Category: In the News

Deledao ActiveInsights™ Awarded “Research-Based Design for Instructional Learning Products” Product Certification

Posted on | by Hope

Deledao ActiveInsights™ — an industry-leading edtech solution powered by proprietary real-time AI technologies such as InstantAI™ — has earned the Research-Based Design for Instructional Learning Products: Product Certification from Digital Promise.

This Product Certification serves as a reliable indicator for district and school leaders, educators, and families looking for EdTech products grounded in confirmed learning research. Deledao provided evidence to Digital Promise, affirming a connection between research on how students learn and the product’s design. Furthermore, Deledao demonstrated its dedication to ensuring its clarity and accessibility of its research foundation to the public.

“We firmly believe that a research-driven approach is crucial in crafting tools exceeding the needs of educators and learners,” said Shuang Ji, CEO at Deledao. “Receiving this recognition is a tremendous honor for Deledao. It highlights our commitment to incorporating the latest educational research insights into our products.” 

“This certification validates our efforts, guiding district and school leaders, educators, and families toward EdTech products based on proven learning principles,” added Davide Giannotti, Director of Marketing at Deledao. “We take pride in advancing educational technology to positively impact every student’s learning journey.” 

“Educators and researchers continue to uncover important insights about how people learn,” said Christina Luke Luna, Chief Learning Officer, Pathways and Credentials at Digital Promise. “Digital Promise’s Research-Based Design Product Certification recognizes the EdTech products that incorporate research about learning into their design and development. Congratulations to Deledao ActiveInsights™ for demonstrating that research informs product design!” 

“More than 8,000 products are used in K-12 schools, and fewer than 1 percent have earned this recognition,” said Rachel Schechter, Ph.D., Learning Experience Design (LXD) Research, who helped advise Deledao in preparing the application. “The research-based design certification is a meaningful foundation for any company looking to build their ESSA-aligned evidence.” 

Dr. Schechter led the LXD expert review panel to rigorously evaluate and endorse Deledao for meeting the educational impact criteria of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The LXD expert review panel recognizes an ESSA Level IV designation of “Demonstrates a Rationale” for Deledao ActiveInsights™.  

 
ESSA Level 4 Evidence Logo
 

ESSA Level IV standards are based on a product’s research-based design and theory of change to enhance learning outcomes. The certification from Digital Promise is aligned with the ESSA Level IV designation. 

Through Product Certifications, consumers can narrow their options as they select products based on research about learning before trying it out in their classrooms. Digital Promise launched the Research-Based Design Product Certification in February 2020 and has certified over 100 products to date. 

The Research-Based Design Product Certification uses a competency-based learning framework developed in consultation with Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Project advisory board, expert researchers in the Learning Sciences field, and nearly 50 educators across the United States. Further detail about its development can be found in Digital Promise’s reports, Designing Edtech that Matters for Learning: Research-Based Design Product Certifications (2020) and An Overlooked Indicator of Edtech Quality: The Use of Learning Sciences Research (2022). 

The U.S. Department of Education’s recently published 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) calls for a crucial change: schools must prioritize educational technology decisions backed by solid research and proven to improve student learning. Deledao proudly aligns with this vision.

Further, the Research-Based Design for Instructional Learning Products certification from Digital Promise validates Deledao’s commitment to developing effective tools grounded in rigorous research, directly mirroring the NETP’s core principles.

By prioritizing research and evidence-based design, Deledao is helping schools unlock the true potential of technology to empower educators with the proven tools they need to ensure all students can succeed in today’s digital learning environments. 

– – –

About Deledao 

In 2017, a group of Silicon Valley veterans observed the changing educational landscape with the proliferation of digital devices in schools, prompting the recognition of a new challenge: digital distractions. CEO Shuang Ji, co-inventor of the proxy filtering technology, recognized the inadequacy of legacy technologies (created in the 90s) in safeguarding children online. This realization led to the birth of Deledao, with its first product, a real-time AI-based web filter, launched in 2019. Since then, Deledao has expanded its product offerings to include solutions for student safety and classroom management, catering to the evolving needs of K-12 education. Today, Deledao’s impact extends globally, supporting educational institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Learn more and request a demo here. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. 

