Community Highlights: Meet Ildi Laczko-Kerr of Ribbit Learning Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ildi Laczko-Kerr

Hi Ildi, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Like many entrepreneurs, my life is made up of dozens of small and large pivots. I’ve called Arizona home since I was four and have been lucky to go to school and work in the K-12 education sector my entire career. My career path started in graduate school where I studied the impact of educators on their students’ achievement. I just completed my twenty-third year, during that time I’ve worked in state government, schools, non-profit organizations, and I’m a, three-time, company founder.

I always tell people my career path is unlike most educators, starting farthest away from schools and moving closer to individual classrooms over time. I started my first “real job” at the Arizona Department of Education while I was finishing my dissertation at Arizona State. Working as a Deputy Associate Superintendent of Research and Evaluation my team and I created systems and policies that directly affected every public school. But I didn’t do that alone, I collaborated with dozens of district and charter leaders from across the state. We created state and federal accountability models, analyzed and reported data and developed dozens of education policy that are still implemented today. I loved traveling across Arizona educating school communities, engaging leaders and helping teachers understand how their work impacted their school. I was lucky to make many life-long friends and colleagues, and it’s where I first began to understand how small and tight-knit the K-12 community is in Arizona.

I joined the leadership team at Scottsdale Unified School District initially responsible for research and assessments. During the the seven years in Scottsdale my responsibilities expanded along with their titles. I was lucky, again, to collaborate with outstanding educators, and human-beings, to support our thirty-one schools, their administrators and teachers to create systems that supported effective teaching and learning. I continued to collaborate with the state department, this time as a district representative, helping to enhance the systems and policies I initially created. By the time I left Scottsdale, nearly every department that had to do with teaching and learning reported to, and through me, to an assistant superintendent. I learned so much about schools and districts in Scottsdale because I never said no when a Superintendent asked for my help or a new opportunity presented itself.

My desire to grow and learn took me to the Arizona Charter Schools Association as their Chief Academic Officer. I was recruited to essentially create systems and supports to increase student achievement, much like I’d done in Scottsdale, to support Arizona’s 500+ charter schools. This was my first experience in the non-profit world and also where my true entrepreneurial journey really began. I had certainly leveraged entrepreneurial thinking, risk-taking and networking earlier in my career, but I always had the luxury of a financial safety net. As a non-profit leader, I was charged with creating a business model that generated revenue at the same time it created a positive impact on our constituents. A year after joining the Association we launched the Center for Student Achievement, a separate professional development, coaching and service oriented non-profit to meet this need. For seven years, the Center provided highly effective training, coaching and support to thousands of K-12 educators in Arizona, with a particular focus on small and rural district and charter schools. Of course, I couldn’t do this alone, I built a team of coaches and trainers who provided services to over forty schools per year, with annual revenues over $1M.

Along with my business partner, Robert Di Bacco, we were able to take our experiences creating the Center together to successfully translate it into our two other companies, Lotus Training & Consulting and Ribbit Learning Company. At Lotus, as a team of two, we’re serving a dozen schools per year, with revenues of nearly $500,000. In terms of impact, the schools we work with have increased teacher retention, improved student outcomes and created systematic changes to their teaching and learning structures. While both the Center and Lotus produced successful outcomes for our school partners, they were limited to scale, revenue and impact due to the models- onsite, in-person, human capital-intensive support. That’s one of the primary reasons we created Ribbit Learning. Ribbit provides virtual instructional coaching support to K-12 educators not only in Arizona but across the country. Our mission is to provide a coach to each PK-12 educator to help them grow and stay in the profession while advancing equitable learning opportunities and improving outcomes. Essentially, Ribbit helps deliver and scale the support we were already providing to even more K-12 schools to help them develop and retain their teachers. Ribbit launched in the 2023-24 school year with forty freelance virtual coaches serving over a dozen schools and over one hundred teachers.

Today I’m lucky to be able to be closest to the work supporting teachers and leaders to make a positive impact on their students and schools. Through the relationships I’ve built over my career I not only have great advisors but many are also my clients. With Lotus I work very closely side-by-side with leaders building systems and capacity and with Ribbit I’m able to build a technology platform and a diversified coaching workforce that can expand access to support beyond what I could ever hope to do on my own.

Throughout my career I’ve learned that relationships matter more than what you know, never burn a bridge, always be genuine and give more than you take. I put this knowledge to use every day.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In the twenty years I’ve been working in education I’ve been really lucky to have amazing jobs, in great organizations and worked with really smart and talented colleagues. What’s always been important to me throughout my career is being able to grow in my own knowledge, expertise and network. Every move I’ve made in my career has been driven by those goals. Of course, in every role there are obstacles and challenges whether it’s politics, literally when your work is impacted by state and local elections, wearing too many hats or taking on new roles outside of your own training or comfort zone.

