New York, December 9, 2020 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing and technology company, announced the acquisition of three biology titles it previously had co-published with Oxford University Press (OUP): Life: The Science of Biology , Principles of Life , and A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology . The move affirms the company’s ongoing commitment to investing in educational content. Going forward, Macmillan Learning will handle all aspects of publication, including content development, marketing, sales, and customer service.  The three titles have previously been co-published by Macmillan Learning imprint W. H. Freeman along with Sinauer Associates, which became an OUP imprint in 2017. They round out the company’s portfolio of introductory biology titles, including the best-selling Biology: How Life Works . The acquisition offers customers a more unified experience as all of these franchises grow and change with new discoveries in the life sciences.                  “ Macmillan Learning has long been investing in scientific education titles that were written to pique students' curiosity. The Life franchise is among the best-selling biology titles we published, reaching well over a million students, and we’re excited to continue investing in it,” said Daryl Fox, Senior Vice President, STEM. David Clark, Managing Director of OUP’s Academic Division, said: “At OUP we have been honored to partner with the highly respected authors of Life: The Science of Biology , Principles of Life and A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology to create course materials that have left an indelible impression on thousands of biology students. I feel confident that, with this agreement, they are positioned for sustained impact and success in the future.” The 12th edition of Life: The Science of Biology was published in 2020 and authored by a team of distinguished authors from prominent institutions including, among others, Stanford, University of Texas, and Oberlin. They include: David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; and David E. Sadava. The third edition of Principles of Life was published in 2019 and authored by David M. Hillis; Mary V. Price; Richard W. Hill; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski.  A new edition of A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology written by Karen Knisely of Bucknell University will be published in 2021, reflecting the company’s ongoing investment in developing students’ communication skills across disciplines.  The titles are currently available on the Macmillan Learning student store . About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community . ### ... View more

New York, NY. October 27, 2020 --  Skyfactor Benchworks, a Macmillan Learning brand that provides research-based program benchmarking and assessments, announced today the winners of its second annual Assessment and Impact Awards for Nursing Education. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, in the face of a looming nurse shortage because of the aging population and healthcare reform, the demand for equipped and practice-ready nurses is more crucial than ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , the employment of Registered Nurses (RN) is estimated to grow 7% from 2019 to 2029, a faster rate of growth than the average for all occupations. Macmillan Learning created the Assessment and Impact Awards for Nursing Education to highlight nursing schools that are successfully using data to improve their programs, which helps support a robust nursing pipeline by retaining students and developing more practice-ready nursing professionals. The company has partnered with the Association of American Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for two decades to offer benchmarking assessments that empower nursing administrators to better understand the program components that most significantly impact these important stakeholders, like employer, student, and alumni satisfaction. The two programs that have been awarded the second annual Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing are: Montclair State University and The University of Scranton .   Montclair State University uses assessments and data to make decisions about curriculum and program experience. Learn more about how they used iClicker Insights to fuel a culture of continuous improvement for their new nursing school.  The University of Scranton uses assessments and data to explore trends, stay in tune with student needs and discover their areas of strength. Learn more about how they improved the student experience. The winners were selected using a multi-step evaluation process that included an analysis of multi-year assessment data by the Benchworks Analytics and Research Team that identified programs that either had the best results or best increases in performance in areas like course interactions and quality of instruction, as well as interviews with nursing program administrators. “The devastating spread of COVID-19 this year reminds us how critical skilled and passionate nurses are. But the need for nurses will not diminish, even after the coronavirus is contained. Quality nursing programs help pave the way for more practice-ready nurses, which is why it’s important to recognize programs like Montclair State and the University of Scranton that are using data to deliver optimal program reports,” said Steven Ray, Vice President, Skyfactor Benchworks.  Benchworks assessments are the most widely used programs in nursing education and have been available for 20 years. The various Benchworks Nursing assessments are used by more than 250 nursing programs each year and are one of more than 50 different assessments from Benchworks on topics important to college success, including housing, orientation, and student affairs and service. The surveys include questions regarding student happiness, safety, diversity and inclusion, facilities, costs, sense of community, and time management, among others. Past winners of the Assessment and Impact Awards for Nursing Education include Bloomfield College, Colorado Technical University, Rowan University and Seton Hall University. To learn more about this year’s winners, click here . To learn more about the power of benchmarking for nursing programs, visit Skyfactor Benchworks’ website .  