North Billerica, MA, April 7, 2025
SoapBox Labs, a Curriculum Associates company, has been awarded Digital Promise’s prestigious Responsibly Designed AI product certification for its groundbreaking use of speech recognition technology in education. This certification recognizes SoapBox Labs’ commitment to developing AI-driven solutions that support secure and effective learning experiences for students and educators and is the second Digital Promise certification earned by the company for its development of responsible AI.
Curriculum Associates is currently working at integrating SoapBox’s voice engine with its award-winning assessment and instruction platform, i-Ready. This integration will allow children to read aloud while the technology listens, analyzes, and provides timely feedback on pronunciation, fluency, and accuracy. For teachers, this will mean more actionable insights into individual student needs and more time for personalized instruction. Designed for young voices and noisy classrooms, the SoapBox voice engine has been built to understand children’s wide-ranging speech patterns and accents.
Curriculum Associates is engaged in an intentional co-design approach to AI, working hand in hand with educators and students so that solutions are tailored to support their daily work and are underpinned by evidence-based, research-driven practices.
“This recognition for SoapBox’s voice engine is more than an accolade—it's validation that AI in education must be designed with responsibility as its foundation," said Kelly Sia, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “AI tailored specifically for the classroom will further accelerate learning for all readers and provide multilingual students new pathways for expression, all while giving teachers back precious instructional time.”
Digital Promise’s certification process was co-designed with 39 district leaders across states, instructional technologists and other school staff, AI researchers, and edtech product teams. The designers prioritized fairness, security, and student-centered outcomes when evaluating AI tools. By earning this certification, SoapBox Labs strengthens Curriculum Associates’ position as a trusted partner, delivering ethical, transparent, and effective AI-powered educational solutions to the schools and districts we serve across the country.
"This certification celebrates our passion for building AI that illuminates new learning pathways for every student—tools that recognize individual learning styles, safeguard privacy, and transform rigorous research into classroom applications that teachers can trust with confidence,” said Amelia Kelly, CTO of SoapBox Labs.
Digital Promise’s rigorous evaluation criteria include data privacy, algorithmic fairness, transparency, and proven educational effectiveness. These criteria ensure that only AI solutions meeting the highest ethical standards receive this distinction. Educators and district leaders will now have a benchmark when selecting ethical AI products to use in their classrooms.
For more information about Curriculum Associates and its AI-powered educational solutions, visit CurriculumAssociates.com.
About Curriculum Associates
Founded in 1969, Curriculum Associates, LLC designs research-based print and online instructional materials, screens and assessments, and data management tools. The company’s products and outstanding customer service provide teachers and administrators with the resources necessary for teaching diverse student populations and fostering learning for all students.
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