“Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.” – George Evans
For many, receiving a formal learning disability diagnosis and accessing timely intervention can be transformative. This was certainly the case for Stefan Bauer and Emily Yudofsky, the co-founders of Marker Learning. Both were diagnosed with dyslexia in childhood, and Stefan was even told he might never graduate high school. However, thanks to their parents’ proactive efforts and early intervention, they not only thrived academically but went on to achieve impressive professional success. Driven by their personal experiences, they founded Marker Learning with a powerful mission: to make similar pathways to success accessible to everyone with learning disabilities.
It’s highly likely you know someone affected by a learning disability. Approximately 20% of the population grapples with conditions like dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or other deficits impacting verbal, written, reading, or non-verbal skills. While significant public funding is allocated to special education in the US – exceeding $80 billion annually, double the per-student spending on general education – accessing these crucial resources hinges on obtaining a formal diagnostic assessment and report.
The challenge lies in the significant bottlenecks within the diagnostic process. Waiting lists for free assessments through school districts can stretch to an unacceptable 2-3 years. Private psychological evaluations offer quicker turnaround times but come with a hefty price tag, averaging up to $14,000, making them inaccessible for most families. This situation is particularly concerning given that early intervention can yield a 2x improvement in learning outcomes each year. Furthermore, undiagnosed students are alarmingly three times more likely to drop out of high school and twice as likely to face unemployment.
The increasing adoption of state mandates for universal dyslexia screening, while well-intentioned, further strains an already overburdened system. This comes at a critical juncture when both education and healthcare sectors are grappling with severe labor shortages. Consequently, only a fraction – a mere 20% of those affected, or 4% of the total population – currently manage to secure and afford a formal diagnosis.
Marker Learning is determined to change this landscape. Their vision is to make learning assessments as routine and accessible as hearing and vision tests for all children and adults. To realize this ambitious goal, they have launched a nationwide platform delivering learning disability diagnostic and remediation services. This platform is available directly to families and through partnerships with school districts, ensuring support reaches the students who need it most.
By leveraging software-based automation and virtualization, Marker Learning is directly tackling the critical supply-demand imbalance in learning disability services. They have drastically reduced the evaluation timeline by sixfold, significantly cutting down the 40+ hours typically spent by psychologists on manual evaluations and report generation. This innovation has also allowed them to bring the cost of a comprehensive evaluation down to approximately $1,000, making it significantly more affordable. Beyond diagnostics, Marker Learning offers essential remediation services, including personalized tutoring and coaching. This integrated approach generates a valuable closed-loop dataset, creating exciting opportunities for groundbreaking research into the effectiveness of various diagnostic methods and intervention strategies.
We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Stefan and Emily and our leadership in Marker Learning’s Series A funding round. We are eager to support their journey as they revolutionize the diagnosis, treatment, and research of learning disabilities, paving the way for a more equitable and effective education system.
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