About Skyfactor  Formerly known as EBI, Skyfactor Benchworks is a Macmillan Learning company that provides research-based program assessments and benchmarking for a variety of Student Affairs programs, as well as Business Education, Engineering, Nursing, and Teacher Education. The robust analytics Benchworks provides empowers programs to identify areas of improvement for maximum impact on program success. Benchworks assessments are rooted in research and mapped to accreditation and professional standards. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best authors researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. Visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, October 20 , 2020 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family owned company, announced the launch of iClicker Insights today. The new retention survey and analytics software, which combines components of Macmillan Learning’s market leading classroom response system, with the student success expertise of its analytics and research team, was developed to help colleges support student success by reducing attrition, a problem estimated by the Department of Education to cost $16 billion annually that has been compounded by the Coronavirus pandemic. iClicker combined its expertise in delivering technology solutions that capture student activity and feedback, with the assessment expertise of Macmillan Learning’s analytics and research team to provide early, actionable insights on students’ experiences inside and outside of the classroom. It works by integrating early trends on students’ course attendance, engagement, and self-reporting on key retention factors. This gives administrators and student support advocates a more holistic understanding of students’ early college experiences, helps to identify barriers to student success as early as possible, and informs intervention strategies that help keep students engaged and enrolled.  There are a number of reasons why students don’t succeed in college, from financial to personal reasons -- like feeling like they don’t belong or having other obligations. Additionally, numerous studies underscore the importance of class attendance on student outcomes and retention.  “For nearly twenty years iClicker has been regarded as the best classroom student engagement solution because it is pedagogically-sound and incredibly easy-to-use. With iClicker Insights, institutions now have an easily scalable way to quickly identify the students who may need additional support by using multiple data points like attendance, classroom engagement, and student self-reporting on key retention factors like their sense of belonging,” said Steven Ray, Vice President, iClicker. Some of the ways institutions around the country have already begun to use iClicker Insights include: When COVID-19 required an unexpectedly quick transition to online learning, institutions like the University of Tennessee at Martin used iClicker Insights COVID-19 surveys to gauge the impact of the transition on students and identify specific intervention needs of individual students.  The University of Missouri uses iClicker Insight’s brief student retention surveys to enhance its Student Success and Retention Department’s existing success initiatives. The survey helps administrators identify retention risks even earlier and target interventions to individual students’ most pressing needs.  University of Houston’s Department of Housing and Residence Life uses iClicker Insights surveys to understand how students are acclimating to life on campus in a fall that looks very different than ever before. They’re using it this fall to understand how students are doing both inside and outside of their online classrooms. The University of Memphis used iClicker Insight’s automated attendance reporting analytics for early identification of students with troubling attendance patterns to direct interventions before the student fell too far behind in their coursework. Ryan Crews, Student Success Coordinator, University of Memphis said, “One of our biggest barriers to widespread attendance reporting has been the inability to make attendance reporting easy and accurate … With this tool, we are able to move beyond simply recording attendance and think strategically about how we help students work through issues that affect their class attendance.”  How it works iClicker Insights offers comprehensive reports and dashboards from iClicker attendance, in-class engagement, and retention surveys. The actionable insights help pinpoint when students may benefit from additional academic or skills-based advising or counseling support and highlight any engagement trends within courses or across departments. Information from iClicker and the retention surveys can be uploaded into an institution’s existing LMS and student success solutions. With iClicker Insights, critical information on class attendance -- one of the earliest and most significant indicators of student retention -- no longer winds up either buried or siloed within multiple departments. In addition to attendance, iClicker encourages students’ participation and engagement in class via active learning and can be used synchronously and asynchronously on laptops, mobile devices, or iClicker remotes.  The short, pre-built retention surveys in iClicker Insights collect and assess students’ self-reported motivation, experiences, and plans. By looking at critical non-cognitive factors, like homesickness,  sense of belonging, campus engagement, and financial concerns, the surveys provide crucial context for student outreach efforts. The student retention surveys were created by assessment experts with more than twenty years experience in higher education. Two new COVID-related surveys were also created this past spring to help institutions understand and provide services to support students as they transitioned to online classes.  “With the pandemic still impacting many students’ experience in and out of the classroom, it’s more important than ever that institutions understand where students are struggling. By using surveys to pinpoint students' pain points, institutions are empowered to use their resources where they’re most needed. W e’ve been able to apply what we’ve learned from decades of partnership with more than 150 institutions to help them do that more efficiently, and have seen firsthand the impact that it has had on student success and retention,” e xplained Dr. Sherry Woosley, Macmillan Learning’s Senior Director of Analytics and Research. For more information on iClicker Insights’ visit: iclicker.com/institutions About iClicker iClicker was developed by a team of physicists/educational researchers out of the University of Illinois and is currently used at more than 1,200 Institutions by more than 5,000 Instructors and more than 10M students. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, September  24, 2020 -- After four years of rigorous testing by educators and students, Macmillan Learning’s new digital learning platform Achieve launched in college classes throughout the U.S. this fall semester. Research from Inside Higher Ed and The Boedeker Group shows that student engagement was a top challenge as instructors transitioned to virtual classes this spring, and remains a concern this fall. During the spring 2020 semester, instructors using Achieve reported their students were more engaged both in and outside of class when they compared to other classes they were teaching without Achieve. “Engagement is critical to a student's success, and a sense of support and collaboration can be challenging to create by just watching videos or clicking through information. Achieve makes learning more active, which is more important than ever with virtual and hybrid classes. It’s making a difference for students, with data demonstrating better understanding, grades and exam scores when students use Achieve,” said Susan Winslow, President, Macmillan Learning.  Active learning is embedded in Achieve’s design, and can be used in traditional, online, hybrid, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom, with options for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to support engagement -- no matter where students are. This flexibility was especially critical this past spring semester when many instructors had to transition from face-to-face to virtual classes quickly. When asked, 71% of instructors teaching during the spring semester reported that it was easier to transition to a virtual environment with Achieve compared to other curricula they were using.   Achieve includes an interactive eBook as well as expansive learning materials that include pre-class, in-class and post-class activities. Several digital-first titles were developed for the new digital learning platform, including Achieve for Readers and Writers and Achieve for Interactive General Chemistry .  Joel Wilson, a Professor of General Studies at Keiser University and an Adjunct Instructor at the Community College of Allegheny County, who has been using Achieve Writer’s Help for Hacker for four semesters, said: “When the coronavirus shut down institutions across the country, many instructors were scrambling to transition their class and locate materials that work well in a virtual classroom, but thanks to Achieve’s built-in active learning, my classes maintained their continuity, and my students' learning continued. The students remained very engaged with the Achieve materials and the course. They were able to both finish the semester and strengthen their composition skills." Earlier this year Achieve became the first product exclusively designed for higher education to earn the “Research-Based Design” product certification by Digital Promise. The certification ensures instructors that the products they select were designed using research-based learning science principles and developed using best practices before using them with their students.  The Data on Student Success: Macmillan Learning developed Achieve using research-based learning science principles, and took the unusual approach of investigating the effectiveness and efficacy of Achieve in its infancy by conducting rapid-cycle evaluations of tool features. Following that, the company implemented increasingly rigorous validity and efficacy studies as the platform matured throughout beta testing to release. Thousands of students and hundreds of instructors have participated in efficacy studies at four-year, two-year, public and private colleges. Additional studies are underway this semester. Key findings to-date include: There’s a statistically significant positive relationship between use of Achieve and improved performance in class. Students who completed at least 80% of their assigned activities in Achieve, earned nearly a letter grade higher, on average, than students who completed less than 80%. Read more in the “ Achieving Student Success ” research report.   Achieve closed the achievement gap between the less and more academically prepared students by about half. Details are available in the “ Achieving Student Success ” report. Students who used pre-class assignments in Achieve did better on exams and in class . They earned, on average, 8.7 percentage points higher on assessments and 6.8 percentage points higher on exams. Further, the more pre-class activities that a student engaged in, the higher their assessment scores and final exam scores were. Read more in “ The Flipped Effect ” research report. All Macmillan Learning studies are compiled with the American Psychological Association ethical standards for research. They are approved by a third-party Institutional Review Board (IRB) and at individual institutions where required. IRB approval enables researchers to compare course results with detailed information about each student, including their academic background and student records, including final exam scores and course grades. All research has been reviewed by Macmillan Learning’s Impact Research Advisory Council (IRAC) , which is composed of experts in educational technology, methodology, and psychometrics. “Achieve was built with active learning at its core, with interactive learning experiences that engage students before, during and after class. Our research over the past four years shows that with Achieve, students are more engaged and are learning the material better. While Achieve wasn't created in anticipation of a pandemic, we've seen firsthand how instructors and students have benefited from the new platform during this incredible time of change,” said Tim Flem, Vice President of Product at Macmillan Learning. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community .   ... View more

