Recent moves by Newsela, an educational platform with nonfiction content and embedded assessments, show the company believes better data integration can take that support a step further. Its acquisition of AI analytics tool Schoolytics this week signals an effort to move beyond content differentiation toward clearer, more actionable insight for educators and district leaders, according to a recent news release.
Newsela's platform allows teachers to adjust educational articles to match students’ reading levels, then provides formative assessment data from their graded assignments. Schoolytics, by contrast, focuses on aggregating and analyzing data from multiple systems — e.g., learning management systems, assessment tools and student information systems — to help districts identify trends and outcomes. Combined, the companies say, their platforms can help educators connect day-to-day learning activities with broader measures of student performance.
“With the addition of Schoolytics, we’re giving districts a more connected way to understand student data, coordinate action across instruction and assessment, and ultimately drive student growth,” Newsela CEO Pep Carrera said in a public statement. “Schoolytics brings together academic, behavioral, and engagement data with workflows that help educators identify needs, monitor progress and manage interventions.”
The integration aims to give educators a clearer picture of what students know, what they need next, and whether interventions are working over time, Newsela’s statement said. Rather than requiring districts to adopt another standalone analytics tool, the companies emphasize that the combined platform is designed to surface insights within existing instructional workflows.
For classroom teachers, that could mean more visibility into how students’ reading performance on Newsela aligns with broader academic indicators. For school and district leaders, it could offer a way to track patterns across classrooms, schools or student subgroups without manually pulling reports from multiple systems, reflecting a broader trend in K-12 ed tech: shifting from collecting data to making it usable, timely and relevant for those involved in classroom instruction.
As districts continue to navigate growing volumes of student data, leaders are increasingly focused on tools that reduce complexity and translate information into practical next steps. In their statement, Newsela framed the acquisition as part of a longer-term strategy to support instructional decision-making, not just content delivery.
“We started Schoolytics after hearing a consistent pain point from school districts: They felt ‘data rich and information poor,'” Schoolytics' co-founder and CEO Aaron Wertman said in a public statement. “Together with Newsela products, the solutions offer access to everything a district needs to connect daily instruction with district-wide assessments and data, driving better insights that inform teaching, learning and decision-making at every level. From classroom educators to district leadership teams, we’ll offer a seamless way to understand what students know, what they need next, and how supports are working over time.”