About Digital Promise 

Digital Promise is a nonprofit organization that builds powerful networks and takes on grand challenges by working at the intersection of researchers, entrepreneurs, and educators. Our vision is that all people, at every stage of their lives, have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world. For more information, visit the Digital Promise website and follow @digitalpromise for updates. 

About LXD Research 

Learning Experience Design Research is an independent evaluation and research firm within Charles River Media Inc. focusing on educational programs. We specialize in research communication, efficacy study validation, and the design and execution of ESSA-aligned research studies. Visit www.LXDResearch.com. 

CENTEGIX®, Leading K-12 Safety Provider, Introduces New Platform

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ATLANTA – October 19, 2023 – CENTEGIX, the industry leader and largest wearable safety technology provider for K-12 education, announces the launch of its CENTEGIX Safety Platform™. The cloud-based, integrated solution initiates the fastest response time to safety incidents campus-wide.

The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ unites powerful market-leading solutions including:

The design of the Safety Platform is grounded in CENTEGIX’s experience supporting school districts with rapid incident response for hundreds of thousands of everyday and extreme emergencies.

“Time is the single most critical factor in an emergency, because every second matters,” said Brent Cobb, CEO of CENTEGIX. “Districts spend years preparing for and working to prevent emergencies. When an incident happens, it’s the time that it takes to respond that matters the most. With our CENTEGIX Safety Platform, we’ve taken linear phases of response and compressed them to happen all at once, so that help can arrive as quickly as possible.”

CENTEGIX built the Safety Platform specifically to reduce response time during an incident:

Identification Time: CrisisAlert provides the ability for all staff to quickly, easily, and discreetly indicate that there is an emergency. With CrisisAlert, all staff are empowered to identify incidents by simply pushing the button on their CrisisAlert badge. CrisisAlert is always available and works anywhere on campus because it operates on a private, managed network and does not depend on Wi-Fi or cellular, which have coverage gaps.

Notification Time: For a campus-wide alert, CrisisAlert accelerates emergency communication to everyone onsite through full audio and visual notifications, directing all to follow safety protocols and directly alerting local 911 emergency resources, also with precise location information. With Emergency Response Integrations, the Safety Platform automates notification steps to reduce human error and delays with manual hand-off steps.

Response Time: Onsite response teams immediately receive the CrisisAlert alert notification with a Safety Blueprint map showing who needs help and precisely where they are located. The Safety Blueprint map also displays where safety and security assets are available to eliminate time spent searching for these resources. Local 911 takes action to neutralize the situation.

“Using the CENTEGIX Safety Platform has helped us strengthen our culture of safety and improve response times for everyday and extreme emergencies. Staff appreciate having a CrisisAlert badge so they are empowered to improve safety in their schools. Our Response teams value Safety Blueprint for the precise location of incidents notified by CrisisAlert and the ability to see the location of safety assets,” said Chris Farkas, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Hillsborough County Public Schools (FL), the 7th largest district in the U.S.

About CENTEGIX 

CENTEGIX is the industry leader of wearable safety technology for K-12 education with over 600,000 badges in use. The cloud-based CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ initiates the fastest response time for emergencies campus-wide. Leaders in over 11,500 locations nationwide trust CENTEGIX’s innovative safety solutions to empower and protect people. To learn more about CENTEGIX, visit www.centegix.com

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Matt Young
RVP Midwest
586-713-7513
myoung@centegix.com

Cybersecurity best practices for K-12 schools

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John Solomon
VP, ChromeOS and Education

Earlier this year, we joined private sector and government cybersecurity leaders at the White House for the “Back to School Safely: Cybersecurity for K-12 Schools” event. There, we shared a K-12 Cybersecurity Guidebook that includes best practices to help school IT administrators prepare to return to school safely.

