Dive Brief:

• Utah's UPSTART program, developed by the nonprofit Waterford Institute, helps kids develop early literacy skills via learning delivered digitally to their homes.
• Now in its fifth year, a new report by an external evaluator hired by the Utah State Office of Education says that the program has been proven to have successful literacy results, and that the "technology has considerable merit for delivering curriculum, teaching critical early reading skills that are known predictors of later school performance, and closing early learning gaps that disproportionately affect disadvantaged children."
• The UPSTART program serves more than 6,600 children, or 16.5% of 4-year-olds in Utah, eSchoolNews reports.

Dive Insight:

In rural Utah specifically, preparing children for kindergarten is an ongoing area of concern. Though it's cloud-based, UPSTART's reading curriculum is also reportedly not Internet reliant, allowing households without web connections to benefit as well. In rural Utah, 18 districts are now benefitting from UPSTART. 

Pre-K education in Utah has also been an investment focus for Goldman Sachs. Earlier this year, the company backed a program aimed at helping at-risk kids avoid going into special ed programs, with a self-reported success rate of 99% that was later called into question by the New York Times.