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District seeks Formative by Newsela licenses for grades 6–12; $88,153.01 recommended for FY26
Summary
Staff recommended purchasing Formative by Newsela (Formative) gold licenses for grades 6–12 to support real‑time formative assessment and PLC work; the superintendent recommended the FY26 expenditure of $88,153.01 and asked the board to approve at the upcoming August meeting.
District instructional leaders asked the board Tuesday to authorize purchase of Formative by Newsela licenses for grades 6–12, describing the platform as a standards‑aligned formative‑assessment and instructional tool that teachers can use to monitor student learning in real time and to support PLC work.
Why it matters: the platform supports diagnostic and formative assessment, item banks and a locked‑browser option that the district says can help prepare students for end‑of‑year tests and improve instructional coherence.
Shelley Fallows, secondary director, described Formative’s features and its ability to provide item‑level analytics, adaptive practice sets, teacher‑created or bank items (including vetted items) and a lockdown browser option for secure testing. “It allows our teachers to monitor and assess student learning in real time,” Fallows said. She told the board the district has used the platform for three prior years and that staff training and PLC work already have begun.
The superintendent recommended authorizing purchase of Formative by Newsela gold licenses for students, teachers and administrators in grades 6–12, including the locked browser and vetted item bank, at a total FY26 cost of $88,153.01. The recommendation covers the coming school year and up to four additional years as long as the annual cost does not increase more than 3% year over year.
No final board vote was recorded on Formative at the called meeting; staff requested approval at the August 5 board meeting.