For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’re sharing a few highlights from the guide — now available in more than 30 languages — plus other helpful resources. Admins can also sign up for our Safer Digital Learning event on October 25, where we’ll demo more of the guide’s security features and best practices to keep schools safe from cybersecurity threats.

The importance of cybersecurity tools for schools

Educational institutions are top targets for cyberattacks, with bad actors looking to exploit schools for their own profit. Forty-six percent of schools which have yet to be targeted believe they’ll eventually be attacked.

We’re committed to helping schools keep data secure and digital learning environments safe. Our education products, like Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks, can improve schools’ cybersecurity and make it easy to implement the recommendations in our guidebook.

With Google Workspace for Education, admins can get a complete view into security with notifications, alerts and actions in the alert center. They can also manage access to tools with two-factor authentication, single sign-on and password management, set their own data rules and policies with data loss prevention.

Meanwhile, Chromebooks are highly secure, scalable and easy to use thanks to their built-in security features. In fact, there has never been a reported ransomware attack on any business, school or consumer ChromeOS device. And they help protect schools from evolving threats with 10 years of automatic software updates.

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Chromebooks will get 10 years of automatic updates

Posted on | by Hope
Prajakta Gudadhe
Senior Director of Engineering, ChromeOS
Ashwini Varma
Senior Director of Engineering, ChromeOS

When Chromebooks debuted in 2012, their affordable price tags helped make personal computing more accessible. That also made them a great fit for the education world, providing schools with secure, simple and manageable devices while helping them save on their budgets. In fact, Chromebooks are the number one device used in K-12 education globally, according to Futuresource. Plus, they’re a sustainable choice, with recycled materials that reduce their environmental impact and repair programs that help them last longer.

Today, we’re announcing new ways to keep your Chromebooks up and running even longer. All Chromebook platforms will get regular automatic updates for 10 years — more than any other operating system commits to today. We’re also working with partners to build Chromebooks with more post-consumer recycled materials (PCR), and rolling out new, power-efficient features and quicker processes to repair them. And at the end of their usefulness, we continue to help schools, businesses and everyday users find the right recycling option.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s coming, and how we consider the entire lifecycle of a Chromebook — from manufacturing all the way to recycling.

10 years of automatic updates

Security is our number one priority. Chromebooks get automatic updates every four weeks that make your laptop more secure and help it last longer. And starting next year, we’re extending those automatic updates so your Chromebook gets enhanced security, stability and features for 10 years after the platform was released.

A platform is a series of components that are designed to work together — something a manufacturer selects for any given Chromebook. To ensure compatibility with our updates, we work with all the component manufacturers within a platform (for things like the processor and Wi-Fi) to develop and test the software on every single Chromebook.

Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release (after they receive their last automatic update).1

Even if a Chromebook no longer receives automatic updates, it still comes with strong, built-in security features. With Verified Boot, for example, your Chromebook does a self-check every time it starts up. If it detects that the system has been tampered with or corrupted in any way, it will typically repair itself, reverting back to its original state.

You can find more information about the extended updates in our Help Center, Admin console or in Settings.

Newsela Acquires Formative, Bringing Together Best in Classroom Content and Assessment

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New York, NY – Newsela, the leading K-12 instructional content platform, announced today that it has acquired Formative, the leading real-time instruction and assessment platform. This acquisition brings together two beloved classroom products to provide a comprehensive instructional solution that engages students and accelerates learning.

“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,” said Pep Carrera, Chief Executive Officer at Newsela. “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 that teachers and administrators need to effectively impact student outcomes.”

Craig Jones and Kevin McFarland founded Formative as graduate students at UCLA in 2013. Today, Formative is used by educators and administrators globally and has a presence in the majority of U.S. school districts. In the past year alone, more than four million students have engaged with the platform.

“All teachers know the importance of being responsive to their students, but that 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,” said Craig Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Formative. “Our goal was to give teachers the most effective tool for assessment and analysis. Now, the most effective assessment tool can be used with the best content.”

