SplashLearn Raises $18 Million in Series C Funding Round From Owl Ventures & Accel

SplashLearn, the US-headquartered learning company began 2021 on a high note raising $18 million in Series C funding round led by Owl Ventures. San Francisco based Owl Ventures is the largest edtech sector-focused venture capital firm in the world. Accel, who earlier invested $7 million in Series B, also participated in this round.

SplashLearn was incorporated in 2010. The bulk of the business comes from the United States and currently, students in one in every three schools in the country use SplashLearn. SplashLearn is a game-based learning program that intelligently adapts to each child’s learning ability and helps them master skills at their own pace. Its curriculum covers pre-kindergarten through grade 5 for math and reading. With a strong focus on engagement and efficacy, it has over 4,000+ curriculum-aligned games and activities, designed to create an exciting learning experience for kids.

With the onset of Covid-19, SplashLearn saw a surge of almost 3x in adoption, as more students turned online and families began seeking educational support. In 2020, more than 10 million new users joined the SplashLearn program. The demand came in not only from the US but also the UK, Australia, and Canada. In the latter half of 2020, SplashLearn expanded its offering beyond the math program to include reading and also launched a personalized tutoring product, owing to growing demand from parents and teachers.…Read More

How AR can help students with special needs

According to the World Health Organization, around 15 percent of the world’s population lives with some form of disability or special educational needs—and of that 15 percent, 2 to 4 percent experience significant difficulties in functioning.

However, the global disability prevalence is thought to be higher than previous WHO estimates, which date from the 1970s. Instead, data from last year suggests a figure of around 10 percent is more accurate, with 190 million (3.8 percent) who are 15 or older and have significant difficulties in functioning.

Given these facts, it seems like a paradox, then, that students with special needs relating to conditions such as autism (ASD), ADHD, dyslexia, Down’s Syndrome, and hearing difficulties can often feel left behind in a classroom environment in comparison to their peers.…Read More

IXL Learning Agrees to Acquire Wyzant Tutoring Marketplace

IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 11 million students, today announced it has agreed to acquire Wyzant, the nation’s largest marketplace for online tutoring. The addition of the Chicago-based company will expand IXL’s capacity to address the needs of all students with personalized, one-on-one mentoring. 

Founded in 2005, Wyzant offers an expansive digital network of more than 65,000 tutors from a broad spectrum of academic and professional fields. Wyzant seamlessly connects students to the perfect tutor for online or in-person lessons geared toward their unique needs. Wyzant tutors serve learners of all ages and backgrounds, offering in-depth guidance on topics including English, language arts, physics, calculus, coding, LSAT test prep, music and more. 

“Wyzant expertly brings together students and world-class instructors. We’re excited to welcome Wyzant’s talented team to IXL and build a strong partnership rooted in a love of learning,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL.  …Read More

Curriculum Associates Launches i-Ready Standards Mastery for Virginia to Provide Insight into Learning Loss

To provide just-in-time information on students’ mastery of the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) and instructional recommendations to address specific learning loss, Curriculum Associates has created i-Ready Standards Mastery for Virginia. This new reading and math assessment component for Grades 2–8 features tech-enhanced assessment items and is part of the award-winning i-Ready Assessment suite. Today, i-Ready serves more than eight million students nationwide, including more than 169,000 students in 327 schools across Virginia.

“We created i-Ready Standards Mastery for Virginia in response to educators needing a truly Virginia SOL-specific, data-driven solution to help inform instruction,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “This first-of-its-kind program for Virginia shows our ongoing commitment to supporting quality education across the state and will provide an invaluable resource for educators by providing detailed and timely insights into student understanding.”

Designed to assess the Virginia SOLs, i-Ready Standards Mastery for Virginia offers educators the option to assess student understanding of any math or reading standard via a brief, 15-minute assessment. The program provides educators with immediate insight into student understanding, progress, and need, including item analysis for each student with information on common misconceptions about the standard. It also provides instructional recommendations and resources best suited to support students based on their current understanding of specific skills.…Read More

VHS Learning Receives $1.4 Million Grant from The Manton Foundation

VHS Learning has received a $1.4 million, three-year grant from The Manton Foundation. The funds will enable the nonprofit to better serve students and schools by updating its infrastructure, website, and course offerings. VHS Learning will also use the grant to provide supplemental curriculum and instruction services to schools in rural and high-needs areas.

“In 2013 we received grant funding from The Manton Foundation, and we were pleased to recently reconnect with the foundation to discuss how VHS Learning has grown over the years, and how we are supporting schools during the pandemic,” said Carol DeFuria, President & CEO of VHS Learning. “We are very thankful for the support given to us by The Manton Foundation. This new award will help us to advance our mission and continue providing the very best online learning opportunities for students and schools – something that is especially important during these difficult times.”

VHS Learning’s will use a portion of the grant funding to help enhance its student information system (SIS). These enhancements will help VHS Learning better meet customer needs, streamline operations, and improve reporting capabilities. In addition, VHS Learning plans to use funding to redesign its website. The objective is to enhance both the site’s visual appeal and ensure that site visitors have a clear understanding of all VHS Learning product and service offerings.…Read More

Rhode Island Approves IXL for K-12 Blended Learning and Assessment

IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 11 million students, has been approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) for use under two statewide initiatives. Schools and districts in the state can now support blended learning with IXL and implement the Real-Time Diagnostic to assess students’ knowledge levels in math and reading. IXL serves approximately 67,000 students in Rhode Island, which accounts for more than 40 percent of learners in the state.

RIDE’s mission is to provide equitable educational experiences to more than 300 K-12 public schools and 140,000 students across Rhode Island. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state leaders began searching for a digital assessment that would reliably measure student growth during distance learning and identify potential knowledge gaps throughout the year. RIDE also recognized it needed a flexible, skills-based program to supplement daily instruction and fit seamlessly into any educational environment.

