Renaissance Releases Major Back-to-School Updates in Assessment, Instruction, and Practice to Empower Educators and Students

The global edtech leader’s Back-to-School product updates and resources will help school leaders provide data-driven instruction—no matter the environment

Bloomington, Minn. (Aug. 27, 2020) – Renaissance, a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology, today announced major Back-to-School product updates and curated resources, ranging from the first authentic Spanish learning progressions available in the market to Star CBM, a new option for Curriculum-Based Measurement.

Renaissance’s product updates and resources for Back-to-School are designed to ensure continuous learning and meet students where they are. With schools and districts across the nation rolling out different in-person, remote, or hybrid Back-to-School strategies, the new enhancements and tools will help bridge the gap between educators, students, and families.

“Whether students are starting the fall semester at home, in the classroom, or a mix of both, we believe all students deserve to grow to their full potential, despite the disrupted school year,” said Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance. “While things are going to be a bit different this fall, we’re dedicated to ensuring continuous learning—at home or in the classroom.”

Below are just a few of the highlights:

• Star Spanish now offers the first true Spanish learning progressions available. Just like Renaissance’s English learning progressions, the Spanish versions are empirically validated, aligned to standards, and help educators identify the skills their students know and which skills they are ready to work on next—all in Spanish. This kind of parity empowers educators to teach from an asset-based mindset and ensures that emergent bilinguals get the equitable instruction they deserve.
• Star CBM, the all-new assessment from Renaissance available this fall, provides curriculum-based measures of reading for students in grades K–6 and mathematics for students in grades K–3. Because Star CBM can be conducted in-person or virtually, educators can give students 1:1 time and garner meaningful insights into student achievement.
• Starting in August—and throughout the rest of 2020 and 2021—Renaissance is offering enhanced district reporting with Schoolzilla Starter to all its current and new Star Assessments customers. In an environment where it is difficult to track student performance, Schoolzilla’s data visualizations allow educators to identify gaps and act on them.

Ensuring each student gets the right practice and instruction at the right time will be both vital and challenging this fall. Additional product updates to Accelerated Reader, myON, and Freckle Math will help to ensure continuous learning:

• Students can now easily search for books in Accelerated Reader and launch right into reading them in myON—and even take their Accelerated Reader quizzes at home.
• myON supports virtual learning by providing 24/7 access to thousands of digital books, which students can read either in or out of the classroom. Now, educators can create the perfect curated collection and organize books into shared bundles within myON Projects.
• Freckle Math for grades 6 and up is now mobile friendly and even highlights Renaissance Focus Skills™—the subset of skills that are fundamental to students’ development at each grade level.

With students missing instructional time and many schools and districts lacking assessment data from last spring, Back-to-School is going to be a crucial time for educators and their students to reconnect.

Knowing this, Renaissance is also encouraging educators to explore Focus Skills this fall. A dedicated website lets users browse the reading and math Focus Skills for each state and grade, across K–12.

To learn more, visit www.renaissance.com.

About Renaissance
As a global leader in assessment, reading, and math solutions for pre-K–12 schools and districts, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. Renaissance solutions are used in over one-third of US schools and in more than 100 countries worldwide. The Renaissance portfolio includes Star Assessments, for reliable, accurate insights into K–12 student learning; myIGDIs, for accurate assessment of early learning; myON, to increase students’ access to high-quality reading materials; Accelerated Reader, to support independent reading practice; Freckle, for teacher-led differentiated instruction; and Schoolzilla, to give educators actionable insights into trends in student attendance and achievement. For more information, visit www.renaissance.com.