In 1984, Port Edwards, Wisconsin (USA) based Judi Paul — driven by a strong desire to inculcate a love of reading in her four children — curated a list of her favourite books and assigned each of them a points value based on their difficulty and length. Going a step ahead, she also framed multiple-choice questions for each novel and rewarded her children when they answered the questions correctly. Little did Judi know back then that her points-based book quizzing system (precursor to Accelerated Reader) was the genesis of Renaissance Learning.

The success of Judi’s ingenious creation — that quickly became popular in several schools in the neighborhood who were even ready to pay for it — soon led to its transformation into a computer software. Eventually, in 1986, Judi and her husband Terry promoted a company to sell the reading programme, named Advantage Learning Systems (ALS).

Over the past three decades, ALS — which was rechristened as Renaissance Learning in 2001 — has emerged as the market leader in the ed-tech space in the US and UK and rapidly expanding its global footprint.

Led by CEO Chris Bauleke, the over 1000-employees-strong Renaissance team is committed to “accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds worldwide”. Presently, the company’s assessment, reading and math solutions — used by 52,000 Pre-K-12 schools in 96 countries worldwide — help educators personalise learning paths for students.

“Our company was founded with the idea that technology and innovation could improve student learning. We continue that tradition today, continually seeking new ways to help educators do their best work in the face of near constant change. By providing educators with dynamic practice and meaningful assessment solutions, we give them more resources to accelerate learning and more time to spend with students. We harness the power of learning analytics and advances in learning science to deliver effective and reliable assessments, robust reading and maths practice tools, and seamless connections with best-in-class instructional partners,” says Chris Bauleke.

USPs of Renaissance Learning

As a global leader in providing assessment, reading, and math solutions for pre-K–12 schools, Renaissance Learning provides educators with the insights and resources needed to accelerate growth for every student.

Renaissance Learning motivates students through guided reading practice, helping students discover the pure joy of reading with Accelerated Reader which helps measure reading skills effectively with quick assessments to guide classroom instruction.

Renaissance Learning has created a seamless cycle of insights from their detailed process that includes assessment, planning for instruction, resources for reading and practice.

Over the past three and a half decades, the company has amassed more than 2.8 billion real-world data points that provide insights into how exactly students build skills and achieve mastery in core subjects. Moreover, these data points help the company to continuously refine and improve its solutions.

Why schools should opt for Renaissance solutions

• Helps assess student’s learning within 20 minutes and get immediate results.
• Assigns research-proven practice reading and math assignments that further monitors progress toward growth goals.
• Students learn best practices and gain confidence, whether in-person, online/virtually, or a blend of both with professional development services.

“We aspire to become a leader in the global ed-tech space and empower educators with multiple, interconnected solutions. To accomplish our vision, we have been partnering with other leading edtech providers to connect assessment, instruction, and practice across programmes through the Renaissance Growth Alliance™.  The result — educators can more easily see the path forward for every student. Educators gain even more powerful student data, seamless integration with non-Renaissance products, and an improved infrastructure—setting the stage to let students shine,” says Chris Bauleke.

Request for a demo at Renaissance Learning here.

Also read: Renaissance Learning: Pioneering digital technologies-driven PreK-12 learning

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