Dive Brief:
- Digital reading platform Curriculet has partnered with Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, resulting in a library that now exceeds 30,000 online books.
- The browser-based platform allows K-12 classrooms to access books as well as news articles, and its other partnerships include HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Saddleback Press, Oxford University Press, and USA Today.
- The books also include additional check-for-understanding questions and mini-quizzes that students can answer as they progress through a book.
Dive Insight:
Curriculet's innovative model aims to give schools bang for their buck. In the past, schools paid up front, assuming that the purchased books would be used. Curriculet, however, only has schools pay once 10% of a book has been read. The books are also cheap, with some costing as little as 75 cents per student, with rental times as long as 60 or 90 days.
As more schools gain tech hardware, digital libraries are becoming more practical. LightSail, a K-12 reading platform, is another example of this trend. With over 80,000 available texts, it also features formative check-for-understanding assessments that monitor progress and tailor the reading experience to a student's abilities.