New York, September 17, 2020 --  Macmillan Learning, part of the family-owned Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, today announced the promotion of Susan Winslow to President of Macmillan Learning, effective immediately. The promotion follows the departure of outgoing Macmillan CEO John Sargent, who will step down on January 1, 2021. Winslow has been General Manager of Macmillan Learning and part of the company’s senior leadership team for the past three years. She has more than 30 years experience working in educational publishing across all areas of the business and has long been a champion of digital learning.  Under her leadership, Macmillan Learning gained market share for four consecutive years and developed, tested and launched its new digital learning platform Achieve. The Bedford Freeman Worth High School team also saw five years of exceptional growth, nearly doubling in size.   “Susan has been leading her team through a tense, rapidly-changing market with a strong grasp of every new facet and development, and we’re pleased she has accepted this important role,” said Stefan von Holtzbrinck, Chief Executive Officer, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. “While the way learning is delivered has certainly changed, the need for and lifelong benefit of a good education has not. These unprecedented times have opened up the possibilities for better ways of learning. I am so grateful to be able to lead Macmillan Learning right now,” Winslow said. She added, “I’d like to publicly thank John Sargent for his leadership, vision, the innumerable ways he has supported our team, and for his unfailing support of the employees who make up Macmillan.” Prior to her most recent role as General Manager, Winslow held roles as Managing Director, Vice President of Marketing, and Publisher in the STEM disciplines. As a senior leader in the organization, she led the teams through the reorganization and unification of multiple edtech and publishing companies, including Sapling, iClicker, WriterKey, and Bedford, Freeman, Worth to one higher education division. She has long been a champion of diversity and inclusion at the company.  Winslow has held previous leadership roles at Pearson Education. She is one of only a handful of women leading educational technology and publishing companies. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, August 5, 2020 -- iClicker, a Macmillan Learning Company, announced today a new partnership with Perusall, the interactive, digital content company to address two of the most pressing concerns for higher education in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: student engagement and affordability.  According to an Inside Higher Education study , higher education faculty are most concerned with ensuring student engagement in virtual learning environments, and the potential for online classes to have an inequitable impact on underrepresented students. The study revealed 87% of respondents are concerned over the impact of virtual classes on students from low-income backgrounds and 77% view the ability to maintain student engagement when teaching online as ‘somewhat challenging’ to ‘very challenging’.  Instructors can use iClicker to take attendance, facilitate active learning and complete in-class quizzes using mobile devices or iClicker remotes. iClicker was developed by teaching professors and is currently used at more than 1,200 institutions by more than 5,000 instructors and more than 10M students.  “Student engagement is in both iClicker and Perusall’s DNA, as both were created by educators who are recognized as leaders in researching and using active learning and peer instruction methodologies. This new partnership will help make iClicker’s polling, quizzing and assignments even more accessible with Perusall’s content engagement platform and will ultimately support deeper learning, wherever it happens,” said Steven Ray, Vice President of Macmillan Learning Institutional Solutions. The iClicker and Perusall partnership will make it even easier to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and deep content engagement in virtual environments, at an affordable price. There is early proof that the partnership can help foster deep connections with content and peers in an online learning environment. Last spring, amid the outbreak of COVID-19 that demanded a quick pivot to teaching virtually, University of Louisville Psychology Professor Edna Ross, PhD, used Perusall and iClicker to deliver the same active, peer-to-peer learning methodologies she has become known for delivering in her face-to-face classes. “Before iClicker, it was very difficult to get input from all of my students and before Perusall it was a struggle to get students to read the material,” explains Ross. “Once class moved online due to COVID-19, students in my class quickly found a rhythm of beginning discussions with Perusall asynchronously and then responding with iClicker questions  during synchronous sessions to dive deeper into opinions in class. Using both together really impacted learning and engagement for the entire class.”  