Early career Culatta began his career as a
high school Spanish teacher. During the early 2000s, he was a technology advisor for the
David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University, helping redesign the technology component of the school's teacher preparation program. During this time, he also served as the director of operations at the
Rose Education Foundation, which helped create and operate
schools in
rural Guatemala. He worked at
CIA University overseeing learning innovation, then became an advisor on education issues to
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (
D-
WA).
U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology Culatta was appointed to be a Senior Advisor to the U.S.
Secretary of Education and Director of the
Office of Educational Technology from 2013 to 2015. During his tenure, the office ran the #GoOpen campaign, which encouraged schools to use learning materials with
open copyright licenses and updated regulations to require all educational materials produced with federal grant money be open licensed. Culatta's team led President Obama's ConnectEd Initiative which resulted in an increase from 15% of schools having broadband access in 2009 to 95% of schools having broadband access by the end of the Obama administration. As director, Culatta also led the creation of the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan.
State of Rhode Island Culatta left the Office of Educational Technology to become the Chief Innovation Officer of the State of Rhode Island. During his tenure, Rhode Island was used as a "lab" state for education and government reform. A major focus was the personalized learning initiative, which aims to create learning experiences that are dynamic and individualized for each student. Under Culatta's leadership, Rhode Island also became the first state to offer
computer science in every K–12 school.
ISTE+ASCD Currently, Culatta is the CEO of
ISTE+
ASCD. This nonprofit creates
standards for using technology in education. A current focus for Culatta and ISTE is finding ways to use technology to close equity gaps and redefine Digital Citizenship. ISTE+ASCD is also the leading provider of teacher training and thought leadership around the use of AI in education. In 2023 ISTE merged with ASCD to help ensure all students have access to high quality learning experiences. == Publications ==