The second collaboration between the global edtech leader and the acclaimed university will provide new data and analytics tools for school and district leaders

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (July 9, 2019) – Renaissance^®, a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology, today announced that it has entered a new partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to provide educators with better insights into student achievement and growth.

Graduate students within the Masters of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science (METALS) program within CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) are collaborating with the education and research experts at Renaissance to develop new software tools, providing students with real-world work experience while helping Renaissance create innovative and effective resources for educators.

The new partnership builds on an existing relationship between Renaissance and CMU, who partnered on another research-driven initiative in 2017. In that collaboration, CMU conducted extensive research and surveys to better understand educators’ needs and pain points around complex processes, such as progress monitoring and goal setting. In turn, Renaissance is leveraging these insights to strengthen its products and services, streamlining complex technical tasks and helping educators better understand and utilize student learning data.

“We are thrilled to once again partner with Carnegie Mellon University,” said Eric Stickney, senior director of educational research at Renaissance. “The METALS program at CMU provides graduate students with great exposure to the latest thinking in user design and learning analytics. They are able to work with our leading assessment and learning programs and rich data sets to help us develop cutting-edge tools that benefit educators and students.”

The latest partnership will also leverage CMU’s rigorous research and Renaissance’s advanced reporting capabilities to develop a new analytics tool that will provide school- and district-level leaders with rich data insights currently not available on a national level. The tool will help education leaders gain a deeper understanding of their student learning data and make more informed decisions to improve student outcomes.

“We’ve seen the power that data has to improve performance in many fields, from medicine to movie recommendations. Likewise, educational data is an incredibly powerful tool for improving teaching and learning,” concluded Ken Koedinger, professor of human-computer interaction and psychology at CMU. “We’re delighted to be once again working with Renaissance to provide education leaders with tools that will make their jobs easier and support them in increasing student achievement.”

About Renaissance

Renaissance^® is a global leader in pre-K–12 educational technology, enabling teachers, curriculum creators, and educators to drive phenomenal student growth. Renaissance’s solutions help educators analyze, customize, and plan personalized learning paths for students, allowing time for what matters: creating energizing learning experiences in the classroom. Founded by parents, upheld by educators, and enriched by data scientists, Renaissance knows learning is a continual journey—from year to year and for a lifetime. Our data-driven, personalized solutions are currently used in over one-third of U.S. schools and more than 90 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.renaissance.com.

About the METALS Program

Carnegie Mellon’s Masters in Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science (METALS) program is a one-year, interdisciplinary master’s program, jointly taught by leading researchers of learning analytics and educational data mining. As learning engineers and LX (learning experience) designers, our graduates apply science of learning principles, evidence-based research, and large-scale data analysis to design, create, and improve educational resources and technologies that enable both students and instructors to succeed.

About the Human-Computer Interaction Institute

The Human-Computer Interaction Institute is an interdisciplinary department with a focus on the design, development, and study of computer technology in all aspects of life. People are always at the heart of our work as we apply HCI methods to solve real-world problems. The HCII is located in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, widely recognized as one of the first and best in the world.

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