Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Expanding ‘through-year’ assessments to boost student achievement

Key points:

The Montana Office of Public Instruction is focusing on using assessments throughout the school year to give teachers the data they need–as early as possible–to positively impact student achievement through personalized learning.

Montana OPI will offer Discovery Education’s DreamBox solutions to the 53 school districts participating in the second year of the state’s Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) Pilot program. MAST is an initiative designed to improve learning achievement by implementing “through-year assessments,” a formative approach to assessment that provides teachers with actionable data that can inform instruction throughout the academic school year compared to relying on end-of-year assessment data. With more data insights throughout the year, teachers can quickly identify students’ target areas for growth and acceleration. …Read More

DreamBox Learning® Expands into PreK-2 Reading with Launch of Reading Park

BELLEVUE, Wash. —  In response to  nationwide declines in student reading scores, today DreamBox Learning, Inc.® (“DreamBox”), the only provider of solutions rated “Strong” by Johns Hopkins’ EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading and pioneer of intelligent adaptive learning, announced the launch of DreamBox Reading Park™, an expansion of its reading portfolio to PreK-2 students nationwide. Through the launch, DreamBox is bringing its patented, state-of-the-art adaptive platform for the first time to PreK-2 readers, offering personalized learning paths that adapt in real-time to every interaction, both within and between lessons, in a playful, engaging learning environment. Reading Park meets Foundational Reading Standards for grades K-2 as outlined in national and state English Language Arts (ELA) standards.

DreamBox’s intelligent adaptive learning platform leverages cognitive science and learning principles to engage and support students at any age. Through Reading Park, DreamBox combines the company’s best-in-class platform with an evidence-based, structured literacy approach that empowers students to more effectively learn to read. Hundreds of teacher-crafted foundational reading lessons are available in a scope and sequence that maximizes educational outcomes.

“We could not be more thrilled to launch Reading Park and bring our intelligent adaptive learning platform to students just beginning their reading journeys,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO and President of DreamBox Learning. “As an early innovator in education technology, we have seen firsthand how complementing teacher instruction with proven-effective adaptive technology can help build students’ confidence, critical thinking skills, and a lifelong love of learning. With Reading Park, we are opening access to an engaging, personalized learning experience that meets the earliest of readers exactly where they are and encourages a joy for reading that will not only set students up for success throughout their educational careers, but also in life.”…Read More

DreamBox Learning® Launches Lesson Highlights to Equip Educators with Transformative Insight into Student Problem-Solving

BELLEVUE, Wash. — April 6, 2022 —  DreamBox Learning, Inc. (“DreamBox”), the leading education technology provider and pioneer of intelligent adaptive learning, announced today the launch of Lesson Highlights, a first-to-market data analytics feature that provides an unprecedented level of transparency into how students are problem-solving, thinking critically and creatively, and responding to challenges. Teachers can use Lesson Highlights to retroactively see where students may be experiencing productive struggle and then offer easy-to-implement targeted support for individuals and groups of students.  

Available for the 2022-23 school year, Lesson Highlights provides a roadmap on how students interact with DreamBox lessons. Educators can then use this roadmap to talk through students’ thought processes and problem-solving strategies, while watching the playback side-by-side. This additional insight also enables educators and administrators to easily track, predict, and project student growth, depth of understanding, fluency, and skills, regardless of whether the student is in class or at home. This is all possible through DreamBox’s patented intelligent adaptive learning technology, which generates insights from high-quality and pedagogy-driven information about each student’s learning.  

“Lesson Highlights is another example of our commitment to developing solutions that are easy to use and provide educators with the timely actionable insights they need to efficiently personalize their instructional strategies and save them precious time,” said Lakshmi Nidamarthi, Chief Product Officer at DreamBox Learning. “This is transformative technology that essentially allows educators to look ‘over the shoulders’ of students and assess, on their own time, how students worked on a lesson just a few minutes ago rather than relying on data from an assessment taken months ago.” …Read More

DreamBox Learning® Promotes Dianna Winegarden to Chief Customer Officer

BELLEVUE, Wash. — March 24, 2022 —  DreamBox Learning (“DreamBox”), the leading education technology provider and pioneer of intelligent adaptive learning, announced today that Dianna Winegarden has been promoted to Chief Customer Officer. With this new role, DreamBox will strengthen its commitment to fostering thriving, engaged, and successful customers across its personalized, research-proven dual-discipline learning solutions.  

