Los Angeles, June 25, 2019—Leading education innovator Age of Learning today announced the launch of Reading Level Assessments and other enhancements to its award-winning digital library and literacy platform ReadingIQ®, helping match children 12 and under with the right books for their level and interests from nearly 10,000 expert-curated titles.
Developed by Age of Learning assessment experts in cooperation with leading education and assessment research organization SRI International, Reading Level Assessments provide children age-appropriate passages and accompanying comprehension questions. The assessments, which take just minutes to complete, dynamically adjust their degree of difficulty in response to each child’s performance. ReadingIQ then recommends books at the appropriate level for the child. As children use ReadingIQ and improve their reading skills, the platform periodically prompts them to retake Reading Level Assessments to adjust their recommended level. Reading Level Assessments are currently available for ReadingIQ families and will be available for ReadingIQ teachers well before the upcoming school year.
ReadingIQ now includes three widely used book leveling systems, Accelerated Reader®, Lexile®, and Guided Reading, enabling teachers and parents to use their preferred system to adjust the reading level for each child.
Age of Learning also announced the launch of ReadingIQ Show What You Know quizzes, a new listening and reading comprehension feature. Show What You Know quizzes provide engaging, voiced questions at the end of ReadingIQ books, helping pre-readers and readers build their comprehension and critical thinking skills.
According to recent nationwide surveys of more than 1,000 teachers and 1,000 parents sponsored by Age of Learning, two-thirds of parents do not know their child’s reading level, making it difficult to provide appropriate reading materials. And teachers consistently report that children do not spend enough time reading outside of school.
Age of Learning developed ReadingIQ to address these challenges by providing children through 6th grade with access to high-quality books that match their interests and reading abilities, and advanced features that help develop literacy skills.
“ReadingIQ is more than a collection of nearly 10,000 high-quality books–it’s a literacy platform with the goal of developing and advancing children’s reading skills,” said Doug Dohring, founder and CEO of Age of Learning. “These latest enhancements help ensure young readers more easily find books at the appropriate reading level to engage, inspire, and delight them.”
Age of Learning also announced the recent launch of PlayCrewTM, a group consisting of a wide range of educators, parents, and children who test the company’s products and provide direct feedback to inform product design and development. Extensive in-person and remote research sessions with teachers and families helped shape many ReadingIQ capabilities, including the new Reading Level Assessments.
“User research is fundamental to our development process at Age of Learning,” said Meagan Rothschild, Director, Design Research at Age of Learning. “Members of PlayCrew provide invaluable information about the experience of being a teacher, parent, or learner in this day and age. The better we understand their perspectives, the better we can be at creating useful, fun, and educational products for learners everywhere.”
Available on computers, tablets, and smartphones, ReadingIQ offers nearly 10,000 expert-curated titles from leading publishers. To help strengthen the school-home connection around reading, Age of Learning provides the entire ReadingIQ platform at no cost to teachers, with the ability to assign books to their students. ReadingIQ is available at www.ReadingIQ.com and can be downloaded to smartphones and tablets through the Apple App Store or Google Play. For additional information about PlayCrew, including how to become a member, visit www.AgeofLearning.com/PlayCrew.
About Age of Learning, Inc.
Age of Learning® is a leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success. Based in Los Angeles, the company is Bringing Learning to Life® by blending educational expertise, innovative technology, and insightful creativity. Age of Learning’s flagship product in the U.S., ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, is a comprehensive curriculum for preschool through 2nd grade, available on all major digital platforms and used by millions of children. Age of Learning’s ReadingIQ™ is an advanced digital library for children 12 and under designed by literacy experts with thousands of high-quality books from leading publishers, including the largest collection of National Geographic Kids digital titles available anywhere. Most recently, the company launched Adventure Academy™ the first AAA educational massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, serving elementary and middle school age children with thousands of learning activities in a fun and safe virtual world. Connect with Age of Learning on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
About SRI International
SRI International creates world-changing solutions making people safer, healthier, and more productive. SRI, a research center headquartered in Menlo Park, California, works primarily in advanced technology and systems, biosciences, computing, and education. SRI brings its innovations to the marketplace through technology licensing, spin-off ventures, and new product solutions.