As school districts look for the best pathways to improve student outcomes following the disruption of the pandemic, the role of formative assessments in concert with authentic, engaging content could not be more critical in the effort to accelerate learning. Teachers will soon be able to apply Formative’s powerful technology to Newsela’s 15,000+ content library to gauge learning immediately, provide even more powerful scaffolds and support while course-correcting in real time to meet academic goals throughout the year.

“We’ve learned that schools can have the best assessments and the best content, but that won’t matter if teachers don’t have the resources to make actionable changes based on data. Formative’s success to date has been giving teachers real-time data that helps make informed decisions,” said Kevin McFarland, Co-Founder and COO of Formative. “Now, with Newsela, teachers will have all the resources—the best content and the best assessments—to help students achieve their goals.”’

The partnership between Newsela and Formative is effective immediately. Customers who have any questions can contact Newsela or Formative, respectively.

 

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

General inquiries: iltpp@newsela.com

New Newsela Schools or Districts
Jenny Pearl
Illinois Partnerships
847-691-1019
Jenny.Pearl@newsela.com

Current Newsela Partners
Nicky Dunlap
Illinois Partnerships
773-495-0703
Nicky.Dunlap@newsela.com

Learn More About Newsela

EdTech Funding on the Move

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Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen a swell in federal funding allocated for education technology and digital equity initiatives. Through multiple rounds of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) and other emergency relief efforts, billions of dollars have been allocated to safely connect students to the Internet off-campus.

Spring 2023 has brought a number of updates to some of the most valuable sources of EdTech funding, including the ECF program and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program. These have a wide range of implications, from impacting service delivery deadlines and providing new opportunities to adjust your funding allocations to jeopardizing unobligated funds.

Here’s what you need to know.

Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF): Service Delivery Deadline Extension

Since the inception of the $7.171 billion ECF program, under the umbrella of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress has allocated billions to schools, districts, and libraries looking to support their students and patrons with devices and/or Internet connectivity.

On May 12th, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted the Request for Waiver jointly filed by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) and Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) requesting an extension to the ECF service delivery deadline. Instead of December 31, 2023, most applicants will now have until June 30, 2024, to use services purchased with ECF dollars.

READ MORE

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Kris O’Connor
EDU Sales Executive, Kajeet
815-260-7960
koconnor@kajeet.com

Ryan Frohle
Account Manager (Install Accounts)
240-482-3499
rfrohle@kajeet.com 

Learn More About Kajeet

CENTEGIX Acquires Ident-A-Kid and Launches Enhanced Visitor Management

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A new, innovative solution integrates the power of the CENTEGIX platform with Ident-A-Kid’s market-leading iVisitor Management

ATLANTA – February 28, 2023 – CENTEGIX, the leader in incident response solutions, today announces its acquisition of Ident-A-Kid, the market-leading provider of Visitor and Volunteer Management and Reunification solutions for K-12. This acquisition furthers CENTEGIX’s mission to create safer spaces through innovative technology.

Over 7,000 schools nationwide have selected Ident-A-Kid for its automated background checks, visitor alerts, and integrations with other school safety platforms.

Ident-A-Kid’s iVisitor Management solution will be sold as CENTEGIX Visitor Management. CENTEGIX also announces the availability of Enhanced Visitor Management, which includes all iVisitor Management functionality and the new capability of real-time visitor locating. This innovative feature leverages the combined power of CENTEGIX’s location-aware network and mapping expertise to deliver functionality unique to the K12 safety marketplace.

“Thousands of schools rely on our best-in-class CrisisAlert incident response solution to protect their staff and students. By joining forces with Ident-A-Kid, we can deliver a new, innovative visitor management solution for K12 schools,” said Brent Cobb, CEO of CENTEGIX. “CENTEGIX’s Enhanced Visitor Management equips districts to know where visitors are located on campus at all times and delivers data about visitor sessions to inform visitor policies, manage vendors, approve visitor lists, and more.”

“Becoming part of the CENTEGIX team will enable us to evolve our visitor management solutions and remain the market-leading choice for K-12. Our experienced team will continue to operate from our Florida location and remains committed to the high level of customer support that we have always provided to our customers,” said Emily Fellouzis, Ident-A-Kid General Manager.

