Renaissance Acquires Schoolzilla to Make Insights Actionable for Education Leaders Worldwide

Administrators and educators gain a single, complete view of student growth and achievement thanks to the combination of research-driven product lines

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Renaissance

Oct 29, 2019, 07:03 ET

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis., Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Renaissance^®, the global leader in pre-K–12 education technology, today announced that it has acquired Schoolzilla, a company known for its data-driven dashboards that integrate multiple sources of student data, including attendance, suspensions, course grades, and more. By adding rich student learning data from Renaissance's assessment, literacy, and math programs to Schoolzilla's dashboards, school and district leaders will gain the critical insights they need to evaluate trends in student attendance and achievement, enact change, and improve outcomes for all learners.

"One of our driving beliefs is that students learn better when administrators and teachers have the full picture of learning," said Todd Brekhus, chief product officer at Renaissance. "Schoolzilla's ability to aggregate data streams from multiple sources is a perfect fit with our open, interconnected approach to education. Through the current integration between our Star Assessments and Schoolzilla's dashboards, we're already providing educators with a true, full-circle view of their students. This acquisition will allow us to further enhance our ability to give education leaders unparalleled insights into progress and performance at the individual, school, and district levels."

Schoolzilla's dashboards enable education leaders to track daily progress toward goals around metrics such as chronic absence, grades, assessment growth, and college readiness. The customizable dashboards can aggregate data from over 135 education data sources, including student information systems, assessments (including interim, formative, and state assessments), behavior management systems, and more. Data can be viewed either for the current academic term or longitudinally to compare growth within grade levels and across years.

Classroom educators can also use Schoolzilla dashboards to understand how groups of students, as well as individual students, are doing on these same metrics and then pinpoint opportunities to strengthen teaching and learning to ensure every student has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

"The combination of Renaissance and Schoolzilla is truly groundbreaking," said Renaissance's CEO Chris Bauleke. "This breadth of data, all in one place, all easy to view and sort, will have a significant impact on education leaders' ability to accelerate growth, both for the whole student and for the whole district."

"Schoolzilla's mission has always been to enable educators to use data to run great schools for students," said Lynzi Ziegenhagen, Schoolzilla's founder and CEO. "We are focused on making data-fueled leadership possible and practical for today's educators, and couldn't be more thrilled to join the Renaissance family and enrich our dashboards with the incredible insights—and expanded reach—their portfolio provides."

Schoolzilla began as an initiative within Aspire Public Schools—one of the nation's top-performing school systems serving low-income communities—where Lynzi and her team closely collaborated with educators to solve "the data problem." After five years with Aspire, Schoolzilla became an independent organization to serve schools across the country. Today, more than 140 districts gain critical insight to inform decisions and improve student outcomes with Schoolzilla's dashboards. Schoolzilla is also an active member of the Renaissance Growth Alliance, a partnership of best-in-class edtech providers working together to streamline data for educators and improve learning for students.

Schoolzilla customers will continue to receive the support and service they have come to expect and love from the company. Existing Renaissance customers can look forward to learning more about Schoolzilla in the months ahead.

"Third-grade reading and eighth-grade math are key performance indicators for our district, and we monitor them with Star Assessment results," commented Leigh Anne Scherer, the Coordinator of Assessment Accountability at North Clackamas School District in Oregon, where educators use both Renaissance solutions and Schoolzilla dashboards. "Now that we have Star data in Schoolzilla, we have a more complete view of how we're progressing at the system level and the school level. That connection has been a key piece for us."

Schoolzilla is Renaissance's fourth major acquisition in the past two years. Earlier this year, Renaissance acquired a student-centered differentiation platform with Freckle, along with curriculum-based measurements and early childhood assessments with myIGDIs. Previously, in the spring of 2018, Renaissance acquired the personalized literacy platform, myON. Through these acquisitions, Renaissance has expanded and enhanced educators' options for personalizing learning, monitoring achievement, and accelerating growth.

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 90 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; and Freckle, for teacher-led differentiated instruction. For more information, visit Renaissance.com.

About Schoolzilla
Schoolzilla is a Public Benefit Company with a mission to enable people to use data to improve education for students, especially those from underserved communities. Supporting over 140 school systems in 31 states, Schoolzilla helps school leaders succeed with accurate, timely, and visual data to understand students' needs, develop strategies, monitor progress, and get laser-focused on growth. For more information, visit schoolzilla.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE Renaissance