Volley Labs’ investors include Zuckerberg Education Ventures, and adaptive-literacy software developer LightSail takes in $11 million in Series B funding.
What Mark Zuckerberg’s Pivot to Personalized Learning Means for the Ed-Tech Market
Facebook CEO's Interests Include Customized Learning Paths, Competency-Based Progressions

The Facebook CEO’s $45 billion philanthropic and investment effort has already included significant backing of for-profit companies such as AltSchool, Ellevation, MasteryConnect, and Newsela.
Weld North Acquires Performance Matters, Merging It With Truenorthlogic
Move Combines Student Assesment, Teacher Performance Data in One Platform
The move will give Truenorthlogic, which provides data on teachers’ evaluations and training, the ability to combine student assessment results with educator performance data on one platform
How to Build a Research Base for Your K-12 Product
Companies can take simple, low-cost steps to assess academic impact and engagement

Ed-tech companies conducting research often miss critical steps in gathering information about their products’ effectiveness, and the experiences of teachers and students using them.
The Emerson Collective, a venture fund led by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, joined Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, in investing in Ellevation.
Commercial vendors and nonprofits can apply for money to develop digital ed-tech products to build students’ conceptual math ability.
Global funding for educational technology surged in 2015, and a big chunk of that activity was concentrated in China, which accounted for 37 percent of deals.
Apple has snapped up Learnspout, Pearson and Knewton partner to work on math using adaptive-learning, and Excelligence Learning acquires the classroom-products marketer Really Good Stuff.
K-12 Venture Capital in 2016: Data Analytics, Virtual Reality Could Make Gains
District Demands for Social-Emotional Supports, Special Populations Also Could Grow

Analysts expect investors to seek out companies that help districts use big data, gain deeper understanding of school systems, and focus on special populations in 2016.
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg deepened his involvement in ed tech by making investments in Newsela and MasteryConnect.