To learn more, visit www.centegix.com/visitor-management.

About CENTEGIX

CENTEGIX is the leader in incident response and visitor management solutions. CENTEGIX creates safer spaces by innovating technology to empower and protect people, and leaders nationwide trust our safety solutions to provide peace of mind. To learn more about CENTEGIX, visit www.CENTEGIX.com.

 

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Matt Young
RVP Midwest
586-713-7513
myoung@centegix.com

Learn More About CENTEGIX

Always identify yourself as an ILTPP member when requesting a quote or placing an order and reference Contract Number #ILTPP AEPA-021G.

Extreme Extends Fabric to the Edge, Simplifies Operations and Improves Security with Enhanced SD-WAN Solution

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Automated Workflows, New UX and 10 Gbps Boosts Application Performance, Lowers Operating Costs and Reduces Mean Time to Resolution

MORRISVILLE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Feb. 8, 2023– Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR), a leader in cloud networking, today announced that it has integrated network fabric capabilities into its ExtremeCloud™ SD-WAN platform, enabling customers to securely connect disparate environments such as the data center, campus and branch locations from within a single platform. Additional new enhancements include automated workflows as part of a simplified user interface and experience (UI/UX) as well as improved visibility and control for superior application performance. As a result, customers can automate tasks related to provisioning new sites and services, lower fabric deployment time by more than 90% and boost network security through hyper-segmentation.

As organizations become more distributed, the increasing shift of applications to the cloud exacerbates the need for connectivity that unifies data center, branch, campus and cloud networks. For example, healthcare providers must manage multiple remote clinics, growing school districts need to deliver connectivity for new buildings or temporary classrooms and retailers have to manage store locations around the world. Extreme makes it easier than ever to securely connect these disparate environments within a single platform, quickly set up new sites, identify and solve for the root cause of network disruptions and improve application performance.

Key Benefits of ExtremeCloud SD-WAN Include:

  • Fabric to the Edge Reduces Operating Costs and Simplifies Network Management: Customers can now easily extend network fabrics across new locations and the entire network and manage it all through a single pane of glass. The integration of Extreme’s network fabric with ExtremeCloud SD-WAN allows customers to automate discovery and configuration of fabric-enabled switches and access points, making it easy to extend connectivity to new sites while keeping costs low and improving security, visibility and application performance. Further, administrators can utilize hyper-segmentation to increase network security by preventing lateral attacks, helping avoid a potentially costly security breach.
  • Automated Workflows for Improved IT Efficiency: ExtremeCloud SD-WAN’s new streamlined workflows for planning, deployment and management enable IT teams to perform activities in minutes versus hours. These workflows include automated SaaS application discovery, faster initial site configuration and deeper application performance visualization. Now, IT teams can more easily identify the root cause of issues impacting the user experience as well as data-driven resolutions.
  • Improved Application Performance: Extreme has created an automated, maintenance-free approach to connecting to major cloud services like AWS and Microsoft Azure without limiting visibility or performance management. Customers can connect to these services using Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) tunnels, without installing or managing SD-WAN appliances or software in the cloud service provider’s environment. This brings connectivity to the edge of the network, simplifies connections to new services, reduces network bottlenecks and provides IT with greater control and visibility at both the application and the network level.
  • Support for High-Bandwidth Use Cases with 10 Gbps: As 10 Gbps internet becomes more widely available, Extreme’s new IPE2200 hardware appliance is ready to support high-bandwidth data center use cases. This appliance, available as part of an ExtremeCloud SD-WAN subscription, is ideal for customers with large campus environments that need to support a large volume of traffic like extensive use of video collaboration services.

Executive and Industry Perspectives

Ed Walton, CEO, STEP CG

“Removing complexity by leveraging innovative networking technology is the essence of what we do at STEP CG. With Extreme’s new integrated SD-WAN and network fabric capabilities, our customers will be able to extend a unified fabric beyond the campus to their smaller locations while benefiting from the application performance of SD-WAN. This will allow us to make our customers’ IT environments even more secure, agile and resilient.”

