HOUSTON — School districts are scrambling to find effective ways to engage students remotely, and just like parents, one of their main concerns is avoiding what has become known as the “COVID slide.”
Luckily, a newly formed partnership may bring some relief to parents in Texas.
Renaissance, an online education resource, and the Texas Education Agency have started an initiative to bring students across the state unlimited access to thousands of digital books and daily news articles this summer, according to the company website.
The collaboration will allow parents and students in grades K-12 to access the myON by Renaissance platform using a shared account.
The service features enhanced digital books and news articles in English and Spanish as well as other perks including naturally-recorded audio, text-highlighting, an embedded dictionary and multimedia content.
The company said all news articles are reviewed by a child psychologist for age-appropriate content. The content is available on most devices and users can download up to 20 books at a time for offline reading.
“We couldn’t be more excited to work with educators across the great state of Texas,” CEO Chris Bauleke of Renaissance said. “We’re thrilled that so many families and their children will get to experience myON for the first time this summer— helping parents keep their children engaged, learning, and prepared for fall.”
The coronavirus pandemic has presented most parents, particularly working parents, with new challenges when it comes to accesses to educational tools.
Learning loss is an even greater threat during the summer months.
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