Built by Educators Who Understand Accountability
AscendEd Intelligence was founded by leaders who've been in the trenches of district accountability, EdTech implementation, and systems transformation. We know what it takes to turn data into clarity.
Give Educators Clarity, Give Students Possibility
We believe that when district leaders have clear visualizations and AI-powered insights showing student performance and growth, they can make better decisions that directly impact student outcomes. Our mission is to eliminate the friction between data and action by providing interactive data visualizations alongside AI-generated recommendations for next steps, guided by prompts specifically designed by educators who understand your challenges, so educators can spend less time analyzing and more time supporting schools.
Interactive dashboards reveal performance patterns.
Educator-crafted AI prompts generate recommended next steps based on data patterns.
FERPA compliant, auditable, and built for accountability systems.
Meet the Team
Decades of combined experience in district leadership, accountability systems, and education technology at scale.
Rob has spent more than 20 years working in educational technology, helping teachers and students succeed. For the last 13 years, he served as Senior Vice President...
Rob has spent more than 20 years working in educational technology, helping teachers and students succeed. For the last 13 years, he served as Senior Vice President of the Southeast at Curriculum Associates, where he partnered with thousands of teachers and reached more than 5 million students.
His drive comes from a simple belief: every child deserves a great education. Rob remembers the impact of one of his own teachers who noticed he was struggling and took extra time to help him find confidence in the classroom. That experience showed him just how powerful a caring teacher and the right support can be. It's a lesson that has stayed with him throughout his career and continues to guide his work today.
Rob also knows public education is facing big challenges. He believes schools don't just need to keep up with change, they need to shape it in ways that make learning better for everyone.
Outside of work, Rob is a proud University of Miami graduate, an active volunteer in his community, and a strong supporter of teachers. At home, he and his wife (a former teacher) stay busy raising their two sets of twins, who keep life full of energy and laughter.
Oliver Coulter is a seasoned finance executive and U.S. Army veteran with over 20 years of global leadership experience. Before joining our team...
Oliver Coulter is a seasoned finance executive and U.S. Army veteran with over 20 years of global leadership experience. Before joining our team, he held senior finance and FP&A roles supporting $3B in annual revenue and overseeing a $240M operating budget across regions including Japan, Korea, and the U.S.
A former Intel executive, Oliver has led high-impact teams across five continents, driving strategy, performance, and growth through disciplined financial management and operational excellence. His background as a Field Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army instilled a mission-first mindset, accountability, and resilience that continue to define his leadership today.
Oliver holds an MBA in Finance and Supply Chain from The Ohio State University and a B.S. from the University of Miami. He is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and remains active in mentoring and veterans' advocacy.
Chris Chism has dedicated more than 30 years to public education and currently serves as Superintendent of Schools for the Pearl Public School District...
Chris Chism has dedicated more than 30 years to public education and currently serves as Superintendent of Schools for the Pearl Public School District. His career includes experience as a classroom teacher, coach, assistant principal, and principal. Prior to becoming superintendent, Chism served seven years as principal of Pearl High School, two years as principal of Lafayette Middle School, and two years as assistant principal at New Albany High School.
Chism holds an Associate of Arts degree from East Mississippi Community College, where he began his collegiate baseball career. He continued his academic and athletic pursuits at the University of Florida, studying environmental engineering and playing baseball, and was later drafted to play professional baseball. After injuries cut his professional career short, he returned to Mississippi to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi State University and a Master of Education from the University of Mississippi as a member of the Principal Corps. He further developed his leadership skills through the National Institute for School Leadership and the Mississippi Association of School Administrators (MASA) Superintendent Academy.
He currently serves on the EMCED Board and the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Task Force, where he contributes to statewide conversations around innovation, emerging technologies, and their impact on education and workforce development.
In addition to his district leadership, Chism has become a recognized leader in the use of artificial intelligence in education. Over the past two years, he has delivered 228 presentations across 11 states, working primarily with educators and school leaders to explore practical, ethical, and effective uses of AI in schools. In addition to his work with educators, he also partners with organizations outside of education, helping them better understand how emerging technologies can support leadership, innovation, and operations.
His leadership has been recognized at the local, state, and national levels. He was named the 2021–2022 Pearl Public School District Administrator of the Year, recognized by the University of Mississippi School of Education as a 2020 Practitioner of Distinction, and most recently selected as the 2025–2026 Superintendent of the Year by the Mississippi Association of School Administrators.
Chism attributes his professional accomplishments to the incredible mentors and coworkers that have believed in and supported him throughout his career and remains committed to serving students, staff, and the Pearl community.
He values the importance of family and community and is supported by his wife, Ashley, and their children, Cade and Bailey. He and his family are proud to call Pearl home, with deep ties to the Pearl Public School District and the Pearl community.
Why We Built AscendEd
AscendEd Intelligence was born from a simple observation: district leaders are drowning in data but starving for insight.
After decades working in K-12 education (from classrooms to central offices to EdTech companies) we saw the same pattern repeat. Talented, committed leaders spending countless hours manually piecing together data from disconnected systems, trying to answer basic questions about student performance and growth.
Meanwhile, accountability pressures kept mounting. Every state assessment, every benchmark, every data point added to the complexity. Leadership teams were forced to choose between speed and thoroughness, between supporting schools and satisfying compliance requirements.
We knew there had to be a better way. Not another dashboard. Not another platform to learn. But a true synthesis layer. Something that could take all the fragmented data districts already have and transform it into clear, actionable insight.
That's why we built AscendEd IQ. We combined our experience in district accountability, EdTech scale, and AI systems to create a platform that actually works the way district leaders think. Connecting performance to growth, linking engagement to outcomes, and making complex accountability systems understandable.
Because when we give educators clarity, we give students possibility.
Let's Talk About Your District
We'd love to hear about your data challenges and show you how AscendEd can help bring clarity to your accountability systems.