''Newsela'' is a literacy-focused

edtech Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

startup company founded by Matthew Gross. Newsela offers English and Spanish education content. Newsela serves 90% of schools, including over 37 million

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

students and 2.5 million teachers. Newsela news content is free with a registered account and additional resources are available by subscription. The content is designed to engage students, facilitate

differentiated instruction Differentiated instruction and assessment, also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation, is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing all students within their diverse classroom com ...

and align to state education standards. The company has been named one of

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

's Most Innovative Companies two years in a row and one of

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

's Fastest Growing Tech Companies two years in a row.

Background

History

While former teacher Matthew Gross was working on the

Common Core standards The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, is an educational initiative from 2010 that details what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conc ...

roll out in New York, he was disappointed to discover outdated textbooks that were labeled "Common Core-Aligned". One of Gross's children struggled with reading. After meeting with his son's assistant principal, he felt like she had given up on his son. Gross decided to start Newsela in 2013 for his son and to make a larger impact in education.

Partnerships

Newsela's ongoing partnership with The Virginia School Consortium for Learning (VaSCL) enables members to access Newsela content, technology and professional learning at a discounted rate, as of December 2020. In response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Newsela announced a partnership with NWEA to help teachers differentiate instruction. After a student takes a MAP Growth assessment, Newsela will automatically show teachers content at that student's reading level. BrainPop and Newsela formed a partnership on October 10, 2017. Users can access Newsela's resources directly from BrainPop's topic pages. Newsela editor-in-chief Jennifer Coogan partnered with the

American Press Institute The American Press Institute is an educational non-advocacy 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization affiliated with the News Media Alliance (formerly the Newspaper Association of America). The institute's mission is to encourage the advancement of news m ...

to help combat

fake news websites in the United States False news websites in the United States target American audiences by using disinformation to create or inflame controversial topics such as the 2016 election. Most fake news websites target readers by impersonating or pretending to be real new ...

in October 2016.

Features

Newsela offers news articles that can be customized to match a student's reading level. Newsela's texts come from publishers including the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

and

Encyclopedia Britannica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

. The company offers supplemental instructional materials, including assessments, lessons and professional development. English

language arts Language arts (also known as English language arts or ELA) is the study and improvement of the arts of language. Traditionally, the primary divisions in language arts are literature and language, where language in this case refers to both lingu ...

(ELA), Social Studies,

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) content are available in English and Spanish.

Other versions

Due to concerns about mature content, Newsela has created Newsela Elementary, with articles targeted toward elementary school students. Newsela also created Newsela PRO, a paid upgrade for teachers to use more features.

Reception

Common Sense Media Education reviewer Patricia Monticello Kievlan rated Newsela five stars.

References

{{reflist

External links

Webinar About BrainPop and Newsela Partnership
American educational websites