Dan DeBacker, Senior Vice President of Products, Extreme Networks

“As organizations grow, the network must be able to easily scale to offer users the same experience no matter where they are. Extreme fabric solutions help organizations of all sizes reduce risk, simplify operations and minimize time needed to set up and secure new sites. With the integration of fabric and ExtremeCloud SD-WAN, we’re helping customers unify complex and disparate networks and enhance network security. We’ve just set the competitive bar higher than ever with SD-WAN, making it simple and cost-effective to deploy across any organization.”

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks, Inc. (EXTR) is a leader in cloud networking focused on delivering services that connect devices, applications, and people in new ways. We push the boundaries of technology leveraging the powers of machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics, and automation. 50,000 customers globally trust our end-to-end, cloud-driven networking solutions and rely on our top-rated services and support to accelerate their digital transformation efforts and deliver progress like never before. For more information, visit Extreme’s website at https://www.extremenetworks.com/ or follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Extreme Networks, ExtremeCloud and the Extreme Networks logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks shown herein are the property of their respective owners.

Blair Donald
(603) 952-5662
PR@extremenetworks.com

Source: Extreme Networks, Inc.

 

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Extreme Networks
Joe YeagleSenior Account Executive
630-287-0228
jyeagle@extremenetworks.com

Matt Ward
VSAM / Extreme Networks
630-287-0228
maward@extremenetworks.com

Learn More About Extreme Networks

Instructure Acquires LearnPlatform, Adding Evidence-Based EdTech Application Insight to the Instructure Learning Platform

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SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) (NYSE: INST) today announced it has completed the acquisition of LearnPlatform, the leading provider of technology that enables educators and their institutions to research, select and evaluate digital learning solutions. This unique platform equips stakeholders across the educational landscape with real-time, meaningful insight into the effectiveness of their tools of choice. This acquisition accelerates the impact of the Instructure Learning Platform for schools, universities, and shared partner providers by adding evidence-based insight into inventory, compliance, procurement, and usage.

The acquisition demonstrates and strengthens Instructure’s commitment to building an open, transparent and integrated teaching and learning platform for the education industry. The combination of LearnPlatform’s capabilities with Instructure’s Learning Platform delivers a new, partner-friendly offering that helps educators, schools and universities ensure that every learning technology choice they make is delivering on their intended outcome.

“The acquisition of LearnPlatform underscores Instructure’s commitment to building an open global education platform,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “K-12 and Higher Ed institutions need an efficient, research-based, insight-rich solution that drives the selection and ongoing management of the sprawling learning technology landscape. We believe that adding these solutions gives our customers and partners even more ways to measure the impact of their investments and drive student outcomes for each and every student.”

Based in North Carolina, the LearnPlatform team has approximately 70 employees. Since 2015, the company has equipped educators, leaders, policymakers and edtech partners with the tools to modernize their learning environments.

“We’re thrilled to join Instructure, a company dedicated to amplifying the power of teaching,” said Karl Rectanus, CEO of LearnPlatform. “As institutions and districts seek to understand and improve the effectiveness of their digital learning environments, the combination of LearnPlatform and Instructure will accelerate access to the trustworthy, independent evidence they need to inform decisions, providing customers and partners unprecedented insight into the learning journey of students.”

With this acquisition, Instructure is building upon its commitment to a robust partner ecosystem. Instructure currently has more than 600 partners. By adding LearnPlatform, Instructure enhances capabilities for current and future partners who serve the educational community. With over 10,000 EduApp provider listings in the LearnPlatform ecosystem, Instructure can now offer even more value to its partners.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE

Instructure (NYSE: INST) is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform supports tens of millions of educators and learners around the world. Learn more at www.instructure.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains “forward-looking” statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the potential, timing and examples of any strategic alternatives. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but are based on management’s expectations as of the date of this press release and assumptions that are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements.

