An educational assessment startup launched by the University of Minnesota has been acquired by Wisconsin-based Renaissance, a global leader in education technology for pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade.
Early Learning Labs, based on research conducted at the U’s College of Education and Human Development, offers progress monitoring, assessments, and reporting tools to track early literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning in 3- and 4-year-olds. These assessments and tools, collectively called myIGDIs, are now available to Renaissance users.
The acquisition comes in response to customer requests for curriculum-based measurement and more tools to support younger students, according to the news release.
“Early Learning Labs couldn't be more thrilled to join Renaissance,” said Scott McConnell, Ph.D., founder and senior advisor of Early Learning Labs and a professor of educational psychology in the U’s College of Education and Human Development. “Renaissance is a leader in K-12 assessment and is in an ideal position to expand the myIGDIs experience for current users, as well as grow Early Learning Labs’ offerings in the coming months and years, helping countless students discover the joy of learning along the way by helping teachers and schools serve them.”
Building on two decades of research conducted by educators, researchers, and practitioners at the U of M, Early Learning Labs was launched in March 2012 to help early childhood educators identify children at risk of poor learning outcomes and monitor progress often. Since its development, the myIGDIs program has been used in over 12,500 schools across the country to monitor and support the growth of more than 300,000 students.
Early Learning Labs, based in Edina, Minn., is the fifth U of M startup to be acquired or go public in the past two years.
Read the news release for more on the acquisition.