Renaissance, one of the largest US providers of reading, math, and assessment solutions for pre-K-12 schools and districts, has acquired Illuminate Education for an undisclosed amount.
While no official press release or statement was issued by either of the company, the acquisition was announced on both companies’ sites and in an email sent to Illuminate customers on August 24.
The acquisition follows a January cyberattack on Illuminate Education that led to a data breach affecting the nation’s two largest school systems – New York City Public Schools and Los Angeles Unified School District – among others.
Founded in 2009, Illuminate Education partners with educators to reach new levels of student performance, and empowers teachers with data to serve the whole child. Its solution brings together holistic data and collaborative instructional tools that help educators accurately assess learning, identify needs, align whole child supports, and drive school improvement. Illuminate’s whole-child MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) solutions are used by more than 17 million students and 5,200 districts and schools across the country, according to its website.
Illuminate’s solutions include MTSS management, comprehensive assessment, social-emotional behavior, universal screening, progress monitoring, dyslexia screening, data visualization, and equity & disproportionality among others.
In his letter to Illuminate customers, Renaissance’s CEO Chris Bauleke wrote: “Our mission of accelerating learning for all aligns closely with that of Illuminate. …. The addition of Illuminate to the Renaissance ecosystem deepens the company’s assessment capabilities and broadens its commitment to keep teachers at the center of classroom decisions by providing actionable insights and personalized instruction to accelerate learning.”
With the acquisition, Illuminate products will now operate under the Renaissance name. “The Illuminate products you know and love will continue to operate under the Renaissance name, and with Renaissance, you have a partner committed to providing world-class products, services, and solutions to help teachers teach better, students learn better, and education leaders lead better,” said Bauleke.
In the letter, Renaissance’s CEO also mentioned the data breach.
“You may also be aware that, earlier this year, prior to Renaissance’s acquisition, Illuminate determined that certain systems containing potentially protected student information were subject to unauthorized access,” Bauleke wrote. However, he claimed that the unauthorized access of protected student information was “isolated to two Illuminate products (Data Driven Classroom, IO Assessment) and one tool (IO Admin) used to transfer data to or from other products.” Bauleke also noted that the companies have no evidence that the data was misused.
Renaissance is a global leader in assessment, reading, and math solutions for pre-K-12 schools and districts. More than one-third of US schools and approximately 16.7 million students worldwide use Renaissance products to accelerate learning, according to the company’s website.