As Chief Customer Officer, Winegarden is responsible for leading DreamBox’s customer strategy and cultivating a company-wide devotion to nurturing an enthusiastic and growing customer base, including broad responsibility for all customer initiatives such as: customer support, customer success, customer operations, and professional services. A key strategic role at DreamBox, the new position will drive cross-functional programs to design, innovate, and continuously improve the customer experience across an expanding range of products and services. 

“We are delighted to elevate Dianna to Chief Customer Officer where she will continue to lead our Customer Organization to further strengthen our district partnerships and ensure their students and educators are equipped with the support, services, and engagement they need to grow and thrive,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President and CEO of DreamBox Learning. “Dianna embodies what it means to be a values-driven leader at DreamBox. She is a proven innovator, creative thought leader, and passionate customer advocate who continues to demonstrate her strong commitment to unlocking learning potential for all learners, regardless of who they are or where they live. I am thrilled to recognize Dianna’s consequential contributions to DreamBox growth and success with this promotion.” …Read More

DreamBox Learning® Announces Record Expansion into New School Districts

BELLEVUE, Wash. — September 15, 2021 — DreamBox Learning, the leading education technology provider that in 2006 pioneered intelligent adaptive learning, today announced new expansions and partnerships with school district customers, including Prince George’s County Public Schools and East Baton Rouge Parish School System. The districts join DreamBox during a year of record growth and expansion into the K-12 English Language Arts market with the acquisitions of Reading Plus® and Squiggle Park. DreamBox now delivers personalized and adaptive math and reading learning experiences to nearly 6 million students.

As the only dual-discipline provider offering school districts solutions rated “Strong” by Johns Hopkins’ EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading, school districts are selecting DreamBox as a partner to provide educators and students evidence-based learning solutions. New and expanded district and state department of education partners now using DreamBox’s math and/or reading solutions include:

  • Beaufort County School District, S.C.
  • East Baton Rouge Parish School System, La. 
  • Northside Independent School District, Texas
  • Prince George’s County Public Schools, Md.
  • Seminole County Public Schools, Fla.
  • South Carolina Department of Education, S.C.
  • Wake County Public School System, N.C.

“DreamBox Learning is the right choice to best support our teachers and serve the diverse needs of our students,” said Dr. Sito Narcisse, Superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana. “We have learned not all education technology is created equal, so we are excited to offer our teachers an evidence-based solution proven to increase student achievement. In addition to impressive adaptive learning technology and real-time predictive analytics, DreamBox also provides our teachers actionable professional development – a necessary resource as we adapt to another uncertain school year.”…Read More

DreamBox Learning® Enters ELA Market with Acquisitions of Reading Plus® and Squiggle Park

BELLEVUE, Wash. —July 19, 2021 — DreamBox Learning, the leading education technology provider that in 2006 pioneered intelligent adaptive learning, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Reading Plus, an evidence-based online reading program for grades 3-12 designed to help students boost their literacy skills and reading confidence. This move complements DreamBox’s recent acquisition of Squiggle Park, a K-2 reading solution designed to help students gain proficiency in early literacy. The combined programs offer school districts the only dual-discipline solution rated “Strong” by Johns Hopkins’ EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading.

“These strategic additions to the DreamBox family represent a significant milestone toward achieving our mission to radically change the way the world learns and unlock learning potential for all students – regardless of race, gender or zip code,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President and CEO of DreamBox Learning. “We believe the winning formula to shape the future of learning has three components:  dual-discipline offerings that cultivate a strong foundation in mathematics and reading; strong data and analytics solutions that leverage formative data to personalize the learning experience; and professional development to help educators develop their blended learning knowledge and skills.” 

