Dr. Mark Penny, superintendent of Lincoln County R-III in Troy, Missouri, believes every student can find success in public education, no matter their circumstance.

At these edtech companies, putting student and teacher voices at the center of their decision-making is the key to ensuring equitable and successful education.

Multiage classrooms were standard in American schools until the mid-19th century, when they began to be replaced by a curriculum-centered, grade-level system. Education reformers later revived the idea of multiage education, particularly in the 1990s, arguing that it's a more child-centered and developmentally appropriate approach.

Put simply, we are well past the time when America would be better off if its citizens were news-literate, digitally-literate—in short, media-literate.