Elijah Stambaugh

More Than a Paper Grader

Elijah Stambaugh, ’09 BSEd

Grading papers was a tedious but necessary part of the job when Elijah Stambaugh taught seventh and eighth grade math. He’d spend long weekends grading and recording the results, only then to discover what skills his students were struggling with, what concepts had to be taught again.

“I kept thinking that there had to be a better way, a way to get the data earlier in the teaching cycle, not days later,” he said.

The 2009 graduate of YSU’s Beeghly College of Education has created a better way, a web-based application called Lightning Grader, and teachers are using it in more than 1,000 school districts nationwide.

It does save time – the product grades 100 papers a minute – but it’s much more than a paper grader. Stambaugh’s system generates real-time reports to give teachers an overview of each student’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing educators to tailor their lesson plans and improve student achievement. It uses regular paper and no specialized equipment.

A native of Austintown, Ohio, Stambaugh worked at the General Motors Lordstown Complex after high school, studying part-time for a degree in Christian ministry, and then for an Education degree at YSU. He graduated with a BSEd in Middle Childhood Education, left GM and took a teaching job at Stambaugh Academy in Youngstown, one of 70 National Heritage Academy charter schools in 10 states.

Stambaugh started work on Lightning Grader the summer after his first year of teaching. By the following summer he was ready to leave the classroom and become an entrepreneur, convinced he could have a greater impact on education with his software application. “It was a tough time, and it was risky. We went many months without a paycheck,” said Stambaugh, who lives with his wife and three children in Columbiana, Ohio.

Presenting a bare bones plan – “just one piece of paper with a few bullet points” – he was able to get his business concept accepted as a portfolio company by the Youngstown Business Incubator in 2010, opening doors for funding and other support. Over time, he raised $1.8 million in development funds, built a team of 15 engineers, project managers, marketing and sales people and placed Lightning Grader in 10 percent of Ohio school districts and in more than 25 states.

The inventor’s crowning moment came in 2015 when the CEO of Illuminate Education Co., a successful and widely-respected education technology business based in Irvine, Calif., discovered Lightning Grader at a technology conference. After nearly a year of negotiating, the company agreed to buy Stambaugh’s company and his Lightning Grader.

Now a senior product manager for Illuminate and a member of its leadership team, Stambaugh continues to live and work in the Mahoning Valley; all his team members are also employed by Illuminate. He still has a local office and travels to California for meetings every quarter.

He’s been able to improve and expand the functions of the Lightning Grader since Illuminate entered the picture, and sales have grown dramatically to include major metropolitan school systems such as San Diego, San Francisco and Denver.

Illuminate executives have welcomed his ideas and leadership. “I call this my dream come true,” he said. “For me to be a part of this company, with the potential to work with millions of students, it's life-changing.”