The future of Beyond Technology Education, now BeyondK12, and our core values
A 2022 note from Ernie Delgado on the company's 20th year, the retirement of co-founder Rick Harrell, and the core values that came out of it.
Updated with current data and sources. Originally published October 4, 2022.
Beyond Technology Education, now BeyondK12, is celebrating its 20th year in business and also marking the end of a 20-year partnership between peers.
With the retirement of Rick Harrell, company co-founder, the company has an opportunity to rebrand, rebuild, renew, and rediscover what will propel it into the future.
This is a very exciting time.
We began this transitional year by hiring a top-level education consultant to evaluate our current business. We wanted to learn from an outside source what is good, noble, and important about the company, and what is old, obsolete, and counterproductive.
She interviewed clients, staff, and executives of the company. From that analysis, and some deep soul searching, we went on to develop our Core Values for 2022.
They are as follows:
- Ed Tech Visionary / Innovator and Education Centric
- Community and Family Driven
- Team Players
- High Customer Service and Servant Leadership
- Strong Work Ethic
The detailed document can be found here.
What are core values?
As a definition, company core values are the stated principles that guide what an organization believes, how it decides, and how its people behave, as Firstup describes them. That way, everyone is aligned around a guiding philosophy to serve employees, customers, and the broader community. That can also double as the definition of company culture.
Why are core values important?
Simply put, organizational culture comes from how the people on a team think, behave, and react together. A culture and its guiding principles can be created and nurtured on purpose from the very beginning. More typically, they develop haphazardly over time through the beliefs and experiences of the people on the team, a point Forbes has made as well.
How will our core values be used as a tool to make the company better?
From a business perspective, a core set of company values helps a company make decisions, foster teamwork, and communicate what it stands for to clients and customers, as Contentsquare explains. It also makes it easier to hire employees with the right attitude.
The first iteration of our Core Values was made with input from the old regime and the new. I feel like it is a great place to start as we begin this critical year.
I suppose when we review them later in the year, we will have a fresh perspective, and I know they will grow and evolve as the market and the company grow and mature.
This is what makes modern business structures so amazing. Companies are no longer just about board rooms and balance sheets. Business is about ideas, making a difference, helping people both in and out of the organization, and collaborating with like-minded companies and people.
Businesses today have a great chance to create change and set the direction for the future of our country. Education companies in particular have a unique opportunity to use the technology, networks, and reach available like never before in history, to create ways to spread knowledge to the haves and have-nots and to shape the minds and skill sets of future generations.
Technology changes every day. We are here to help.
Where to start this week
If your school is writing down what it stands for on AI, the free AI Readiness Assessment is a place to begin. Eight questions give you a score out of 24 across Policy, People, Curriculum, Guardrails, and Funding.
Related reading: Beyond Technology Education is now BeyondK12: what the change means for schools and What is an AI strategy in K-12 education?
Sources
- Pew Research Center, How teens use and view AI (February 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- AI for Education, state AI guidance tracker (updated August 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Firstup, communicating company core values (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Contentsquare, examples of core company values (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Core Values document (2022) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
See where your school stands on AI, in five minutes
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