Currently, DreamBox supports over 5 million students and over 200,000 educators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated DreamBox’s growth as most district administrators rapidly adopted and scaled blended learning solutions to support remote learning. During this time, teachers’ attitudes towards blended learning changed and they began to see it as a powerful and effective strategy to deliver engaging, personalized, and effective learning experiences that enabled them to keep learning “on” even when schools were closed.…Read More

DreamBox Learning® Equips Educators with Lesson Recommendations to Accelerate Student Learning

New Lesson Recommendations feature helps teachers understand where students are in their math learning to support academic growth toward proficiency

BELLEVUE, Wash. —June 21, 2021 — DreamBox Learning®, the company that pioneered Intelligent Adaptive Learning™ technology, today launched DreamBox Lesson Recommendations, a new offering that gives educators real-time student progress insights with actionable next steps to meet student learning needs. Teachers can use this formative data to plan for individual or small group differentiation and customize their instructional strategies at any point during the school year.

As studies show the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted student progress and widened the opportunity gap, districts are looking for solutions that provide up-to-date, useful information about where students are in their learning and what students need to support their growth in math. Whether educators are preparing for summer programs or the new school year this fall, DreamBox Lesson Recommendations provides teachers with instant access to a detailed view into each student’s progress, including insights about which concepts or skills students should learn next as well as which students in their class are ready to learn those concepts with them.…Read More

McGraw Hill Acquires Kidaptive, an Adaptive and Personalized Learning Company

McGraw Hill today announced that it has acquired Kidaptive, Inc., an adaptive learning platform company with industry-leading expertise in learning science, early learning, and data analytics worldwide.

Kidaptive’s world-class team of learning scientists, psychometricians, data scientists and engineers will join a new Center for Innovation within McGraw Hill’s School group, led by Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Shawn K. Smith, who joined the company in November 2020. The team is focused on developing smarter and lighter student-centered solutions that will power even more personalized learning experiences.

“We see tremendous potential in this combination of McGraw Hill’s content development expertise, vast curriculum inventory and extensive student interaction data with Kidaptive’s ability to pinpoint each student’s position on a personal learning journey,” said Sean Ryan, President of McGraw Hill’s School group. “This is about delivering precision at scale to the benefit of students, teachers and families.”…Read More

South Carolina Department of Education Selects DreamBox Learning® to Support COVID-19 Academic Recovery

DreamBox Learning®, the K-8 digital math company that pioneered Intelligent Adaptive Learning™ technology, announced today that the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) has selected DreamBox Learning Math to support teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate student learning loss. The SCDE will offer DreamBox Learning Math through June 2022 to 21 districts reaching more than 32,000 students in the most underserved communities in the state.

“We conducted an extensive evaluation of math solutions that could help our districts as we transition from emergency instruction towards ‘academic recovery,’ and DreamBox stood out as the only solution that is both proven to increase student achievement and able to provide actionable learning insights for our teachers,” said Dr. David Mathis, Deputy Superintendent at the SCDE. “DreamBox provides a prescriptive approach to help educators determine where students are in their learning, where they need to be, and a clear path to close that gap.”

Effective for in-person, hybrid, or remote learning and available in both English and Spanish, DreamBox uniquely personalizes the learning experience for each student through an engaging and motivating environment that adapts in real-time within and between math lessons based on how students are solving problems. DreamBox also offers educators interactive professional development courses to learn best practices for using DreamBox to teach online or in the classroom in ways that meet students exactly where they are.…Read More

Lexia PowerUp Literacy Wins Best Personalized/Adaptive Learning Tool

For the second time in two months, Lexia Learning, a Rosetta Stone company (NYSE: RST) has had two of its literacy programs recognized as standouts in a prominent edtech award program. In this latest award program, Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® (PowerUp) was recognized as a winner in the category of Best Personalized/Adaptive Learning App or Tool. The company’s highly-regarded Lexia® Core5® Reading (Core5) was also named a finalist in the category for Best Literacy App or Tool.

This is the fourth year of the Tech Edvocate Awards, which recognizes outstanding edtech products that support students across the Pre-K-20 sector by catering to identified classroom and learning needs. Winners and finalists were selected by a panel of educators and industry experts who reviewed the submissions and judged the products and services based on the extent to which they are transforming education through the development or advocacy of edtech. A complete list of winners of the 2020 Tech Edvocate Awards can be found here.

“The Tech Edvocate Awards represent the combined opinion of industry insiders, knowledgeable educators, and interested parents,” said Lexia President, Nick Gaehde. “It’s an honor to have our literacy programs recognized as solutions that are positively impacting teaching and learning—and having access to adaptive, personalized tools has never been more important than during this unprecedented time of COVID-19.”…Read More