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myON, the digital literacy platform and business unit of Capstone Publishing, will expand its implementation in the Detroit public schools this spring, an indication of the company’s momentum.

myON president Todd Brekhus told EER that the business is growing at a 40% compound annual growth rate and has 80 employees. More than 6 million students work on the platform, and it reaches 10,000 schools in 12 countries. myON provides access to more than 12,000 enhanced digital books, from Capstone and publisher partners, with multimedia support, real-time assessments, and a growing Literacy Toolkit.

“We found a niche by being able to personalize digital books and create literacy experiences for teachers,” Brekhus said. “We were able to move from just students having personal access to digital books and getting them to do more independent reading—although that will always be one of our hallmarks—to more classroom access with the launch of a writing program and more project-based activities.”

Brekhus came to Capstone in 2009 with a mission to create “something great” built on Capstone’s expansive library of books. He said the platform developed was an early example of the trend toward personalization—offering students reading recommendations based on their own interests, age, grade level and Lexile reading scores. 

“We created a new category in education technology,” Brekhus said. “Kids want it because it’s fun; teachers want it because they need more resources, and schools need a stable set of resources that are going to be there for them—not just websites or OER but actual curated content that goes through the publishing process.”

The addition of assessment and measurement undergirds that work. Brekhus said much of the messaging lately has been about shifting the mindset on assessment to measuring student reading through their reading rather than waiting for a test score. The platform provides data points on how much time is spent reading, what type of reading, and whether Lexile levels and comprehension skills are growing. 

Change

Brekhus said changes in education—like new standards or more technology—typically have been good for myON. The company can correlate with multiple standards because of its vast content; every teacher and every child gets access to everything. 

More classroom technology has been a huge benefit, Brekhus said. Superintendents are calling and saying they are implementing a 1:1 program and want to focus on reading, as opposed to a few years back when they reported buying technology but had no follow-up conversation.

“Technology plus interest in access to more non-fiction content definitely is on the rise and has been a huge reason that people are choosing myON,” Brekhus said.

Brekhus said myON is not presented as a core basal program, although some districts are taking one grade level or subject area and looking at how an extensive collection of books can be a way to adapt content in a personalized way and meet standards. myON has built projects built around the Engage NY curriculum and projects based on content development work being done in districts like Houston and Fairfax. 

“We publish those and every teacher has access to those units and projects,” Brekhus said. ”If you line those up and have enough content for 180 days of teaching, you can replace a textbook without intending to do it.”

Expanding in Detroit

Detroit chose myON as part of a district plan focused on literacy and innovation seeing an alignment with district initiatives to implement competency-based and personalized learning to meet the specific needs of individual students. The district secured funding for the literacy initiative through a Michigan Department of Education Additional Instructional Time Grant, which was awarded to help students who have been identified as needing additional supports and interventions in order to read at grade level by the end of third grade. 

The district’s goal for myON is to increase students’ access to books both at home and in school, thereby increasing their love of reading, and ultimately leading to increased student achievement. 

Also attractive to the district was that myON offers a wide variety of titles in Spanish and other languages to help close the literacy gap for English-language learners. 

Phase one of the implementation began in September 2016, with 41 schools being provided access to myON, and initial orientation for school and district leadership teams. Phase two, expected by March of 2017, will reach an additional 24 schools with access, ensuring all K-8 schools have access.