Who will generate the next great idea in education? Boston based global publishing house Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has a call out for all innovators with big ideas — regardless of their technical proficiency.

The company just this morning announced a new quarter million dollar innovation challenge called the HMH Global Education Challenge. The competition focuses specifically on the K-12 education market, calling for entrants to submit ideas to a panel of “expert judges” — with winners even considered for continued investment from HMH.

The ideas should address solutions that impact one of three key areas: student learning, engaging parents/families, and empowering teachers. Ideas can be in the form of new software or mobile app, a service, or otherwise. Challenge entries will be accepted from tomorrow (May 19th) through July 15th, with winners announced in September.

“Our schools and the tools they use are becoming more disconnected from the students they serve every single day. There is a critical need for fresh, creative thinking to improve global educational systems,” said Michael Muldowney, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of HMH. “We all share the responsibility for identifying ways to improve schools and the Global Education Challenge brings anyone with a great idea into the discussion — whether the innovator is a classroom teacher, a school principal, a parent or an academic. We’re looking for ways to dramatically improve results, while extending educational opportunities to every child globally.”

The website for the challenge also aims to foster and facilitate discussion around how to bring innovative tools into the classroom to empower teachers, students and families. They have made the site easy to navigate and engage with in hopes of attracting and soliciting feedback from as many passionate people as possible — including user voting for submitted ideas.

HMH has designed the $250,000 in cash plus additional prizes to reflect this as well. From all valid submissions during the challenge, judges will select and award the following:

Best New Innovation Ideas in Education Grand Prizes:

  • 1st Prize: $100,000 cash (plus $25,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 2nd Prize: $25,000 cash (plus a $15,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 3rd Prize: $10,000 cash (plus a $10,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)

Additionally, HMH will award prizes based on an idea’s or entrant’s performance at the end of the Challenge:

Prizes based on entrant idea rating:

  • 1st Prize: iPad 2 with Wifi (64GB) plus a $500 Amazon.com Gift Card (plus $10,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 2nd Prize: $400 Amazon.com Gift Card (plus $10,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 3rd to 10th Prize: $75 Amazon.com Gift Card

Prizes based on entrant reputation:

  • 1st Prize: iPad 2 with Wifi (64GB) plus a $500 Amazon.com Gift Card (plus a $10,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 2nd Prize: $400 Amazon.com Gift Card (plus $10,000 assortment of HMH fiction, non-fiction and reference titles to the entrant’s accredited K–12 school of choice)
  • 3rd to 10th Prize: $75 Amazon.com Gift Card

Prizes for other specific accomplishments:

  • First 150 entrants with an idea that gets at least 10 positive votes: $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
  • Two ideas with the most new positive votes during each weekly period: $50 Amazon.com Gift Card.
  • 20 entrants with the highest reputation on Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: $25 Amazon.com Gift Card
  • Random drawing winners: Each week HMH will randomly draw winners for a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card

Curious as to who these expert judges are? HMH has lined up everyone from academia to policy groups to government and tech companies:

  • Steven Anderson, Educator, Author of The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom
  • William J. Bennett, Former U.S. Secretary of Education
  • Joe Blatt, Senior Lecturer in Education and Faculty Director of the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • Michael Horn, Executive Director, Education – Innosight Institute
  • Marwan Marouf Mahmoud, Executive Director, ICT Industry Development Division, ictQATAR
  • Fiona O’Carroll, Executive Vice President, New Ventures/Innovation Group at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Education at Microsoft
  • Phoenix Wang, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Startl
  • Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and Former Governor of West Virginia

For more information, we recommend you visit the HMH challenge website, which goes into detail on specifics of the challenge — even tapping on things like the anatomy of a “good idea” for the challenge.

You can read more stories on Boston startups, technology and innovation at https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno