Teachstone Acquires Intellectual Property of Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teachstone, a leader in teacher professional development and early education quality improvement, today announced it has acquired the intellectual property of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System® (CLASS®). As sole IP holders and publishers of CLASS, Teachstone is now poised to innovate around the CLASS, maximizing its reach and impact to programs who are focused on implementing CLASS at scale.

"This is big news for us," said Rebecca Berlin, chief strategy officer and interim CEO of Teachstone. "With the IP, we can explore how to make CLASS offerings easier for programs to implement at scale."

Originally developed in 2008 by Robert Pianta, Bridget Hamre, and Karen la Paro, the CLASS is used by programs nationwide to assess teaching quality and drive professional development experiences. As part of today's announcement, CLASS products previously published and distributed by Brookes Publishing, LTD, will now be published by Teachstone and exclusively distributed by Kaplan Early Learning.

"We would not have made it this far without Brookes Publishing," said Bob Pianta, CLASS author and Teachstone co-founder. "They helped us take the CLASS from research labs at the University of Virginia into classrooms and child-care centers across the country and around the globe. We look forward to building on those accomplishments and continuing to impact teachers and their students with Kaplan Early Learning."

Customers can continue to purchase CLASS products through the Teachstone store or through Kaplan Early Learning.

About Teachstone
If you improve how teachers connect with students, children achieve more—now and for the rest of their lives. That's the promise of CLASS. Teachstone delivers on that promise by bringing CLASS observations and professional development solutions to organizations everywhere. For more information, visit us at www.teachstone.com, contact us at 877-401-8007, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

SOURCE Teachstone