Press Category: On the Wire

BOSTON (Feb. 10, 2026) – As schools nationwide continue to prioritize science of reading–aligned instruction, demand for high-quality educator learning remains strong. In 2025, Lexia, a Cambium Learning Group brand, saw a nearly 19% increase in the number of state departments that either acquired or renewed Lexia Aspire Professional Learning and Lexia LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling). Both programs deliver science of reading–based professional learning that helps educators build expertise and accelerate students’ literacy growth.

“This level of adoption reflects the ongoing need of professional learning that helps educators translate research into everyday instructional decisions,” said Nick Gaehde, president of Lexia. “Districts and states are investing in educators’ learning experiences that build confidence, deepen understanding, and support long-term instructional change to drive student success.”

Together, the continued adoption of both offerings highlights a nationwide commitment to equipping educators with the knowledge and tools needed to improve literacy outcomes.

To meet the diverse needs of educators and school systems, Lexia offers two distinct professional learning programs — each designed to support science of reading–aligned instruction at different depths and entry points.

Lexia Aspire Professional Learning provides a flexible, IDA-accredited digital solution that empowers educators in upper elementary through high school to accelerate literacy skills across all content areas and is designed to fit into busy educator schedules. The self-paced coursework focuses on strengthening instructional practice through immediate, classroom-applicable strategies aligned with the science of reading. Lexia LETRS delivers a deep, research-based learning experience for pre-K – 5 educators and administrators seeking a comprehensive understanding of literacy development. The multi-year coursework builds a strong foundation in evidence-based instruction and supports sustained, systemwide improvement.

“Sustained improvement in literacy requires more than awareness—it requires ongoing investment in educator learning,” said Gaehde. “By offering professional learning that is both accessible and deeply grounded in research, we’re helping districts build the instructional capacity needed for lasting impact.”

About Lexia

Lexia, a Cambium Learning Group brand, is transforming literacy education, driving change in 1 of every 3 school districts across the United States. For more than 40 years, Lexia has been a thought leader in literacy education, delivering award-winning, research-based solutions grounded in the science of reading. With a full spectrum of offerings, including professional learning, curriculum, and embedded assessment tools, Lexia provides educators with Structured Literacy solutions that are proven effective and designed to drive meaningful literacy outcomes. By empowering educators with unparalleled ease of use and the knowledge and tools they need, Lexia helps more students unlock their potential to read, write, and speak with confidence. For more information, visit lexialearning.com.

About Cambium Learning Group

Cambium Learning Group is the education essentials company, providing award-winning education technology and services for K-12 educators and students. With an intentional collection of respected global brands, Cambium serves as a leader, helping millions of educators and students feel more seen, valued, and supported every day. In everything it does, the company focuses on the elements that are most essential to the success of education, delivering simpler, more certain solutions that make a meaningful difference right now. To learn more, visit www.cambiumlearning.com or follow Cambium on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X. The Cambium family of brands includes: Cambium Assessment, Lexia, Learning A-Z, ExploreLearning, and Time4Learning.

###

Media Contacts

Sabrina Leon, Lexia PR Manager

sabrina.leon@lexialearning.com

Charlotte Andrist, Nickel Communications

charlotte@nickelcommpr.com

Media Inquiries Only: 770-310-5244

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Feb. 2, 2026 — As K–12 districts face growing pressure to communicate clearly, consistently, and safely across increasingly complex school systems, ClassDojo for Districts today announced the release of The 2026 District Communications Playbook: What Every K–12 Leader Needs to Know, a new resource designed to help district leaders modernize communication, strengthen family trust, and improve alignment across schools.

District communication has changed dramatically in recent years. Families expect real-time updates delivered in one trusted place and in their home language. Teachers are navigating too many tools and competing demands. And district leaders are expected to maintain visibility, oversight, and consistency across hundreds of classrooms and campuses.

The new playbook was created to address this reality, drawing on insights from districts nationwide to provide a clear, systemwide approach to communication that supports families, educators, and students alike.

