Renaissance Learning: Overview

•  Renaissance Learning creates "assessment and practice solutions that put learning analytics to work for educators, saving hours of prep time while making truly personalized learning possible." Through its products and services, the company helps schools to analyze their students’ abilities and guide high-quality instruction.
• The Renaissance portfolio includes the following products:
•  Star Assessments provides assessment for K–12 student learning.
•  myIGDIs provides assessment for early learning
•  myON provides access to high-quality reading materials.
•  Accelerated Reader supports independent reading practices.
•  Freckle used for teacher-led differentiated instruction.
•  Schoolzilla gives educators actionable insights into trends in student attendance and achievement.
• Messaging: "We help teachers teach better, students learn better, and school administrators lead better—all to improve academic outcomes."
• Value proposition: "Globally, teachers trust Renaissance® to spark tremendous math and reading growth."
• Mission statement: "To accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds worldwide."
• According to the company's website, "more than one-third of U.S. schools use Renaissance solutions to accelerate learning for millions of students."
• Renaissance Learning's headquarters is located in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, and has 1001-5000 employees, according to the company's profile on LinkedIn.
• According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company has 500 employees in their HQ, and 893 employees worldwide.
• The company has eight other locations/offices worldwide: in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Renaissance Learning: Financials

• On May 3, 2018, Francisco Partners acquired Renaissance Learning. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
• The company has accumulated funding of about $40 million over one venture rounds, raised on Feb 19, 2014. The round drew one investor: CapitalG.
• Renaissance Learning has acquired seven organizations, including Schoolzilla, Freckle Education, Early Learning, myON, UClass, and Subtext.
• The company generates $99.23 million in annual revenue.

Renaissance Learning: History

• Renaissance Learning was founded in 1986 by Judith and Terrance Paul. Until 2000, the company's name was Advantage Learning Systems, Inc.
• The program offered by the company trained 80,000 educators in 1999 alone.
• By 1992, generating $3.2 million in annual sales, "Advantage Learning quickly became a leading force in the educational software market as Accelerated Reader gained popularity. The number of computers in classrooms across the country grew, and pressure on schools and teachers to raise reading levels remained strong, so Accelerated Reader had a naturally expanding market. In the early 1990s, there were few other products that competed with it. Sales and income for the company increased decidedly, year by year."
• By 1993, Advantage Learning launched a subsidiary company in Madison, Wisconsin, the Institute for Academic Excellence.
• By 1996, "the Institute for Academic Excellence accounted for more than 20 percent of the parent company’s revenue."
• By 1998, the company's revenues reached $50 million, with a market capitalization of $862 million.
• In 1999, the company had a growth rate of 60%. "Renaissance introduced nine new software products in 1999 and acquired three new software firms. Sales in 1999 reached $83.6 million, with earnings of more than $17 million. By the end of 1999, the company had firmed up plans to use the internet to sell its products. It began selling its quizzes over the Web in November 1999 and began working on online versions of some of its educator training courses. In 2000, the company began offering software designed to help teachers prepare students for standardized tests."
• In 2000, the company changed its name to Renaissance Learning.
• In 2018, Francisco Partners acquired Renaissance Learning.

Summary of Our Early Findings Relevant to The Goals

• Our initial hour of the research didn't cover every part of the requested information, so we haven't confirmed yet if we can find all the requested data. However, our initial search indicated that Renaissance Learning is privately-held. Thus, they are under no obligation to share their financial data or annual reports, such as how widespread and used the products are.
• Our recommendations are based on our findings in early research.

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