Newsela Partners with Scientific American to Launch Science Literacy Initiative

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Nov 19, 2015) - Newsela, the education technology company helping students master reading and critical thinking, is partnering with Scientific American to introduce Newsela for Science, science articles and text sets aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Now, students of any reading ability can access hyper-relevant science content through Newsela's leveled articles.

"Contrary to what people may think, literacy and science go hand in hand. Science has always been our most popular content category -- kids love reptiles and robots and space and all the other mysteries science helps them access," said Matthew Gross, founder and CEO of Newsela. "Working with Scientific American, our articles can ignite a kid's curiosity and fuel interest in the field -- regardless of where he or she falls on the reading spectrum."

Newsela lets students choose what they want to read from a list of articles covering a variety of science topics, including Earth sciences and astronomy, among many others. Articles from Scientific American and other content partners are continuously updated, and are made available at five different reading levels, with many available in Spanish as well. For more than 170 years, Scientific American has been a trusted source of scientific information. Now, kids can access the magazine's content, regardless of how well they read, and teachers can track students' progress and comprehension to work on both literacy and science in one lesson. "Newsela's NGSS text sets' diverse articles help us thoroughly explain each standard and find crosscutting ideas," said Gregry Livingston, a science educator. "For example, how does drought influence agriculture, or air pollution influence human health? More importantly, what can we do? Newsela lets us address the many aspects of these topics at once, helping students develop a multidimensional understanding of the standard." By aligning the articles with NGSS standards, Newsela will help teachers adopt and implement the standards more fluidly, with high-interest content and learning tools that bring science to life. "Our NGSS-aligned content is another step we are taking to provide all teachers with rich resources to help them teach all subjects," continued Gross. "From social studies and English to science and technology, Newsela works hard to provide engaging content for every classroom." Newsela is currently being used by more than 500,000 teachers in 70 percent of all U.S. public schools. Its proponents include educators specializing in all subjects, from science and social studies to art. More than 100 million articles have been read by more than 5 million students through Newsela. For more information about Newsela or to join the team, visit Newsela.com.

About Newsela

Newsela unlocks the written word by publishing daily news articles from the best media sources like the Associated Press, Washington Post, Tribune News Service and Scientific American at five reading levels to engage students in grades 2-12 in high-interest topics from immigration and diplomacy to drones and animal extinction. When students read articles and take Common Core-aligned quizzes online, they are developing the critical nonfiction literacy skills that empower them to take part in conversations about complex issues, and prepare them for academic and professional success. To read more, visit http://www.newsela.com and follow @newsela.