“Communication today isn’t just operational—it’s foundational to trust, belonging, and district reputation,” said Dr. Chad A. Steven, Head of Growth and Partnerships at ClassDojo.  “District leaders are being asked to do more with fewer resources, while expectations for transparency and safety continue to rise. This playbook reflects what we’re seeing work across districts and offers a practical path forward that leaders can actually implement.”

A Districtwide Framework for Modern Communication

At the center of the playbook is the District Communication Framework, which outlines three pillars essential to effective districtwide communication: visibility, engagement, and safety. Together, these elements help districts move beyond fragmented messaging toward a more unified, predictable experience for families and staff.

The playbook explores how districts can:

• Gain visibility into communication across schools without adding work for teachers
• Engage families and students with clear, accessible, and consistent messaging
• Build proactive safety structures that support staff and protect students

Rather than focusing on abstract theory, the guide pairs strategic guidance with real district stories, showing how strong communication systems contribute to outcomes districts care about most—including trust, belonging, attendance, and staff retention.

“Before we established a unified communication approach, families were receiving messages from multiple platforms, making it difficult to know what information truly mattered,” said Dr. Kimberley Thompson-Hairston, Director of Instructional Technology & Public Information Officer, Stokes County Schools, Danbury, NC. “By creating a clear framework, we’ve brought consistency across schools, utilizing a platform families trust, and it’s given our leaders the visibility they need to better support campuses and respond more effectively.”

Practical Tools Districts Can Use Immediately

In addition to strategic insights, the 2026 District Communications Playbook includes ready-to-use tools designed for immediate application, including district checklists, message templates, and communication planning prompts. These resources are intended to help districts move from reactive messaging to more intentional, systemwide communication habits, without adding new burdens for educators.

“District leaders told us they don’t just need ideas—they need tools they can use tomorrow,” added Stevens. “This playbook is designed to support real workflows and real constraints, while helping districts build communication systems that scale.”

Where Communication and District Reputation Intersect

The playbook also addresses the growing connection between district communication and public perception, as families and communities increasingly judge school systems based on the clarity, consistency, and tone of their communications. When messages feel scattered or hard to find, trust erodes—even when strong work is happening inside classrooms. By contrast, districts with unified communication systems are better positioned to surface positive stories, identify gaps early, and build long-term confidence with families.

The 2026 District Communications Playbook is available now as a free resource for district leaders, communications teams, and school administrators. To download the playbook or learn more about ClassDojo for Districts, visit https://www.classdojo.com/districts/2026-comms-playbook/

 About ClassDojo

ClassDojo is on a mission to give every child an education they love. Used in 95% of U.S. schools, ClassDojo helps teachers and families build stronger school communities through everyday communication. ClassDojo for Districts is a unified communication and engagement platform that brings classroom updates and districtwide messaging into one seamless experience—helping families feel connected, students stay engaged, and school culture grow stronger. Built with privacy at its core and available to districts at no additional cost.  

# # #

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — SchoolStatus today announced that SchoolStatus Attend has been named a winner in the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Best of 2025. This marks the second consecutive year SchoolStatus has received the award, underscoring the company’s continued innovation and leadership in helping districts address chronic absenteeism through early identification, positive communication, and ongoing improvement for partner districts for over two decades.

This latest recognition follows SchoolStatus’s Tech & Learning Back to School Award for the 2025-26 school year, further validating the company’s ability to support districts at critical moments throughout the academic calendar.

The Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence celebrate educational technology introduced or significantly enhanced over the last 12 months that has demonstrated outstanding support for teaching, learning, and school operations. Winners are selected by a panel of industry experts and represent products that are delivering meaningful, real-world impact for educators and students.

SchoolStatus Attend was recognized for helping elementary districts proactively reduce chronic absenteeism by combining predictive analytics, automated multilingual outreach in more than 130 languages, and automated attendance interventions. Early warning insights identify students at risk of becoming chronically absent within the first 60 days of school so educators can act before absence patterns become entrenched.

“Winning our third Tech & Learning award is a powerful affirmation of the hard work our district partners and dedicated team are doing to ensure more kids come to class,” said Dr. Kara Stern, Director of Education at SchoolStatus. “Attendance is the strongest predictor of long-term academic success. Districts that take a proactive, systematic approach have chronic absenteeism rates nearly 3 percentage points lower than the national average.”