Forward-looking statements also reflect management’s evaluation of information currently available and are based on Instructure’s current expectations and assumptions regarding the acquisition of LearnPlatform (the “Acquisition”), the integration of LearnPlatform, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking statements about the Acquisition are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to vary in material respects from what we have expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Specific factors that could cause future results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (i) failure to realize the expected benefits of the Acquisition; (ii) unknown or inestimable liabilities of LearnPlatform assumed in the Acquisition; (iii) the risk that LearnPlatform’s business will not be integrated successfully or that such integration may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected; (iv) risks related to future opportunities and plans following the Acquisition, including the uncertainty of expected future financial performance and results of LearnPlatform; and (v) the effect of the announcement of the Acquisition on the ability of Instructure to operate. Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements include the risk factors described in the Instructure’s  annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 22, 2022 and other documents filed with the SEC and could cause actual results to vary from expectations. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof and Instructure undertakes no duty to update this information except as required by law.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Brian Watkins
Corporate Communications
Instructure
801-610-9722
brian.watkins@instructure.com

INVESTOR CONTACT:
April Scee
Managing Director
ICR, Inc.
917-497-8992
investors@instructure.com

SOURCE Instructure Holdings, Inc.

Securly Acquires Eduspire Solutions, Expanding Support for Student Safety and Wellness

Posted on | by Hope

SAN JOSE, CALIF. (PRWEB) NOVEMBER 28, 2022 Securly, Inc. (“Securly”), the student safety and wellness pioneer and a portfolio company of Golden Gate Capital, today announced that it acquired Eduspire Solutions, LLC (“Eduspire”), an education technology company transforming student movement through its digital hall pass and flex period management solutions. The union of Eduspire’s offerings with Securly’s whole-student success platform provides K-12 districts and schools with an end-to-end solution that extends student safety from online to on-campus, and expands support for student wellness, from identifying needs to facilitating personalized support.

Founded in 2016, Eduspire serves over 2.5 million students across all 50 states. Eduspire’s e-hallpass streamlines hall pass management, maximizing instructional time through simplifying the hall pass request process for both students and teachers, and empowering administrators with both the management tools and insights needed to keep their students and hallways safe. Inside the classroom, Eduspire’s FlexTime Manager empowers teachers to provide students with a personalized learning experience, including support for academic remediation, peer tutoring, accelerated learning, or extracurricular activities.

“Securly and Eduspire share a vision of helping schools build safe, supportive learning environments that foster student wellness,” said Bharath Madhusudan, CEO of Securly. “Eduspire’s solutions are a natural complement to Securly’s whole-student success platform, and we’re excited to unite our teams to better serve schools and students.”

Brian Tvenstrup, President of Eduspire Solutions, added, “We are excited to join forces with Securly to accelerate our joint mission of keeping students safe and supporting student wellness. Our partnership will enable schools to leverage limited resources to protect more students and more effectively support the students who have the greatest needs.”

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal advisor to Securly. Morris, Manning & Martin LLP served as legal advisor, and IKONA Partners, a technology-focused boutique investment bank, acted as exclusive financial advisor to Eduspire in this transaction.

About Securly, Inc.

Securly is the whole-student success platform developed specifically for the needs of today’s K-12 schools. Securly’s innovative suite of cloud-based education technology products helps more than 15,000 districts and schools keep their students safe, well, and engaged in learning. By providing school web filtering, student wellness monitoring, classroom management, parent/caregiver engagement, and technology support solutions, Securly gives district and school leaders, student safety and wellness teams, and IT staff the tools and critical insights they need to achieve better student outcomes and make the most efficient use of their resources. Learn more at http://www.securly.com.

About Eduspire Solutions, LLC

Eduspire Solutions takes learning to the next level with its web-based school software and mobile apps for schools, designed to simplify the administration of classroom management and activity periods. Schools with 1:1 technology or BYOD platforms can incorporate Eduspire’s educational software to help alleviate the hassles commonly associated with student activity scheduling, flex time management, activity monitoring, hall pass monitoring, school security, and more. Learn more at http://www.eduspiresolutions.org.