The partnership will enable Perusall customers to purchase access to iClicker’s student mobile app at a discounted price, delivering course content and engagement capabilities to support deep learning in both synchronous and asynchronous learning methodologies common in online courses. “We are excited to partner with iClicker to combine our affordable, digital learning solutions to help students engage more fully with the course content and one another. With so many courses needing to move online this fall, this is important now more than ever,” said Brian Lukoff, Perusall co-founder and CEO. Click here for more information on how iClicker and Perusall are being used at University of Louisville. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes.. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or or join our Macmillan Community . About Perusall Perusall is a free social learning platform that delivers reading and video assignments to students before they come to class.  The platform incorporates content delivery with collaborative annotation tools to ensure students read more, come to class prepared, and are more engaged in the learning experience, enabling instructors to teach more effectively. Automated reports document where students struggle the most to understand course content, allowing instructors to specifically address these issues in class. More than 500,000 students at over 2,000 educational institutions in 75+ countries use Perusall. To learn more visit www.perusall.com .   ... View more

New York, June 22, 2020 --  Bedford/St. Martin’s, a Macmillan Learning imprint, today announced its 2020 Bedford New Scholars Advisory Board. The board of 10 graduate students is meeting virtually this week to offer the company’s editorial team counsel regarding how course materials are being used and trends that will influence how composition courses are taught. Many Scholars have gone on to take leadership roles in writing programs in colleges and universities across the country.  During the week’s meetings and throughout the year, the Bedford New Scholars will offer their perspectives on topics ranging from challenges in the classroom, to diversity and inclusion to pedagogy. The Advisory Board began in 2008 as an additional way for Bedford/St. Martin’s to understand teaching challenges and new research and practice in the field from promising graduate students. The Scholars do this in a variety of ways, including participating in market research and focus groups that inform product development.  “The Scholars offer the Bedford team tremendous insight into how our resources can best support student writers in their composition courses, which have long been acknowledged as a stepping stone to overall student success both in college and after graduation,” said Leasa Burton, Vice President of Humanities at Macmillan Learning. “They are thoughtful, creative problem-solvers, and often we’re able to incorporate their suggestions into future product development and new editions.” Throughout the program, the Scholars also gain insight into the publishing process and provide feedback on the direction of new materials and projects (both print and digital) in Bedford/St. Martin’s pipeline. They also foster lasting professional connections with other rising scholars and teachers in writing studies, including guest scholars who lead workshops during this week’s board meetings. The many former Bedford New Scholars continue to contribute to the discipline through research, and to the teaching community by creating assignments that engage students in writing and address teaching challenges for Composition instructors.   Bedford/St. Martin’s has long been connected to the Composition community with its widely used A Writer's Reference and The Bedford Reader. The company continues to invest in composition materials and will launch its new digital learning platform with writing tools, Achieve , this fall. Bedford/St. Martin’s also recently published several new titles including The Writer’s Loop and The Hub in addition to maintaining support for instructor and student favorites like The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing  and Everything's an Argument . This year’s Bedford New Scholars: Sidney Blaylock is pursuing his PhD in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition at Middle Tennessee State University. He teaches Expository Writing and Research and Argumentation. His research interests include multimodality, rhetorical analysis, new media, cultural rhetorics, digital rhetorics, film, and afrofuturism. Allison Dziuba is a PhD candidate in English at the University of California, Irvine. She teaches courses in the lower-division writing sequence and the Summer Bridge writing lab, a pre-college course for incoming UCI first-years. She is currently the Campus Writing & Communication Fellow at UCI and has served as the editorial assistant for College Composition and Communication and Rhetoric Society Quarterly . Allison's research interests include college students' self-sponsored literacy practices and extracurricular rhetorical education, and intersectional feminist approaches to rhetorical studies. Michael S. Garcia is pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Florida International University. At FIU, he has taught Writing and Rhetoric, Writing in Action, Essay Writing, and Creative Writing: Forms and Practices. He has also taught 11th and 12th grade English at a Title I high school. Michael has published short stories, essays, web articles, and poetry. Sarah Heidebrink-Bruno is pursuing her PhD in English, with a concentration in literature and social justice pedagogies, at Lehigh University. She teaches a range of composition and rhetoric courses in addition to interdisciplinary courses in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies. She previously taught online courses in English and WGSS, with a focus on pop culture themes, including modern relationships. Her research interests include restorative justice practices, women's literature of the 1960s-present, feminist theory and praxis, and