Marker Learning Makes Learning Assessments More Accessible

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Emily Yudofsky and Stefan Bauer
Courtesy of Marker Learning

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), about 17% of children in the U.S. have some type of learning disability. After personal experiences with an inaccessible industry, co-founders Emily Yudofsky and Stefan Bauer teamed up to create Marker Learning, a learning disability assessment platform.

The year-old startup aims to make learning disability assessments more accessible. Yudofsky knows the importance of accessibility firsthand, as she was fortunate to be diagnosed at an early age.


Yudofsky tells dot.LA she’s thankful for her first grade teacher who recognized she was struggling to read and alerted her parents to seek help. She eventually went on to graduate from Yale and start Found, a metabolic health company that utilizes telemedicine to help people manage their weight.

“Through that experience, I was diagnosed with dyslexia and some other learning disabilities,” Yudofsky says. “I was able to succeed academically with a little bit of grit and the right support, but unfortunately, the vast majority of individuals with learning disabilities don't have the same opportunities that I had.”

Yudofsky says that a private assessment can cost families thousands of dollars, though prices may vary based on location. Her co-founder Bauer had to pay $8,000 for a private market evaluation and unfortunately most insurance plans don’t cover educational assessments.

The startup only charges $995 per session which is a fraction of the average industry costs. But Yudofsky says that Marker does offer payment plans for families who need that option. Marker also works directly with school districts and charter school networks to deliver its services at no cost to the family.

Unlike many evaluations in the field, Marker isn’t just testing for one learning disability, its algorithm is able to assess for any reading, writing, math, learning or attention disability.

Private evaluations are typically done in an in-person setting but Marker utilizes telemedicine to deliver evaluations in the comfort of students' homes.

“Marker’s mission is ensuring that all students, regardless of their background, or socioeconomic status, have the same opportunities that were afforded to Stephen and I,” Yudofsky says, “and really offer the highest quality of valuation and support services to those with learning disabilities.”

To ensure they could provide a high quality service, the co-founders spent the first five months learning from experts in the field, including psychologists from Johns Hopkins and Columbia University. Yudofsky said they wanted to understand how these professionals administered these evaluations. The time spent with them allowed the team to build algorithms that replicate what psychologists can do.

The psychologists in Marker’s network come from job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn, but Yudofsky says “it has been relatively easy for us to recruit in this capacity and I think the reason for that is we're able to offer psychologists a work path that hasn't been available to them in the past, with flexible hours and we pay them a very competitive salary.”

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

Office Hours: Apex Founder Ian Cinnamon on Why LA Is the Aerospace Capital of the World

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

​Ian Cinnamon
Ian Cinnamon

On this episode of Office Hours, Apex founder and CEO Ian Cinnamon discusses the importance of investing in space exploration and shares his thoughts on the evolving space ecosystem in Los Angeles.


Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

This Week in ‘Raises’: Measurabl Snags $93M, Selva Ventures Grabs $34M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local data management platform company lands fresh funding to help commercial real estate owners reduce carbon footprint, while one Los Angeles-based venture firm closes its second fund to accelerate the growth of emerging companies across health, wellness, beauty and personal care.

***

Read moreShow less

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges
InLA

In 2022, female founders saw a 28% decline in overall U.S. funding, while Black-led startups saw a 38% decline in total capital received. In an effort to increase funding for minority-led startups, global venture firm McKinsey & Company is launching InLA, an accelerator program for underrepresented founders.

“This effort is something that the firm has been really excited about for a long time,” Engagement Manager Elkhyn Rivas Rodriguez said. “There's obviously a meaningful and growing startup community out here and just from a diversity standpoint, LA is incredibly diverse and multi-ethnic and multicultural. So we think that there will be a really great pool of potential companies to partner with.”

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending