Clever announces new product, Goals, to help schools improve utilization of educational technology

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clever, the app platform that makes using software in the classroom safer and easier for over half of K-12 schools, announced today the availability of Clever Goals (https://clever.com/products/goals). Goals is a new product that, for the first time, gives educators the ability to see usage and progress data from all their edtech programs in a single place.

"Districts know that learning software can offer incredible benefits for students, but only when used consistently and with fidelity," said Tyler Bosmeny, CEO of Clever. "With Goals, we're giving district leaders the data and tools to make sure all their edtech rollouts are highly successful and on track to improve student outcomes."

Clever developed Goals to alleviate the time-intensive and tedious work educators undergo today to determine whether students are using software effectively. Even when a school district buys quality, research-backed software, learning apps are often not implemented to fidelity since it's difficult for educators to see holistic student progress across their software portfolio.

Clever Goals closes that gap by giving schools rich insight into the use of their software investments. "The most valuable thing about Goals for us has been the ability to see individual students' performance across multiple digital curriculum platforms," said Connie Kolosey, Director of Media, Text & Digital Learning at Pinellas County Schools. "We're excited to be partnered with Clever in this new effort to grow the impact of educational technology in our schools."

Goals also empowers teachers to drive student engagement in their own classrooms. Teachers can set personalized, weekly goals for each of their students, and students can see their progress towards those weekly goals inside their Clever Portal. Goals was developed in partnership with 20 innovative school districts, including Metro Nashville Public Schools, Oakland Unified School District, and KIPP. During the most recent school semester, schools using Goals in these districts saw their edtech utilization improve by 24% relative to the district baseline.

Goals represents another milestone in Clever's rapid ascent as a transformative education company. In 2012, Clever made edtech safer by giving schools secure APIs to manage their student data. Today, over half of U.S. schools actively use these APIs. Next, Clever brought single sign-on (SSO) to K-12 education in 2014 with the Clever Portal. This school year alone, 20% of students in the U.S. have already logged into Clever.

Goals also marks the first time Clever is providing a product that school districts can purchase. To date, Clever has grown through the support of applications that purchase Secure Sync, Clever's secure API technology. Now, in order to provide next-level service to schools, Clever is offering Goals for purchase, with pricing dependent on number of students, professional development needs, and district timelines. Clever's existing suite of products - Secure Sync and the Clever Portal - will continue to remain 100% free to schools. There is no charge for applications that want to integrate with and be included in Goals.

"Over 30 learning applications have already integrated their products to work seamlessly with Goals, including Lexia Learning, ST Math, LightSail, and Newsela," said Ben Adida, Vice President of Engineering at Clever. "And as a member of IMS Global, we have begun conversations with the organization to contribute our learnings from Goals towards IMS's ongoing efforts to create an industry-wide open standard that accelerates broader interoperability of usage and progress data throughout K-12."

Goals is a big step forward for education technology and is made possible through collaboration with innovative districts and forward-thinking application partners who share a commitment to improving implementation fidelity:

"At Big Ideas Learning, we are committed to providing high quality instructional materials and driving student achievement. We believe effective implementations are core to seeing student growth, and we are excited to partner with Clever Goals to provide our users with tools to support their implementations of Big Ideas Math."
--Erika Berlin, Vice President of Technology, Big Ideas Learning

"SpringBoard Digital is a core instructional program for thousands of schools across the country. Setting the right progress goals in our program is critical for student success, and Clever Goals provides the infrastructure for our schools to set, monitor, meet, and exceed these goals."
--Douglas Waugh, Executive Director of SpringBoard Digital, The College Board

"At Newsela, we know great student results come from thoughtful instructional planning and committed follow-through. That's why we're proud to partner with Clever Goals to help school districts across the country achieve high fidelity implementations."
--Dan Cogan-Drew, Chief Product Officer, Newsela