In 2025, districts using SchoolStatus Attend reported measurable improvements in attendance with consistent gains across grade levels, including an 11.8% reduction in chronic absenteeism for fifth grade, a critical turning point for intervention.  SchoolStatus Attend also reduces attendance-related administrative work by up to 75%, enabling staff to spend more time supporting students and families rather than managing paperwork and manual outreach.

SchoolStatus takes attendance beyond compliance and helps districts build partnerships with families. Easy-to-understand dashboards that show patterns that enable district leaders to act quickly, and conference logging that provides further visibility into the root causes of attendance. With this knowledge, districts can create targeted interventions such as transportation adjustments, health-related follow-up, and other barriers to attendance in their communities. Mailing positive postcards and letters that celebrate attendance excellence and improvement builds trust with families and reinforces attendance as a shared priority grounded in encouragement rather than punishment.

“The awards brought a huge number of high-quality entries,” the Tech & Learning editorial team shared. “Our panel of industry experts judged the winning products to be those that were most impactful in helping schools improve teaching and learning during 2025. Every winner should be really proud of their accomplishments—a well-deserved congratulations from the entire awards team.”

Learn more at schoolstatus.com/attend and join the free nationwide Mission: Attendance initiative at schoolstatus.com/mission-attendance.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

Miami, FL – January 27– As reading proficiency rates reach crisis levels nationwide, OnWord Stories has launched a comprehensive AI-powered reading platform that reimagines how students experience literacy learning. To build essential comprehension and fluency skills, the personalized learning materials offer K–5 students access to high-interest stories tailored to their unique interests and reading levels.

The OnWord Stories platform brings the joy of reading into classrooms by enabling students to generate personalized stories in minutes by following a series of prompts tailored to their interests and reading level. Teachers can create and assign stories, track progress, and integrate classroom vocabulary lists to support differentiated learning. Designed with district scalability in mind, OnWord Stories integrates with Clever for secure single sign-on and SIS-based rostering, allowing schools to easily roster students and manage access. LMS integrations are planned for future releases. Powered by a secure, closed AI system, the platform provides safe interactions, prevents inappropriate content, and ensures each story is clear, consistent, and engaging. OnWord Stories includes comprehension questions aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy and adaptive leveling based on Lexiles and Guided Reading Levels. Aligned with the Science of Reading curriculum, content is designed to support engaging, confidence-building reading experiences.

“Educators told us they needed high-quality literacy resources that save preparation time while delivering highly engaging, standards-aligned content,” said Alex Finkielsztein, co-founder of OnWord Stories. “OnWord Stories answers that call, providing teachers with everything they need to transform their classrooms into centers of personalized reading success.”
The platform is a timely response to the national reading crisis and the persistent challenges of the “third-grade cliff,” the point at which students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. In the U.S., only about 14 % of early adolescents report reading for fun almost every day, and overall engagement in reading for pleasure has been declining for years, creating a gap that can hinder literacy development. By giving students access to fiction that aligns with their interests —sports and video games, science and adventure —OnWord Stories helps bridge that gap while equipping educators with ready-to-use reading assignments, personalized reading lists, and progress-tracking tools.

The platform is designed to support diverse learning styles and can be adapted for various reading levels from emerging readers through advanced students, integrating seamlessly as a supplemental resource.

“What makes OnWord Stories exceptional is how it connects students’ personal interests to essential literacy skills,” said Ann Bommarito, Educational Consultant with OnWord Stories. “When students read about topics they’re passionate about while building comprehension at their level, they’re not just completing assignments, they’re becoming confident, lifelong readers.”
OnWord Stories provides educators with a practical solution to personalized literacy instruction while helping all students discover their love of reading.
To learn more or schedule a demo, visit OnWordstories.com/for-educators.