I would say that I’ve never been more challenged in my career than creating Ribbit Learning. First, I’m not a software engineer or developer so it’s really way outside of my comfort zone and expertise. Second, while it’s my third company it’s my first that has been really financial and capital dependent. We’ve bootstrapped the development of our technology platform which means we don’t have any outside capital or funding. I knew creating an educational technology platform required highly trained technicians that cost a lot but I certainly had unreasonable expectations for how fast (or slow) things actually get developed. It’s even more frustrating because, unlike all of my other companies, I can’t roll up my sleeve and get to work myself. At the same time, I’ve gotten to dive into so many different aspects of building a business that I never needed to prior. It’s truly been the greatest learning experience of my career!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I started Ribbit because I realized that the lack of access to effective coaching support was an equity issue, particularly for small and rural schools who need it the most. I know from my decades of experience as a consultant and coach, and empirical research, that coaching significantly improves teaching quality, student achievement and school outcomes.

Dollar for dollar, instructional coaching is the most powerful strategy schools can utilize to support educators and improve student outcomes. Unfortunately, too few educators have access to this career-changing support.

Ribbit Learning utilizes our virtual coaching platform and our nationwide cadre of coaches to help PK-12 schools create or expand coaching support to educators, especially to those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to this evidence-based support. Ribbit supports public district and charter and private schools, especially those that are small, rural and/or serve students in under resourced communities (Title I schools). We deliver and scale coaching support that these schools would otherwise be unable to offer educators due to budget and human capital constraints.

Ribbit is transforming how educators receive coaching support in several critical ways. First, we empower educators with voice, choice and agency in their professional learning, treating them like professionals and ensuring support feels like support. Educators choose their coach from our entire cadre of coaches and can change their coach at any time. Second, we provide coaching support to every educator, including paraprofessionals, teachers, coaches and administrators. Our coaching is personalized to meet educators’ needs whether they teach core content, electives, or work with students with disabilities or multilingual learners. Third, we believe, coaching shouldn’t be limited to new or struggling educators, so we support educators from pre-service to retirement. Any one of these features is unheard of in schools and other coaching companies, combined together it’s the greatest differentiator between Ribbit and our competitors.

Ribbit launched in 2023-24 serving schools and districts in Arizona and Pennsylvania. In 2024-25, we’re expanding our impact to schools across the country as well as offering coaching services directly to educators.

Karyn White a RTI teacher and a Ribbit coach says it best, “Ribbit Learning Company’s concept is ground breaking because it provides teachers the opportunity to figure out what they need help with and then get help in a safe and effective way through 1-on-1 coaching. Instead of sitting through boring, pointless PD, teachers are treated professionally and have the opportunity to truly grow. I am privileged to be a part of this company.”

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I immigrated to the United States from, then communist, Romania when I was four years old. My parents weren’t just searching for the American dream they were fleeing political persecution so that shaped my experiences growing up. My siblings and I were always aware of the sacrifices my parents made for us to be in the US so we took the responsibility of going to school and learning very seriously.

I’m also the first daughter, but second oldest, of immigrants so that meant that I took on a lot of responsibilities around the house and caring for my siblings while my parents worked multiple jobs. That resulted in a Type A personality that’s driven to keep order and ensure everything goes as planned. I definitely used this throughout my career, especially in my systems- thinking and creating working. At the same time, being the second oldest also meant that I had a rebellious streak in me, too. While I was a good student I also loved hanging out with friends, socializing and often would get in trouble for “talking in class”. I think I got “talks too much in class” on every progress report and report card throughout school. Being able to easily talk to others, make friends, collaborate and have fun have come in handy throughout my career as well. It’s why I gravitate to teaching, coaching and working with others.

I’ve also had an entrepreneurial spirit. I started my own very of a Babysitter’s Club when I was 10 years old after reading the book series. I was an avid reader and essentially used the books as a guide to creating my own version. Because I came across very mature and I had a lot of experience taking care of my own siblings my business took off!

I learned really early on to take my work seriously but not to take myself too seriously. I’ve always been adventurous and willing to take risks. Those key features of my personality still serve me well today.

Pricing:

• $750/user
• $3,880 annual setup and data management fee/school
• Additional coaching packages available

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ribbitlearning.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ribbitlearning/
• Twitter: @RibbitLearning
• Youtube: @ribbitlearningcompany