"Our mission at Reading Plus is to develop lifelong readers and learners. We rely on well-designed implementations to achieve our objective, and to optimize student and educator experiences. We're partnering with Clever Goals to create a more personalized experience for our users, and to help improve reading skills for students of all ages."
--Rick Cusick, Chief Information Officer, Reading Plus

"At Study Edge, we believe consistent and targeted usage is key to unlocking better student outcomes. We're excited that this initiative could help us in our mission to move the needle on student growth, and look forward to continuing to deepen our partnership with Clever."
--Ethan Fieldman, CEO, Algebra Nation

"At Typing Agent, we know great student progress comes from thoughtful implementations and great support for schools. That's why we're excited to partner with Clever Goals to support our users across the country."
--Charmaine Waddell, CMO, Typing Agent

"First in Math strives to provide personalized learning environments for all our students. We're proud to partner with Clever Goals in driving effective software usage in classrooms and look forward to improving student outcomes together."
--Nan Ronis, Executive Vice President, First in Math

"Lexia believes that setting personalized literacy goals for each student is critical for motivating and empowering students and educators. Integrating Clever Goals will help schools implement Lexia with fidelity which ultimately supports our overall mission of improving student outcomes across the country."
--Rob Paushter, VP of Product Development, Lexia Learning

"At LightSail, we know the secret to accelerating literacy development is through thoughtful and consistent student engagement in our product. We're proud to partner with Clever Goals to help school districts everywhere leverage LightSail to increase their reading time and accelerate literacy growth."
--Gideon Stein, CEO, LightSail Education

"At Magic Software, we believe that high-quality software can support student achievement and drive innovation and excellence in the classroom. We're partnering with Clever Goals to provide our partners with exceptional software that can be seamlessly deployed in schools across the country."
--Hamis Agarwal, CEO, Magic Software

"Goals allows our students to more accurately track their progress in a more intuitive and efficient way. It has transferred a lot of the programming ownership to students as well, which means it is steering us into a direction that promotes student agency."
--Christelle Rosario, Personalized Learning Associate, Rocketship Public Schools

"Goals is helping the learners to make decisions about budgeting their time. Previously, I would tend to set a timer and everyone would work on the same application. Now, kids decide which program they need to put more work into based on their Goals."
--Dawnalee Gonzalez, Third-grade teacher, Lindsay Unified School District

"I use Goals as a daily check on student progress. I can quickly look and know where my students are, what subject they need to be working on, time on task, who put time in and who is still struggling."
--Mandie Crosby, Elementary Teacher, Liberty County School District

"I personally love the Goals platform not only because of its usefulness pertaining to student progress but also because it's simple and easy to comprehend. It's a product that once teachers know it's there, it can make their lives so much easier!"
--Bryson Finney, School Learning Technologist, Metro Nashville Public Schools

"The RePublic Schools Computer Science curriculum is designed by educators for educators. RePublic's Computer Science platform provides schools with a free Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles aligned curriculum accompanied with teacher training. We're partnering with Goals because we believe implementation fidelity is key for students to build the computer science skills that will help them succeed in college, in their careers, and beyond."
--Michael Burgevin, Director of Computer Science, RePublic CS

"Since the implementation of Goals I've seen online learning conversations led by the students as opposed to their teachers. In the past, our teachers were leading the discussion and setting time goals but now students are taking control and articulating their needs. Students speak about their online programs with more authority since they have the data to know which programs they excel in and for which ones they need help."
--Alma Morales, Blended Learning Administrator, Lindsay Unified School District

To learn more about Clever Goals, visit https://clever.com/products/goals.

About Clever
Clever was founded by educators and technologists who knew that learning applications could improve teaching and learning but that tools to deploy them were simply unavailable. Today, half of K-12 schools in the U.S. trust Clever to secure their student data as they adopt learning software in the classroom.

Backed by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Partners, GSV Capital, and Y-Combinator, Clever is based in San Francisco, California. For more information visit https://clever.com.

Contact: Cat Kamireddy, (877) 578-5572 x141, cat.kamireddy@clever.com

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