writing center tutors' instruction. Corinne Jones is completing her PhD in Texts and Technology with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Central Florida. She currently teaches Composition II (Writing about Writing and Research Writing); in Fall 2020, she anticipates teaching Business and Technical Communication. She also works as a legal writing adjunct at Barry University (Law School). Her research interests include digital rhetoric; circulation studies; digital, qualitative, mixed methods and methodologies; and feminist and queer studies. Sierra Mendez is pursuing her PhD in Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. She currently teaches a custom course entitled "Rhetoric of Texas" and serves as Assistant Director for the D.R.W.'s Digital Writing and Research Lab. Her research interests concern border, material, visual, and memory rhetorics: specifically, the historical and ongoing constitution of Mexicanx bodies via narratives held both tenuously and powerfully across San Antonio’s urban space. Christopher Peace is pursuing a PhD in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Kansas. He currently teaches Composition 102 and plans to teach a 203 course on Digital Storytelling in Fall 2020. His research interests include rhetorical genre studies, (African-derived) religious rhetorics, writing ecologies, spatial rhetorics, digital storytelling / mythmaking, and ecocomposition. He also serves as a professional tutor for the KU Gear Up program and is an affiliate of the Project on the History of Black Writing. Kalyn Prince is pursuing her PhD in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She serves as the Senior Assistant Director of First-Year Composition, teaches first-year writing, and has also co-taught a composition theory survey course for graduate students in the OU English Department. Her research interests include public argumentation, nostalgia as ethos, and rhetorical analysis. Joshua Scheidler is pursuing his MA in English with an emphasis on Medieval Language and Literature at Western Michigan University. He teaches WMU's first-year writing course, Thought and Writing, as a graduate teaching assistant. His research interests include ethics and politics in medieval literature, first-year writing pedagogy, rhetorical analysis, and new materialist environmental rhetoric. Benesemon Simmons is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric at Syracuse University. She teaches WRT 105 and WRT 205 and serves as a writing consultant. Her research interests include Black Feminist Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, and Activist Rhetoric. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

Springfield, MO. February 18, 2020 --  Skyfactor Benchworks, a Macmillan Learning Company that provides research-based program benchmarking and assessments to help colleges identify areas of improvement, announced today it is accepting applications for its annual Assessment and Impact Awards for Residence Life. The award was created in 2019 to highlight colleges and universities that are successfully using data to deliver high quality housing experiences.  A 2013-14 study of more than 330,000 undergraduate students revealed that the housing experience can have a significant impact on student outcomes. Macmillan Learning partnered with The Association of College and University Housing Officers ( ACUHO -I) to better understand student experience, satisfaction and learning in the residence halls - and recognize housing programs that effectively use data to improve the residential experience.  College and university housing departments can self-nominate by completing an online submission form by March 31, 2020. All submissions will be reviewed by the Skyfactor Benchworks Analytics and Research Team who will also analyze multiple years of data from the ACUHO-I/Benchworks Resident Assessment to identify best results or significant improvements in areas like student staff and diverse interactions. Following the quantitative analysis and review of applications, finalists will be interviewed.  Winners will be notified in late May and publicly announced at a special luncheon during the  June 2020 ACUHO-I Conference in Portland, Oregon. “Residence life is such an integral part of the college experience so we are excited to continue recognizing housing and residence life programs that are leading the way in using insights from assessments to improve students’ on-campus experiences,” said Craig Bleyer, General Manager of Skyfactor.  Benchworks assessments are the most widely used programs in higher education housing, and have been available for nearly 20 years. The ACUHO-I/Benchworks Residents Assessment is used by nearly 300 institutions each year, and is one of more than 50 different assessments from Benchworks on topics important to college success, including housing, orientation, and student affairs and service. The survey includes questions about student satisfaction with facilities, programs, dining, safety, room assignment, and roommates, as well as learning related to personal interactions, diversity, sense of community, academic success, transferable skills, sustainability, and healthy habits. The inaugural winners of the Housing and Residence Life were John Carroll University in Ohio, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Southwest Oregon Community College. About Skyfactor  Formerly known as EBI, Skyfactor Benchworks is a Macmillan Learning company that provides research-based program assessments and benchmarking for a variety of Student Affairs programs, as well as Business Education, Engineering, Nursing, and Teacher Education. The robust analytics Benchworks provides empowers programs to identify areas of improvement for maximum impact on program success. Benchworks assessments are rooted in research and mapped to accreditation and professional standards. