AltSchool, a Bay Area startup, uses its own set of private schools to serve as test labs for its products, and the company’s products are evolving in almost real-time based on teacher and parent feedback.
Lumosity had been accused by the Federal Trade Commission of claiming without sufficient evidence that its products improved performance on everyday tasks, including school performance.
The new Every Student Succeeds Act allows states and districts to try “pay for success” projects that offer financial rewards to investors in public education, if they produce results.
Open educational resources — viewed by many as challenger to commercial resources — are encouraged through the recently passed, sweeping ESSA federal statute.
The new law allows states or districts to use the SAT or ACT for high school accountability, a move that signals a shift in how achievement is measured and what in what schools value.
The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act seeks to block third-party contractors from selling student data for advertising, and restricts vendors from creating profiles of students for non-educational reasons.
Changes in federal policy, and shifting K-12 demands for engaging, easy-to-use ed-tech products are likely to shape the K-12 marketplace in 2016.
Fast-Growing Private Education Companies Make Inc. 5000 List
Schoolwires Appears on the List for 9 Years
The 39 fastest-growing private education companies that touch the prekindergarten to 12th grade world generated about $617 million in combined annual revenues.
Faced with increasing competition from charter and private schools, the Austin, Texas, school system is launching a $350,000 marketing campaign to try to win over families.
A court decision that allowed a huge common-core testing contract to go forward was one of the biggest stories that shaped the state and local K-12 market in 2015.