History While former teacher Matthew Gross was working on the
Common Core standards roll out in
New York, he was disappointed to discover outdated textbooks that were labeled "Common Core-Aligned". One of Gross's children struggled with reading. After meeting with his son's assistant principal, he felt like she had given up on his son. Gross decided to start Newsela in 2013 for his son and to make a larger impact in education.
Partnerships Newsela's partnership with The Virginia School Consortium for Learning (VaSCL) enables members to access Newsela at a discounted rate, as of December 2020. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Newsela announced a partnership with
NWEA to help teachers differentiate instruction. After a student takes a MAP Growth assessment, Newsela will automatically show teachers content at that student's reading level.
BrainPop and Newsela formed a partnership on October 10, 2017. Users can access Newsela's resources directly from BrainPop's topic pages. Newsela editor-in-chief Jennifer Coogan partnered with the
American Press Institute to help combat
fake news websites in the United States in October 2016. == Features ==