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, January 13, 2020 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing company, published research today that demonstrated a positive relationship between use of Achieve , the company’s new digital learning platform, and final exam scores. Research from the ACT , College Board and others have found that a student’s performance on college entrance exams and highschool GPA can predict their future success in two- and four-year institutions. Using these predictors of post-secondary success, the findings from this efficacy study suggest that use of Achieve can help bridge the performance gap often seen among students entering college. That is, the more that less academically prepared students use Achieve, the closer they can come to meeting the performance of their more academically prepared peers. Less academically prepared students (as determined by ACT or SAT scores and high school grade point average) who engaged in at least 80% of assigned activities in Achieve elevated their final exam grade nearly a full letter grade and closed the gap in their average performance and the performance of their more academically prepared peers by about half. The findings build on recently announced data presented at the Academic Evaluation Association (AEA) annual meeting in November demonstrating that students performed better on final exams when they used Achieve’s pre-class activities, regardless of their motivation or academic preparedness levels coming into the class.  “The benefits of a post-secondary certificate or degree are well known, yet we still see students entering college less prepared to succeed. The instructors we partner with are always exploring new ways to fill the skills gaps of less academically prepared students while keeping their more prepared students challenged. While there’s no silver bullet, we believe in providing instructors with insights into the differential efficacy of our solutions, and are pleased that we can offer them evidence that Achieve will support their efforts to help all their students succeed,” said Kara McWilliams PhD., VP of Impact Research, Macmillan Learning, and the study’s Primary Investigator. The company partnered with instructors at 38 two- and four-year institutions to research the efficacy of Achieve, evaluating 2,251 students during the spring 2019 semester. The results revealed today represent one finding from a multi-year efficacy study, with other results being published following data collection and peer-review. Macmillan Learning’s Achieve platform launches this month and will be widely available in Fall. Key Findings Use of Achieve is positively related to student’s final exam scores , regardless of their level of academic preparedness coming into college p<.0001. For every ten percent increase in a student’s engagement in assigned activities, they can expect a 5.7 percentage point increase on their final exam score The magnitude of Achieve’s influence on final exam scores was greater for students less academically prepared to succeed r(657) = .58, p<.0001 but was significantly positive for their more academically prepared peers also r(961) = .42, p<.0001. Among students taking STEM courses, the magnitude of the relationship was greatest among less academically prepared females (r(205) = .57, p<.0001, but was also significant among their male counterparts r(237) = .41, p<.0001 and more academically prepared female r(416) = .33, p<.0001 and male r(281) = .39, p<.0001 STEM students. Students who complete at least 80% of their assigned activities in Achieve, earn nearly a letter grade higher , on average, than students who complete less than 80%. The gap in performance on final exams closes by about half between less and more academically prepared students, when students less prepared to succeed complete at least 80% of their assigned activities in Achieve.  About The Research This study investigated the differential efficacy of Achieve among students less and more academically prepared to succeed. Macmillan Learning collected students’ self-reported highschool GPA as well as ACT or SAT scores, if one or both had been taken. Using those scores, students were then categorized as less or more academically prepared, and outcomes were evaluated among each group. Achieve efficacy research began while the tool was in beta testing so that feedback from instructors and students as well as student outcomes could be used to evolve the product, and to provide instructors with a transparent body of timely evidence of effectiveness. This study complied with the American Psychological Association ethical standards for research.  It was approved by a third-party Institutional Review Board (IRB) and then approved at individual institutions where required.  IRB approval enabled researchers to compare course results with detailed information about each student, including their academic background. It also enabled the collection of student records including final exam scores and course grades. Forty instructors elected to participate in the study and their students were offered the opportunity to opt-in, and 74% of students chose to participate.  This research has been reviewed by Macmillan Learning’s Impact Research Advisory Council (IRAC), which is comprised of experts in educational technology, methodology, and psychometrics.  The findings released today are part of a larger body of research conducted by Macmillan Learning’s Learning Science team that began in 2017 and helped guide development of the Achieve platform.  The team has been studying its efficacy overall, and among subgroups of students to evaluate whether the tool supports all students - like those more and less academically prepared to succeed, more and less motivated to succeed, first generation students, and those with competing demands like jobs and families, among other important cohorts.  