IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 8 million students, announced its acquisition of Vocabulary.com, the leading educational destination for improving literacy through vocabulary building.
Founded in 2010, Vocabulary.com provides students with a dynamic and personalized environment to grow their vocabulary. With a library of over 15,000 words, Vocabulary.com makes learning and discovering new words fun with entertaining definitions and real-world examples sourced from literature and journalism. Adaptive, individualized and interactive, the platform seamlessly integrates with any school curriculum, helping students master key words contained in their textbooks and other lesson materials.
“Vocabulary.com is one of the most thoughtfully designed educational products we’ve seen,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning. “They have an elegant way of helping students make meaningful connections between words and the things they care about, from their favorite books to sports and pop culture. We’re excited to join forces and inspire a love of language among even more learners.”
Available online on all devices, any student can go to Vocabulary.com to test and expand his or her mental lexicon. To date, users from around the world and students in over 40,000 schools have answered more than four billion questions on Vocabulary.com. Notable components of the platform include:
- The Challenge: An adaptive vocabulary game that targets students at their level and works with them until they master words.
- Practice: In this activity, students practice words from a book chapter or topic. If a student struggles with a word, Vocabulary.com follows up with additional questions.
- Quizzes: Teachers can create and assign quizzes to students.
- Vocabulary Jam: Teams of students compete head-to-head in realtime to see who can answer the most questions correctly, earning points as they progress.
- Spelling Bee: Students listen to words, see their definitions and try to spell them correctly.
- Vocabulary Bowl: An annual competition that runs from October through April where students demonstrate their understanding of words and earn points for their schools.
“Vocabulary.com’s mission is to expand access to education and understanding through vocabulary instruction,” said Michael Freedman, CEO of Vocabulary.com. “For us, it’s not just about the words. It’s about improving literacy. That’s what makes joining IXL such an exciting prospect. It allows us to more fully achieve our mission.”
This announcement follows IXL’s 2019 acquisition of Education.com, a leading online education destination for over 23 million teachers and parents, and IXL’s 2018 addition of ABCya, the creator of more than 400 educational computer games and apps for kids.
Founded in 1998, IXL Learning's flagship product is IXL, a personalized learning platform that helps every student become a strong, confident learner. Featuring a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, the IXL Real-Time Diagnostic, personalized guidance and actionable Analytics, IXL is proven to improve learning outcomes for all students.
About IXL Learning
Currently used by 8 million students and by schools in 95 of the 100 top districts, IXL is an integrated learning platform that effectively supports personalized learning in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. With more than 60 billion questions asked and answered around the world, IXL is helping schools successfully boost student achievement. To learn more about IXL, visit www.ixl.com, facebook.com/IXL and twitter.com/IXLLearning.
About Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary.com is a platform for systematic vocabulary improvement that adapts to the needs of individual students. Used in over 40,000 schools, Vocabulary.com is proven by research to improve literacy skills and is particularly effective at teaching academic vocabulary words. The platform easily integrates with any curriculum and allows teachers to create and assign a variety of activities based on any text. Vocabulary.com automatically identifies students’ trouble words and works with them until they achieve mastery.
