Category: In the News

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

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

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.


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

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

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 LinkedInYouTubeTwitterFacebook 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

SALT LAKE CITYDec. 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

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.

New iOS Extension App Helps K-12 Leaders Fully Capture Data

Knowing which EdTech tools are being used, how often, and by whom serve as critical, foundational elements of understanding a given EdTech landscape. For years, LearnPlatform’s Inventory Dashboard has served as a resource for discovering the scope of EdTech use to build that foundation.

So, today, we are thrilled to announce our new iOS extension app that customers can deploy to school-issued iOS devices for the 2022-23 school year! 

By adding this extension app as another means of gathering data, district administrators will now be able to collect, report on and use iOS data to guide conversations and aid in EdTech decision-making. K-12 leaders view multiple data sources in one place to:

  • Uncover products they aren’t currently managing.

  • Better understand which products/apps are most (and least) popular across devices.

  • Identify areas for more implementation support.

  • Discover fidelity of use.

Read More about this exciting addition to LearnPlatform

____________________________________________________________________________________

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Districts >5,000 Students
Rob Residori
Director of Partnerships
(773) 273-9419
rob@learnplatform.com

Districts <5,000 Students
Hillary Simons
District Analyst
(860) 933-4091
hillary.simons@learnplatform.com

Learn More About LearnPlatform

#TraferaGiveBack2022

WIN 100 laptops for your school

Trafera is committed to helping schools build better learning experiences through technology. That’s why we’re donating nearly $500K worth of technology to schools across the nation. Six schools will receive one hundred laptops to transform teaching and learning.

 

Give away includes 100 x HP Elitebook 840 G2 fully equipped with:

  • 100 x Higher Ground Element Plus Cases
  • LocknCharge EPIC Carts to help charge and secure all devices when not in use
  • Trafera Gold Warranty

 

Tell Trafera how you would use your new devices to transform teaching and learning at your school to enter! 

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Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Tim Peters
Account Manager
651-209-1098
tim.peters@trafera.com

Learn More About Trafera

Siemens acquires Brightly Software

Brightly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Siemens Smart Infrastructure (SI).

As the global leader in intelligent asset management solutions, this acquisition represents the strongest validation of Brightly’s vision for the future.  Siemens and Brightly have a shared mission to empower clients to transform the way they manage buildings and infrastructure, impacting the everyday lives of billions of people. The alignment between Siemens & Brightly will accelerate the development of global solutions, services, and value.

The benefits to Brightly clients will be immense. With increased investment in its solutions, platform, and product roadmap, Brightly will be able to continue to improve the capabilities, performance, and integration of its current solutions as well as offer a broader set of products, including offerings from Siemen’s portfolio.  Siemens’s robust capabilities in connectivity, advanced analytics, energy management, security, and digital services will be made available to Brightly clients over time.

More information can be found in this press release.

 


Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Kyle Williford
Vice President, Public Markets
919-332-9914
kyle.williford@brightlysoftware.com

Kajeet to Bring Next-Gen Private 5G to Schools & Students Across America in Partnership with Google Cloud

McLean, Virginia, June 14, 2022Kajeet, a world-class provider of private wireless and managed IoT connectivity, today announced a collaboration with Google to deploy its Private 5G Platform on Google Distributed Cloud Edge. The goal of the partnership is to help transform the future of education by: 

  • Connecting the unconnected students and communities with high-quality wireless Internet and Close the Digital Divide once and for all 
  • Empowering Learning Anywhere by combining Kajeet’s public & private wireless networks with Google’s Chromebook and Classroom EDU solutions. 
  • Creating Smart Schools, powered by the Kajeet Private 5G Platform & Google Cloud, to enhance classroom activities and enable a next-gen immersive learning experience for students and teachers.  

Many school districts aspire to provide adequate off-campus broadband access to their staff and students. According to the White House, more than 30 million Americans live in areas where broadband infrastructure is unable to provide minimally acceptable speeds. Kajeet, in step with Google, strives to end the connectivity gap with Smart, Simple, and Secure Private 5G networks for schools, neighboring communities, library systems, community colleges, and universities to easily connect all of their people, places, and things.    

Kajeet is a trusted wireless partner to educational institutions, with over two decades of experience providing managed IoT and public internet connectivity to over 3,000 school districts.  There is a great need to provide safe, secure, and reliable private wireless service for students and communities in underserved markets.  Kajeet is in the process of planning and designing several Private 5G networks using Google Distributed Cloud Edge for school districts across the country that will launch later this year. 

“Google has been a long-standing partner in our education business for equitable access and network reliability to students using Google Chromebooks. We are very excited to extend our partnership in enabling a unique Private 5G experience to schools and students across America,” said Derrick Frost, SVP and GM of Private Wireless Networks at Kajeet. “Google Distributed Cloud helps us realize economies of scale in a common environment encompassing private networks at the edge, a private data center, and the public cloud. It enables us to deliver a consistent set of security, lifecycle management, policy, and orchestration of resources across all customer locations.”  

 


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