Pinpoint knowledge with the Real-Time Diagnostic…Read More

EmpowerU Secures Funding for National Launch of Tech-Powered Solution to Address Student Anxiety and Depression

EmpowerU today announced that the company has secured $1 million in seed funding to launch its highly personalized, tech-powered, social-emotional learning solution nationwide. The funding will fuel EmpowerU’s efforts to bring much-needed mental health support to students beyond Minnesota, where more than 1,000 students have already benefited with improved wellbeing, confidence, and hope.

This round of financing was led by Capita3, a Twin Cities venture firm with a focus on women-led organizations. Additional investment partners include ECMC and GreatNorth Labs.

A recent EdWeek survey indicated that 66% of high school principals are actively searching for effective solutions to battle the escalating levels of student anxiety, avoidance and depression. With EmpowerU, student growth happens one day at a time, one small step at a time through engaging, online skill-building lessons supported by daily 1:1 motivational coaching. This daily blend of support results in significant improvements in emotional wellbeing, school attendance, and grades, while decreasing the need for more costly interventions.…Read More

Laredo Independent School District and IXL Partner to Support In-Person and At-Home Learning

IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 11 million students, today announced a three-year agreement with Laredo Independent School District to bring its award-winning program to approximately 23,600 students and 1,100 teachers. Through this partnership, all 33 schools in the district will use IXL to supplement math, English language arts, science and social studies instruction.

Laredo ISD is located in Laredo, Texas, on the border with Mexico. The district is home to eight National Blue Ribbon Schools and serves a large bilingual and English language learner population. Laredo ISD began piloting IXL in 2019 to complement its high school English language arts instruction and to identify areas where students were struggling. When the COVID-19 crisis took hold, its leadership turned to IXL for a robust remote learning experience that would empower all its students to learn from anywhere.

One of the district’s priorities was to fill knowledge gaps that arose during school closures. School leaders were thrilled to find that students had access to an entire K-12 curriculum in one place, allowing learners to quickly catch up on previous grade-level content at any time. Laredo ISD highly valued IXL Analytics and Live Classroom, which give educators the ability to accurately monitor student growth in real-time from home. The district also appreciated IXL’s ability to work as both a synchronous and asynchronous platform, as mandated by the Texas Department of Education.…Read More

Flinn Scientific Partners with the Texas Technology Student Association to Support Virtual STEM Competitions

“Whether in person or remote, WhiteBox Learning allows students to experience the STEM engineering design process in a dynamic and engaging way,” said Michael Lavelle, CEO of Flinn Scientific. “Through our partnership with TTSA, we look forward to supporting its virtual engineering competitions with our technology while helping to grow student participation across the state. This partnership brings together the unique strengths of both of our organizations to extraordinarily advance opportunities for today’s STEM students.”

TTSA is the state affiliate of the national Technology Student Association (TSA) which is a national, non-profit career and technical student organization (CTSO) of middle school and high school students who are engaged in STEM. Since TSA was chartered in 1978, more than 5 million student members have participated in the organization’s competitions, intra-curricular activities, leadership opportunities, community service, and more.

All TSA competi­tions are aligned with STEM standards, 21st century leadership skills, and the U.S. Department of Education’s National Career Clusters Framework®. TSA competi­tions are categorized by a number of career pathways and provide TSA members the opportunity to apply technology and engineering skills in challenging and innovative ways as they work either individually or in a team.…Read More

National Study Shows Online Literacy Engagement Minimizes COVID Slide

A real-time national education study of more than one million students by two leading not-for-profit education groups has found that continued engagement with technology-enabled instruction during COVID-19 school closures has significantly reduced students’ loss of potential reading growth. The Successful Practices Network (SPN) and the Center for College and Career Readiness (CCCR) released these findings today, which are some of the very first published results using current data of students’ learning from Fall 2020. Recommendations to help educators accelerate learning are also included in the new study.

This unique analysis draws its finding from actual usage and performance data for students using Achieve3000 Literacy™ before and after schools closed on March 11 through September 30, 2020. Data for more than 1 million students using Achieve3000 Literacy, an online solution for differentiated and personalized literacy instruction in Grades 2-12, during the 2019 and 2020 school years, demonstrates:

Students Lost Only 12% of Potential Learning Gains…Read More

Nonprofits, Schools Can Receive Free AT&T Wireless Internet Service, Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspots for At-Risk K-12 Students

Connected Nation (CN) is launch today an online application for the AT&T K-12 connected learning program, which is focused on closing the homework gap for at-risk students by providing free AT&T wireless internet service and mobile Wi-Fi hotspots to students nationwide.  Nonprofit organizations and schools that serve at-risk youth nationwide are invited to apply.

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, nearly 17 million public K-12 students have fallen into the “homework gap” due to COVID-19 school closures.  In addition, Bellwether Education Partners estimates that approximately 3 million at-risk students may not have experienced any formal education—virtual or in-person—since March 2020.

The program is primarily focused on impacting students in the following groups:…Read More

5.3 Million Star Assessments Show the True Impact of the COVID Slide

Renaissance, a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology, has released How Kids Are Performing: Tracking the Impact of COVID-19 on Reading and Mathematics Achievement, a report detailing the learning effects associated with COVID-19 school disruptions. Designed to end the speculation and provide guidance for educators as they address learning gaps, the report is based on the results of more than five million student assessments.

Student assessments from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were included in the sample, which consisted of students in grades 1–8 who took Star Early Literacy, Star Reading, or Star Math assessments during both Fall 2019 and Fall 2020.

Key findings of the report include the following:…Read More