Transforming Education: Mission Helps Building 21 Bring AI and Scale To Competency-Based Learning

Building 21, a nonprofit transforming education through competency-based learning, partnered with Mission to assess their data infrastructure for migration to AWS and develop an AI-powered feedback system for teachers and students. Mission's assessments provided Building 21 with a clear roadmap for scaling their platform from 50 schools to thousands of educators and students, critical insights into data warehouse migration, and proof of an impactful, cost-effective AI feedback solution, positioning Building 21 to raise funding and expand their impact across the education sector.

Building 21 operates as a nonprofit organization empowering networks of learners to find their passion and impact their world. Starting 13 years ago with competency-based schools in Pennsylvania, they now support approximately 50 schools nationally and internationally through their Beacon Learning technology platform, helping institutions transform traditional one-size-fits-all education into personalized learning experiences.

Building 21 has grown and improved their technology stack organically over the years. Beacon Learning, Building 21’s learning management platform, enables the competency-based learning programs they implement at each school. It has been a success driver and has room to be even more impactful with AI-driven improvements. Additionally, as the company has continued to support more and more schools, they’ve found themselves with a vast data warehouse, reaching a point where they needed a proven formula for scalability to support a user base of 10,000 and growing.

Building 21's AWS account manager recommended Mission as the top-rated partner match based on specific criteria around nonprofit and education experience. What sealed the partnership wasn't just the recommendation but Mission’s human-first approach during initial conversations. Thomas Gaffey, SVP of Technology and Innovation at Building 21, felt listened to and appreciated being challenged during early project discussions. Mission demonstrated they cared about Building 21's educational mission beyond just technical requirements. This combination of AWS endorsement and Mission’s understanding of the “mission” at Building 21 showed an understanding of both their technology needs and their deeper purpose of transforming education for students.

Building 21 works on AWS because the platform is well-suited for a growing nonprofit. AWS offers a clear path from minimum viable product to enterprise-scale infrastructure without forcing the rebuilding of systems. The platform provides technologies that transition smoothly from small nonprofit operations to supporting networks of schools. AWS has also acknowledged Building 21's nonprofit status through helpful programs and grants that greatly support infrastructure costs.

Mission conducted two distinct assessments for Building 21. The data warehouse migration assessment analyzed their existing infrastructure and provided recommendations for migrating to AWS. Mission's team educated Gaffey and his colleagues on current limitations, explained why certain approaches wouldn't scale, and painted a clear picture of what migration to scalable infrastructure would look like. The assessment covered both technical architecture and the educational opportunities that modern data infrastructure could unlock for school partners.

For the AI assessment, Mission built a proof of concept focusing on automated feedback delivery integrated directly into Building 21's learning management platform. The POC leveraged Amazon Bedrock, allowing Building 21 to prototype with different AI models and evaluate performance before committing to production. Mission explored various cost scenarios, demonstrating how upfront architectural work could reduce interaction costs from five cents to one cent - a five-fold savings. The team explained how caching context and optimizing API calls would impact long-term operational expenses. Mission designed the solution around Building 21's competency-based progressions, treating AI as a sidekick rather than the leading force, keeping teachers central to student learning while providing instant feedback loops that traditional classrooms cannot support at scale.

Mission's assessments gave Building 21 the knowledge foundation needed to pursue strategic fundraising and platform development. The data warehouse assessment revealed pathways to prepare infrastructure for AI-powered data analysis, where users could ask questions and receive answers without custom dashboard development. This capability addresses education's persistent challenge of data sitting unused and siloed across disparate systems. The vision includes giving educators clearer insight into student learning patterns and better personalization tools.

The AI proof of concept delivered incredibly affordable results. Gaffey anticipated much higher costs, but Mission's architectural approach made the feedback system financially viable for a nonprofit serving 10,000+ users. The POC demonstrated that students could receive instant, progression-based feedback before the final submission of assignments, allowing multiple cycles of revisions, improvements, and coaching before the final evaluation. This transformation supports Building 21's core belief that learning is most effective when students try something, get immediate feedback, and implement changes. Teachers can now focus on relationship building and direct support while AI handles the high-volume feedback requests. The system maintains teacher oversight for final submissions while dramatically expanding the revision opportunities that drive deep learning. Gaffey praised Mission’s understanding of the human elements of their work and focusing on organizational goals beyond mere technology implementation.