Newsela is an education technology company founded in 2013 by Matthew Gross and Dan Cogan-Drew. Its core product is an instructional content platform for K-12 classrooms, offering a library of over 18,000 fiction and nonfiction texts delivered at five reading levels and aligned to state learning standards. The portfolio spans subject-specific products - Newsela ELA, Newsela Social Studies, Newsela STEM, and Newsela Writing - alongside Balanced Assessment by Formative for classroom assessments and Schoolytics for learning analytics. AI-powered tools are integrated across the platform to support differentiated instruction and reduce the administrative burden on educators.
The platform's reach within the US K-12 sector is substantial: approximately 90% of US schools have used a Newsela product, with some 4 million teachers and 47 million learners served to date. Content is designed to support diverse classrooms by making the same material accessible across multiple reading levels, allowing teachers to assign texts appropriate to each student without managing separate resources.
Newsela's team draws on backgrounds in education, technology, and instructional design. The company describes its approach to product development as research-backed and centred on the practical needs of educators and students. Its offices and operations are based in the United States, where its content is calibrated to meet state-level curriculum standards across subjects.