EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Paper | March 15, 2023
On March 14, 2023, Paper, the education support system (ESS), announced the acquisition of Readlee to address the literacy crisis. It would use Readlee's innovative learning tool, artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to improve learners' reading skills.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress report, about one-third of 4th and 8th graders cannot read the basic achievement level, which is the test's lowest level. The National Center for Education Statistics data shows that about 34% of American high school students graduate with reading proficiency. Unfortunately, this proficiency decreases further to 18% for recent graduates. This data shows that the literary crisis has become a systemic issue, and there is a flaw in the current educational approach.
Master teachers collaborated with Harvard researchers to design Readlee for better learning outcomes, and it would become 'Paper Reading' after complete integration into Paper's ESS. This tool will listen to students' reading, give real-time feedback with individualized support, and measure their success. With AI and speech recognition, it approaches reading through learning science, showing that reading aloud improves vocabulary, memory, and confidence. It aims to support students throughout their academic journey and after graduation.
Co-Founder and CEO of Paper, Philip Cutler said, "This acquisition reflects our commitment to providing the academic support that empowers students throughout every stage of their learning journey. Improving literacy proficiency is an essential component of our mission, and we believe research-backed technology and repeated practice are the keys to addressing the mounting literacy crisis." He added, "We are excited to join our forces and aligned missions to have an even bigger impact on students. Our teams are already working together to change the future of education. Our mission is to help create a world where everyone has the ability to read, learn, and become a success."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
About Paper
Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Paper, an e-learning solutions provider, offers services for personalized learning, tutoring, essay review, academic and student support, homework help, teacher support, remote education, teacher assistants, and virtual tutoring. It develops confidence in every student with its educational support system. It serves over 3 million students from different school districts across the United States and Canada. It provides individualized support to every learner to solve their problems and discover different ways of learning. It helps teachers and administrators review student activity and track their progress with its data-driven insights and metrics. It instantly connects students with tutors for support in their tests and assignments.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
Businesswire | May 24, 2023
Amplify, a publisher of next-generation curriculum and assessment programs, announced today it has raised a Series C funding round led by Cox Enterprises, a family-owned, Atlanta-based company committed to connectivity, mobility, and sustainable innovation. Cox joins Amplify’s current investors, including Emerson Collective, Learn Capital, and A-Street Ventures.
The funding will support Amplify in continuing to expand the breadth and depth of its K-12 product portfolio, which distinctly combines high-quality, evidence-based instruction with digital-forward delivery to help teachers celebrate and extend their students’ thinking, knowledge, and skills. Already a market leader in literacy and science, Amplify is launching a suite of math programs that will reshape mathematics education by bringing together the leading open-source curriculum (IM K-12 Math™ authored by Illustrative Mathematics®) with the most-beloved teaching and learning platform in math education, Desmos Classroom. The goal is to help every student learn – and learn to love – mathematics.
“Amplify has experienced significant growth and is now proud to serve close to a third of U.S. K-8 students today with programs that uniquely blend the best K-12 content and pedagogy with digital tools that help teachers reach all students and drive measurable academic gains,” said Larry Berger, chief executive officer of Amplify. “This investment will help us grow while ensuring that we elevate K-12 instruction and have as much impact as we can.”
Amplify currently delivers its products and services to over half a million teachers in the United States. Its existing core programs have earned all-green scores on EdReports, a third-party curriculum evaluation site. Amplify’s digital supplemental program, Boost Reading, continues to help schools drive gains in early reading, as does its gold-standard early reading assessment, mCLASS®. By meeting the demand for evidence-based, digital-forward programs, Amplify’s bookings have grown at over a 50 percent compound annual growth rate over the last five years (2017-2022). Amplify also continues to see measurable gains in student achievement when districts and schools implement its programs with some measure of fidelity, e.g., recent studies on Amplify Science, Boost Reading, and Desmos Math 6-8.
“At Cox, we are committed to investing in companies that will reshape their industries over the next generation, bringing positive impact to communities across the country and around the world,” said Mark Lewis, vice president of strategy and investments at Cox Enterprises. “We are excited to help Amplify continue to scale its product offerings and footprint.”
About Amplify
A pioneer in K–12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our captivating core and supplemental programs in literacy, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products turn data into practical instructional support to help all students build a strong foundation in early reading and math. All of our programs provide teachers with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of every student. Today, Amplify reaches more than 10 million students in all 50 states.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
Globenewswire | May 18, 2023
The Alliance for Decision Education, a national nonprofit organization leading the movement to have decision-making skills taught in K-12 schools, today announced the celebration and forum held on May 16 for the sixteen graduate student recipients of the Decision Education Research Scholarship Award. Over the course of eight months, graduate students from universities worldwide submitted research papers that demonstrated insight and innovation in the field of Decision Education.
Sixteen graduate students were selected to each receive the first-ever $1,500 Decision Education Research Scholarship Award. These awardees gathered at the Graduate Student Research Forum to present their research projects, sharing their ideas and findings with each other and the Alliance.
"We hope that through initiatives like the Decision Education Research Scholarship Award, we can create more opportunities and pathways to encourage future research in the field of Decision Education," said Jinsol Lee, Ph.D., Alliance Deputy Director of Research. "By tapping into the creative and innovative minds of these participants, we aim to cultivate the growth of future Decision Education researchers and foster contributions to the growing body of credible research."
The research papers focused on various areas of Decision Education chosen by the participants and aimed to evaluate the application of Decision Education to student learning and outcomes. Submissions were evaluated based on the clarity of the literature review, depth of analysis, quality of writing, and relevance to Decision Education. The award recipients presented their research to the entire group at the forum. Four of the awardees were selected due to the excellence of their research papers to give long-form oral presentations at the event. These awardees and their research topics were: Marina Castro-Meirelles, University of Pennsylvania – Working Toward Tomorrow Today in the High School Classroom; Kristen Loughlin, University of Pennsylvania – The Work of Children: Creativity, Play, and the Development of Skillful Decision-Making in Elementary Education; Ghassani Swaryandini, University of Queensland – Improving Adolescents’ Rationality to Improve Their Career Decision-making Skills; and Sophie Wang, University of Chicago – Exerting Self-Control: Challenges and Strategies.
About the Alliance
The Alliance for Decision Education is a national nonprofit and field builder leading the growing call to have Decision Education taught in schools across the country. Founded in 2014 and backed by experts in decision science and education, including several Nobel laureates, the Alliance believes that better decisions lead to better lives and a better society.The Alliance is working with teachers, academic and business leaders, families, and community members to raise awareness and improve lives by empowering students with essential skills and dispositions for making better decisions.
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