Dive Brief:

• On Thursday, Atomic Learning, a teacher training platform, announced that it has acquired Versifit Technologies, which does data warehousing and analytics.
• Atomic Learning plans to link Versifit's technology to its other tools, which are focused on educator development and training.
• Versifit's current users include more than 700 schools nationwide and four state education agencies.

Dive Insight:

According to a recent statement, Atomic Learning intends to use Versifit’s data crunching and tracking abilities to personalize its training tools. Right now, its flagship product, Edvantage, allows educators and administrators to track student progress in key skills, including Common Core-related benchmarks and college and career readiness.

"We’ve been thinking about how data is becoming a driving force in education," said Lisa Barnett, CEO of Atomic Learning. "This led us to Versifit, one of the leaders in data warehousing, data analytics and data-driven decision dashboards. Together, we're going to help educators unleash the power of data to truly personalize learning and drive even greater and more relevant outcomes."

The move is the latest from the tech world to try and harness big data abilities to student outcomes. After the initial education technology boom, companies are now refining their approach to make sure that data-driven approaches are useful, relevant and sufficiently detailed to actually help teachers and administrators. For example, last week, NWEA and NoRedInk announced they were teaming up to give students better post-test feedback.