About OnWord Stories

OnWord Stories is the easiest way to engage students in personalized reading practice that builds confidence and skills. Whether you’re supporting struggling readers, differentiating instruction across reading levels, or simply making literacy learning more enjoyable, OnWord Stories eliminates the burden of creating individualized content from scratch. Using AI to generate high-interest stories tailored to each student’s interests and reading level, OnWord Stories is designed to simplify and strengthen literacy instruction for educators, students, and families alike. Learn more at OnWordstories.com

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

MIAMI, FL, [Jan. 21, 2026] — CyberNut, a K-12–focused, AI-enabled human risk management and security awareness platform, today announced a minority growth investment from Growth Street Partners. The investment will support accelerated product development, expanded go-to-market initiatives, and CyberNut’s mission to help school districts protect faculty and students from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

CyberNut delivers an integrated platform that combines AI-driven automation, phishing simulations and prevention, and gamified micro-training designed specifically for K-12 environments. The platform helps faculty, staff, and students recognize, report, and respond to modern threats such as phishing attacks, deepfake scams, and compliance-related risks—areas where human behavior remains the primary attack vector.

The company has experienced rapid adoption as districts seek alternatives to traditional enterprise security awareness tools that were not built for schools. CyberNut now serves a rapidly growing customer base of public and private K-12 school districts nationwide, representing more than 400,000 faculty members and 1.4 million students. Notable customers include Dallas Independent School District, where over 20,000 staff members are trained on the CyberNut platform, Fulton County School District, which operates over 100 schools, Fayette County Public Schools, East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools, and Niles Township High School District 219.

“Cybersecurity threats targeting school districts continue to grow in both volume and sophistication, and the human element remains one of the biggest risk factors,” said Phil Hintz, Director of Technology at Niles Township High School District 219. “After renewing our CyberNut platform for a second year and expanding our deployment to include student training, we’re excited to roll out phishing simulations and security awareness education to our student population, alongside our faculty population. CyberNut was clearly designed with K-12 realities in mind and has become a critical component of how we strengthen our overall security posture across the district.”

“Phishing and social engineering attacks remain one of the most persistent and costly cybersecurity risks facing K-12 districts, yet most solutions were designed for corporate environments,” said Oliver Page, CEO and Co-Founder of CyberNut. “With Growth Street’s support, we will accelerate innovation, expand our reach to more districts, and continue equipping district IT teams with tools purpose-built to create safer digital environments for faculty, staff, and students.”

CyberNut aligns with national cybersecurity guidelines and compliance frameworks that emphasize ongoing, role-based awareness training as a foundational defense for schools—particularly as cyberattacks increasingly exploit human behavior rather than technical vulnerabilities.

“CyberNut addresses a critical gap in the K-12 cybersecurity market with a platform that is engaging, automated, and purpose-built for schools,” said Nate Grossman and Steve Wolfe, Co-Founders of Growth Street Partners. “The team’s deep understanding of the K-12 environment, combined with strong customer adoption, positions CyberNut to become a category-defining leader in human risk management for education.”

“We’re excited to partner with CyberNut as they scale their impact across school districts nationwide,” added Ben Seinfeld, Vice President at Growth Street Partners.

As part of the minority growth investment, Growth Street Partners will join CyberNut’s Board of Directors.

About CyberNut

CyberNut is an AI-enabled human risk management and security awareness platform built exclusively for K-12 school districts. The platform helps school communities reduce cyber risk by combining phishing simulations and prevention, automated threat reporting, and engaging, age-appropriate security awareness training for faculty, staff, and students.

Designed in collaboration with K-12 IT leaders, CyberNut equips district technology teams with centralized tools to manage human risk at scale while reinforcing safe digital behaviors across the entire school community. By aligning with national cybersecurity and compliance frameworks, CyberNut supports districts in strengthening their cybersecurity posture without adding operational complexity.

For more information, visit www.cybernut.com.

About Growth Street Partners

Growth Street Partners provides early growth capital to rapidly scaling SaaS and technology-enabled services companies addressing underserved markets. The firm partners with founder-led teams who have personally experienced the problems their businesses aim to solve. Growth Street Partners has raised two funds and manages over $200 million in assets under management.

For more information, visit www.growthstreetpartners.com.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.