Learning Inc. remains devoted to “Changing the world, one student at a time.” We serve students and educators by raising money for grant programs to support accelerating learning and getting student’s performance to grade level and beyond. It is not enough to make small steps when a learner is two to three grade levels behind their peers. Progress requires large, significant gains.

HUDDLE Learning Inc. also supports related education efforts for teachers, when it can directly affect student performance. Often, using new education tools require new skills or the enhancement of existing skills. Educators continue to work harder than ever, but struggle to keep up with the current growing educational challenges facing them today.

Finding the right recipe to assist educators in meeting the formidable challenges within each classroom requires diligence in seeking recent medical, technological, and educational research as well as ensuring ongoing support for schools, teachers, and classrooms. Each classroom’s level of achievement can vary three to four grade levels. To challenge all students at their enrolled grade level is difficult at best, to challenge each of them individually at their own level is virtually impossible. Classroom instruction must use smart technology in the classroom focus on each student’s learning needs, so that personalized learning is possible and ALL can advance.

In addition, learning must go well beyond the six-hour school day. Solutions must have a laser focus and include predictable results before using them with students. Never in our history have we spent as much time assessing students as we do in today’s school systems and yet, proficiency and success rates have barely moved the needle.

We are further challenged by more medical issues than ever before when we consider:

• 1 in 59 students suffer from some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
• Dyslexia is seemingly more prevalent and sometimes is estimated to be present in 1 out of 5 or 6 students.
• Visual Discrepancies have a direct impact on students learning to read.
• Genetics and medical science is making diagnosis more definitive and available at a younger ages.

These conditions and others require we educators to collaborate closely with the medical community to deliver education that matches how a student learns. Just like any other medical condition, we want our practitioners to use the latest tools to diagnose and deliver the right “medicine” or educational treatment to get the desired results.

FUNDRAISING

The management team of HUDDLE Learning Inc. focuses on creating learning opportunities for disadvantaged and underprivileged youth and adults. We accomplish this through applying for grants available to nonprofits. Some of these grants are available to a community or a single school, based on donor-sponsor specifications. Our project focus is geographically bound within Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

Huddle Learning Inc. selects all projects based on a particular grant’s focus. Some of the projects we have supported focused on dropout recovery programs as storefront schools, operated in partnership with sponsoring school districts. In other instances, programs have been developed inside schools, utilizing computer-assisted learning software and targeting improved learning skills for disadvantaged students. A few grants have supported community-based learning programs sponsored by churches or other nonprofits devoted to academic success.

HUDDLE maintains the responsibility for all project accountability and donor reporting. Most grants are focused on academic gains and are for the benefit of Pre-K through 12th grade, although some grants do focus on English Language Learning Programs for Adults.