Newsela, an education technology company dedicated to meaningful classroom learning for every student, has announced its acquisition of Formative, the leading real-time instruction and assessment platform. This acquisition combines two beloved classroom products to provide a comprehensive instructional solution that engages students and accelerates learning.
Founded by Craig Jones and Kevin McFarland, Formative aims to accelerate learning and close the opportunity gap for all students. The company empowers educators to super-charge their existing lessons and teaching tools into data-rich, formative-learning experiences across every grade level and subject matter. It provides educators with quick-turnaround information and data on student learning so that teachers can make on-the-fly adjustments to instruction in the classroom. It has a presence in the majority of US school districts. More than four million students have engaged with the platform in the past year alone.
Speaking about the acquisition, Chief Executive Officer of Newsela, Pep Carrera, said:
Newsela has led the transition away from static classroom instructional materials to become the digital platform of choice for teachers seeking to accelerate student growth with accessible, real-world content and scaffolding activities that support all learners. Combining Newsela’s best-in-class, accessible content with Formative’s data-rich assessment activities will give students and teachers the complete, meaningful learning experience they want while providing the deep insights teachers and administrators need to impact student outcomes effectively.
With this deal, teachers will soon be able to apply Formative’s powerful technology to Newsela’s 15,000+ content library to gauge learning immediately and provide even more powerful scaffolds and support while course-correcting in real time to meet academic goals throughout the year. The partnership between Newsela and Formative is effective immediately.
Craig Jones, Co-founder & CEO of Formative, added:
All teachers know the importance of being responsive to their students, but individual attention requires a lot of time and resources. As a teacher, I saw greater improvements when I had the time to provide daily formative assessments, targeted intervention, and quicker feedback loops. Formative was created to apply this approach at scale, so teachers can do it better, faster, and take swift action with real-time data. Our goal was to give teachers the most effective tool for assessment and analysis. The most effective assessment tool can be used with the best content.
Kevin McFarland, Co-founder & COO of Formative, commented:
We’ve learned that schools can have the best assessments and content, but that will only matter if teachers have the resources to make actionable changes based on data. Formative’s success to date has been providing teachers with real-time data that helps make informed decisions. Now with Newsela, teachers will have all the resources—the best content and assessments—to help students achieve their goals.
Newsela provides K-12 teachers with the instructional content they need to support and grow every learner. The platform is backed by learning science and is purpose-built to drive outcomes and unlock student motivation. The firm claims that over 3.3 million teachers and 40 million students have registered with Newsela for relevant, real-world content that accelerates learning and engages every learner.
In 2021, Newsela had raised $100 million in a Series D round led by new investor Franklin Templeton, which brought its valuation to $1 billion.