Academic preparedness was measured by both college readiness status as determined by performance on the ACT or SAT, and high school grade point average. Find the full “Achieving Student Success” research report here. About Achieve Achieve is an evolutionary digital learning platform that includes learning materials with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools. It offers the best features of each of Macmillan Learning’s digital solutions in one platform that is intuitive to use and is flexible for students and instructors. Achieve was developed using published foundations of learning science and in partnership with students and instructors with the goal of supporting students of all levels motivation and preparedness and helping to engage students in and out of class so that they have better outcomes. To that end, instructors facilitate can learn in the way that best suits their class, whether it’s traditional, online, blended, or fully “flipped” classrooms.  About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, January 21, 2020 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing company, announced today that it earned 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI ). The Human Rights Campaign is the nation's largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ equality. The Index is part of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and is the nation’s premier benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality. Macmillan Learning joins the ranks of more than 680 major U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year. “Macmillan Learning is proud to be a ‘best place to work for LGBTQ equality’. We know that it is simply the right thing to do. Having a diverse and inclusive workforce is central to who we are and we know that it’s critical that students see themselves in their learning materials,” said Kristin Peikert, Vice President of Human Resources, Macmillan Learning. Diversity and inclusion are core values of Macmillan Learning. The company states clearly that they aim to have a broad representation of backgrounds, genders, races, sexual orientations, physical abilities, and backgrounds in the content they produce, the authors they work with, and the employees they hire and develop. To accomplish this, the company’s Human Resource team works with  their Diversity and Inclusion council to raise awareness, plan events, and recruit in support of a workforce where employees feel they belong and are treated with respect and fairness.  Employees from across the company actively seek out new ways to cultivate a culture that welcomes differences. Some of the many highlights from this past year include adding transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits, partnering with a new stock photography vendor to have access to more diverse photos, implementing gender neutral pronouns in the employee handbook., and offering several “fireside chats”, talks at each of their offices across the US meant to highlight diverse authors including LGBTQ expert Jessica Soukup.  The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under five broad categories:  non-discrimination policies, employment benefits, demonstrated organizational competency and accountability around LGBTQ diversity and inclusion, public commitment to LGBTQ equality, and responsible citizenship. Macmillan Learning successfully satisfied all of CEI’s criteria, providing them with this award. The results of this year’s CEI showcase how over 1000 U.S.-based companies are promoting LGBTQ-friendly workplace policies in the U.S. and advancing the cause of LGBTQ inclusion in workplaces abroad. The full report is available at www.hrc.org/ce i. To learn more about diversity, belonging and inclusion at Macmillan Learning, click here . For more information about working at Macmillan Learning, visit the careers page on our website. About The Human Rights Campaign Foundation The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community .  ### ... View more

New York, May 5, 2020 --  Macmillan Learning announced that digital learning platform Achieve is the first product exclusively designed for higher education to earn the “Research-Based Design” product certification by Digital Promise. Achieve includes learning materials with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools, and it will be available in the U.S. and Canada in Fall 2020. In an effort to provide educators with evidence they can use to make informed decisions and support the success of students, Digital Promise established a rigorous program to evaluate edtech tools and determine, based on expert review, whether the tool can be certified as designed and developed based on educational research. The product certifications help ensure instructors and institutions that the products they select were designed using research-based learning science principles and developed using best practices before using them with their students. “Understanding how people learn most effectively and allowing those principles to form the foundation of edtech development is key to student success. I’m proud that Achieve is the first higher education learning tool to earn this rigorous certification, and that we can provide another strong piece of evidence that educators can use when making decisions about what tools will benefit the students in their class,” said Susan Winslow, General Manager, Macmillan Learning.  “Digital Promise’s product certifications are designed to help schools and families in choosing research-based products, while recognizing product developers who incorporate valid research into their designs,” said Vic Vuchic, Chief Innovation Officer of Digital Promise. “We hope product certifications send a strong signal for both product developers and consumers in the marketplace.”   Achieve was developed using published foundations of learning science and in partnership with students and instructors to support students of all levels of motivation and preparedness. It offers the best features of each of Macmillan Learning’s digital solutions in one platform, and engages students both in and out of class so that they have better outcomes. Achieve enables the facilitation of learning in the way that most enhances an instructor’s class, whether it’s traditional, online, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community. ... View more